Imperfect Absence gathers works by contemporary American artists who explore the complexities of mitigating human impact on nature. Their artworks focus on the front lines of environmental preservation and remediation, such as urban rivers, sovereign Indigenous lands, and reforested coal tips. Across the mediums of photography, sculpture, collage, and time-based art, these artists explore new visual modalities for articulating our relationship to protected lands and species. Historical artists such as George Catlin and Thomas Moran (both of whom advocated for the National Parks system in the nineteenth century) created an idealized vision of pristine wilderness when developing a case for protecting certain areas from development, thereby minimizing human presence. The artworks in Imperfect Absence, however, foreground the level of care and intervention required to protect land and wildlife, examining efforts to restore environments, remediate industrial impacts on land and water, and care for species even after their habitats are lost. This exhibition underscores Brandywine’s unique mission as both an art museum and a nature conservancy.