Exhibits & Events

The Pearlstein Gallery is pleased to announce CONTEMPORARY RUIN future visions as our spring exhibition of 2025. The exhibition, curated by Philadelphia artist Nancy Agati, features local artists, designers, and Drexel University students whose works examine the pervasive presence of ruin alongside strategies for mitigation and resilience in urban contexts.

The remains of ancient ruins, often romanticized vestiges of the past, require a vivid imagination to fill in what was once there. But what happens when ruin is being experienced daily in the present? Do artists have the capacity, perseverance, and perspective to confront these realities or to re-imagine our world made anew?

The show highlights ruin, not as a relic of the past but as a present-day reality, in which artists respond to Philadelphia’s forgotten spaces and abandoned neighborhoods, climate change hazards, and unchecked over-development. Extending beyond our city borders, themes explore a potential future in ruin, questioning contemporary definitions of progress, technological advancements, and capitalist pursuits.

Artists will be on-site at the reception on Friday, April 25th from 5 – 7pm.

A seed bomb workshop, led by associate clinical professor Denise Wolf, will take place on Friday, May 9th from 2 – 4pm.