January 30, 2025Winterbloom opens at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education
Philadelphia, PA, January 30, 2025 — Winterbloom, a solo gallery exhibition by Claire Downes Whitehurst, will open at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education on February 1, 2025.
Winterbloom features new works by Whitehurst including painting, printmaking, and ceramic sculpture. The exhibition opens with an Artist Reception and Gallery Talk on February 1 from 1pm-3pm. Winterbloom will be on display in the gallery at the Schuylkill Center until March 29, 2025.
During a time of winter dormancy and hibernation in the forest, Winterbloom presents colorful, visionary abstractions drawn from Whitehurst’s attunement to forms and patterns found in nature. Pulling from the biological and symmetrical systems of plant growth, her work expands notes of suspension, wonder, and meditation in beholding the order that unfolds, even in stages of latency. Whitehurst’s new works in Winterbloom manifest her interdisciplinary practice in painting, printmaking, and ceramic sculpture.
Claire Downes Whitehurst remarks about the exhibition: “These ideas and compositions were born from my observations of biological forms throughout time and geography. Some of these drawings were created during a residency in rural New Mexico and finished here in Philadelphia. All of my work stems from time spent at home in south Louisiana and Mississippi, casting nets and looking very closely at what lives around us. I’m grateful to the Schuylkill Center for providing a space where all these sources can collide.”
Whitehurst is a painter, printmaker and sculptor. She received her BFA from the University of Mississippi, and her MFA in Painting from the University of Iowa. She draws from the landscape and atmosphere of the deep South, exploring queer space, religious iconography and architecture through form, color, and composition. Her work plays with the relationship between image and object.
“Claire’s fascination with plant biology shines through her artwork,” said Heather Moqtaderi, curator of Winterbloom and Interim Director of Environmental Art at the Schuylkill Center. “Her colorful abstractions are based on the reproductive systems of flowering plants. I’m excited to bring this exhibition to the Schuylkill Center where our visitors are enthusiastic and knowledgeable about nature.”
The Schuylkill Center’s Environmental Art Program provides opportunities to investigate, innovate, and interpret the nature of place. Through art installations in the gallery and on the trail,this program builds spaces for artists and the public to creatively explore and engage with environmental issues of our time.
The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education
The Schuylkill Center was founded in 1965 as Philadelphia’s first environmental education center. Our 365 acres of fields and forests serve as a living laboratory to foster appreciation, deepen understanding, and encourage stewardship of the environment. We offer a wildlife rehabilitation clinic, an environmental art program, volunteer opportunities, and educational programs for all ages.
