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Drexel University’s Leonard Pearlstein Gallery is presenting video games as more than commercial entertainment: the works on view treat play as artistic expression, cultural critique, resistance and a way to build community.
Dates, admission and location
Escape>Control>Play: The Art of the Video Game runs from October 13 through December 12, 2026, at Drexel University’s Leonard Pearlstein Gallery in the URBN Annex, 3401 Filbert Street, Philadelphia. Admission is free.
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| Visitor detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Venue | Leonard Pearlstein Gallery, URBN Annex |
| Address | 3401 Filbert Street, Philadelphia |
| Exhibition dates | October 13–December 12, 2026 |
| Admission | Free |
| Listed hours | Tuesday–Friday, 12–5 p.m.; Saturday, 12–6 p.m. |
The gallery’s hours and event listings are time-sensitive, so visitors should check Drexel’s current listing before traveling.
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The exhibition is organized around the idea that games operate simultaneously as art objects, playable systems and social spaces. Drexel describes the show as a look at games as sites of resistance, places to imagine alternative worlds and opportunities for collaboration. The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage describes the project as an interactive exhibition about video games as community building, creative expression and social critique.
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Co-curator Talia Greene told WHYY, “We wanted to investigate video games as an art form but also think about the ways that people are using them for creativity, for acts of resistance, for opportunities to create community.” That approach puts the visitor’s activity—playing, experimenting and meeting other people—alongside the works themselves.
The three sections
Future Imaginaries
This section connects immersive storytelling, games, sculpture and installation to speculative visions of society and identity.
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- Hsin-Chien Huang’s Bodyless is a virtual-reality work rooted in memories of Taiwan’s martial-law period.
- Jeremy Couillard’s Escape from Lavender Island is an open-world game informed by David Graeber’s critiques of capitalism and debt.
- Lu Yang contributes Great Adventure of Material World and arcade works that extend the section’s interest in spectacle, embodiment and alternate realities.
- .Compost Co-Op is also represented in the section’s mix of game-based and installation practices.
Rather than separating a “game” from a conventional gallery artwork, the section asks how software, worlds, bodies and physical objects can work together as one artistic experience.
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Curated by Temple professor Adrienne Shaw and Drexel assistant professor Ari Gass, this section traces LGBTQ+ representation and community formation through game history and contemporary practice.
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Its historical anchor includes Caper in the Castro, a game from the 1980s, while contemporary works connected to the Trans Game Zine show how creators use games and adjacent publishing communities to represent trans experience, exchange ideas and make space outside mainstream platforms. The section treats queer games not only as a question of who appears on screen, but also of who gets to make, circulate and play games together.
Collaboration->Community
The third section focuses on games as shared activity: people making systems together, negotiating rules and inhabiting fictional worlds with others.
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- Multibowl by Bennett Foddy and AP Thomson turns competitive play into a social, multi-game encounter.
- Derek Yu’s UFO 50 presents a large collection of games as a single collaborative cultural object.
- Erin Truesdell’s cooperative Haber Dasher foregrounds coordination between players.
- Brian Gibson’s VR games Thrasher and Thumper demonstrate how sound, motion and physical immersion can shape a shared understanding of play.
A public gaming lounge and a display of artifacts were developed with Drexel’s game-design community, extending the section’s subject beyond the cases and screens into the gallery’s daily use.
Playable works, VR and the visitor experience
Visitors should expect an exhibition that includes playable installations rather than a display-only survey. The technology varies across the galleries: arcade cabinets, screen-based games, virtual reality and experimental or bespoke control schemes all appear in the program. That range matters because the exhibition’s argument depends on participation. A visitor may encounter a work by reading about its context, then understand it differently by trying its controls, sharing a session or watching another person play.
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The gaming lounge provides a lower-pressure place to spend time with games and other visitors. Because the exhibition includes VR and interactive equipment, wait times, available stations and operating conditions may vary during busy periods; the gallery’s current visitor information is the best source for day-of details.
Public programs during the run
Drexel has listed several events alongside the exhibition:
- October 15: opening reception.
- October 23: live conversation with independent game designer Bennett Foddy.
- November 13: alt-controller workshop with Erin Truesdell.
- November 18: virtual worldbuilding conversation held online.
- December 4: community Q&A on queer games, platform censorship and alternative distribution.
Event times and formats can change, so confirm the schedule with Drexel before attending a specific program.
Curators and support
Talia Greene and Mark Stockton are the exhibition’s curators. Shaw and Gass curated the queer-games section. The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage awarded the project a $90,000 grant in its 2025 grant year.
Why the Philadelphia exhibition matters
Escape>Control>Play brings together several debates that are often treated separately: whether games belong in art institutions, how interactive works can carry historical and political meaning, how queer communities have used games to create representation, and how play can become a form of cooperation. Its free admission, public programs and playable spaces make those questions something visitors can test for themselves rather than simply observe.
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