October 2 – November 3 2023

Opening Reception with comments from the artist: October 3 4:40-6pm

Curfman Gallery, Lory Student Center

Chloe Wilwerding is a Steamboat Springs, Colorado-based artist who is driven by questions. Her
multidisciplinary art practice centers on primordial questions about who we are, why we are here, and
how we should live. Through textiles, collage, digital art, and printmaking, Chloe investigates how we
understand what it means to be human. Climate change and digital culture feature in her work as two
challenges that require redefining what it means to be human and repositioning ourselves in relation to
our environments.

The mixed-media textile pieces in this show explore the challenge of moving outside of a human
perspective to truly know and love nature. Stock photos and printed found fabric present idealized
versions of the landscape, removed from human impact. References to merit badges—created using
machine embroidery—feature prominently as a human lens for viewing the environment and marking
human achievement in relation to the environment. This body of work addresses the contrivance and
simplification of human-created representations of nature and the performative nature of our
nature-loving. Through anthropocentric representations of nature, Chloe explores the ways we attempt
to access nature and ultimately learn more about our limited human viewpoint in the process.

Chloe Wilwerding (she/her) holds her MFA in Printmaking from Rhode Island School of Design
(2019) and her BA in Political Science and Studio Art from Middlebury College (2015). She has
been awarded residencies at Vermont Studio Center and Taleamor Park and scholarships from
Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency and Anderson Ranch Arts Center. She teaches for
Rhode Island School of Design’s Continuing Education program and has worked as an adjunct
faculty member for Montserrat College of Art. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include
Nature Lover at Southern Vermont Arts Center and The Landscapes Between Us at Frame 301
Gallery at Montserrat College of Art. Group exhibitions include Scatter Terrain at Ejecta
Projects, Prismatic at Dairy Arts Center, Smart Objects/Flattened Images at Well Well Projects,
and Putting the Pieces Back Together at Bristol Art Museum. Chloe lives in Steamboat Springs,
Colorado.