The Allentown Art Museum will welcome artists Ellen Berkenblit and Amanda Valdez at a reception for AAM members in the galleries on Friday, January 9, 2026, from 5 until 8 p.m. Exhibitions of their work are on view in the Museum’s upstairs galleries through May 17, 2026. Ellen Berkenblit: The Clouds are Luminous is the accomplished artist’s first solo museum show. Amanda Valdez: Aftertouch features canvases altered to include sections of sewing and fabric.
Kress Society members are invited to arrive at 5 p.m. for hors d’oeuvres and an open bar; general members are asked to arrive at 6 p.m. Remarks by the artists will begin at 6:15 p.m. Free parking will be available.
Members can RSVP by January 5 at membership@allentownartmuseum.org . Not yet a member? Become one now and enjoy perks like these member previews, preferred seating at Dynamic Conversations, discounted admission to events such as the AAM Gal and Cocktails & Collecting, and more. Join before January 9, 2026, and you can attend this exclusive reception with these exceptional artists.
Ellen Berkenblit has been exhibiting nationally and internationally to critical acclaim for forty years. Her work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, among others. Berkenblit is the recipient a 2014 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2013 award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Amanda Valdez’s work has been featured or reviewed in ArtForum, the LA Times, the Brooklyn Rail, Whitewall, Newsday, Galerie Magazine, ARTNews, Forbes, Paper Magazine, and The Stranger, among others. She has had recent solo and two-person exhibitions at Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, Virginia; Landing Gallery in Los Angeles; Danforth Gallery, University of Maine; Denny Dimin Gallery in New York; Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, New York; KOKI Arts in Tokyo; and Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, Massachusetts.
AAM Member Previews are sponsored by WDIY-FM.