Pearlstein Gallery Opens Fall Exhibition Exploring Systems and Structures in Contemporary Art

The Leonard Pearlstein Gallery of Drexel University’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design has announced its Fall 2025 Exhibition, entitled Of the Grid: Systems + Structures in Contemporary Art. The exhibition, which features 36 artists working in, around and outside of “the box,” will be on display from Tuesday, Oct. 14 through Monday, Dec. 15.

The exhibit features photography, video, drawing, weaving, sculpture, embroidery, printmaking, painting, book arts and interactive installation. According to Mark Stockton, director of the Pearlstein Gallery and teaching professor in Westphal College, the artists in the exhibition use the constraint of the grid as an integral part of their tactile practice – whether serving as a formal framework for experimentation, an indexical device to interrogate historical narratives, an organizational tool for intertextual mapping or a conceptual means to flatten and expand space.

“We’ve centered a dynamic roster of Philadelphia artists alongside international contemporaries, bringing the work together with an experimental approach,” Stockton said.

The exhibition features artwork by the following artists: Jaime Alvarez, Bergman & Salinas, Ruth Scott Blackson, Lindsay Buchman, Rae Burns, Micah Danges, Jeremy Drummond, Edgar Endress, Amze Emmons, Dan Fischer, Allison Frick, Jody Graff, Jacob C. Hammes, Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib, Sean Irwin, Duwenavue Santé Johnson, Jim Johnson, Gabriel Martinez, Hayato Matsushita, Kara Ja'Nice Mshinda, Erin Murray, Eadweard Muybridge, Sharilyn Neidhardt, Violet Oakley, Makeba “KEEBS” Rainey, Anne Schaefer, Chuck Schmidt, Mary Smull, Chad States, Sarah Steinwachs, Brent Wahl, Hannah and Joyce Wallace, Andrea Walls, Jeff Williams and Lauren Whearty.

Some of the featured works include an IKEA-hacked fountain of capitalist critique, by Jacob C. Hammes; an optical color window installation, by Anne Schaefer; and a spatially puzzling inter-wall work, by James Johnson.

Other spotlighted works include a suspended quilt of climate-based data visualization, by Jody Graff, and a layered display of upcycled handwoven rugs by the mother and daughter duo, Hannah and Joyce Wallace.

The exhibition is co-curated by Stockton and Cindy Stockton Moore.

An opening reception will take place on Thursday, Oct. 16, at the Pearlstein Gallery from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Hours for the exhibition at the URBN Annex (3401 Filbert Street) are Tuesday through Friday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit: https://drexel.edu/pearlsteingallery/exhibitions-events/upcoming-exhibitions/