Endless Forms: Engaging Evolution

March 13, 2006

Photos from the opening

Photos from the opening are available here

Posted by zcd at 05:15 PM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2006

Leah Montalto

Leah Montalto was born in 1979 in Boston Massachusetts. She received a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2002 and an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2004. She has been showing work in Cleveland since 2002 at Art Bias Gallery and E Gordon Gallery and will be showing work this spring at Juvenal Reis Studios in New York. Leah is currently Assistant Professor of Art and Design at State University of New York at Purchase. She lives and works in New York.

To view her paintings, which combine color field painting, miniature painting, and science fiction, visit www.leahmontalto.com.

Posted by gharp at 09:55 AM | Comments (0)

Welcome to Endless Forms: Engaging Evolution

Now more than ever, the concepts, practices, and influences of evolutionary biology
communicate experiences of evolution in contemporary life and culture. How do we
understand these experiences? The mechanisms of natural selection, sexual selection,
migration, mutation, and genetic drift are common in biological systems, yet they are
frequently misunderstood. How do we understand and interpret these mechanisms in
society? How can we communicate these concepts in ways that also engage our senses?

We broadcast a call for creative work that explores the diversity of forms communicating,
commenting on, and engaging mechanisms of evolutionary change and the science of
evolutionary biology.

The responses varied. We recieved submissions largely from artists in six countries and
across many different types of media and traditions. In this exhibition, we bring together
those works that, through their forms and content, demonstate the comical, impassioned,
and sometimes sublime experiences of everyday evolutonary mechanisms.

As you move through this space try to locate and identify each of these mechanisms in the
work. Ask yourself, "How do these mechanisms affect and interact with my life and the
lives of those around me?" Can you spot these mechanisms at home, at the supermarket,
on the street, or in the movies? What do your friends and family notice? Ask them.

Posted by gharp at 12:18 AM | Comments (0)

March 09, 2006

Samara Pearlstein

Samara Pearlstein
Artistus biologicalis (sub spec. soxfanicus)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Hominidae
Subfamily: Artistidae
Anatomy: The Samara Pearlstein is a bipedal, omnivorous creature similar in general structure to most of the hominids, with a brown pelt and blue eyes, and smallish canines. It has a few distinguishing characteristics that may be seen by even the most amateur eye; chief among these are painfully artsy glasses and a Red Sox hat of moderate filthiness.
Behavior: The Samara Pearlstein is generally docile and retiring, preferring sleep to all other activities, but can be roused to terrifying frenzies when argued with, especially when said argument concerns whether Brandon Inge is better suited to third base or catcher. It spends its days in the utterly fruitless manner of so many similar species, either using its dexterous paws to create art of dubious quality, or else foraging through various sources to research obscure biological facts.
Range: The Samara Pearlstein is a migratory species, deviating however from usual migratory patterns by making its seasonal movements in an East-West fashion, as opposed to the more common North-South migration. It spends its falls and winters in Michigan, generally entering a stupefied state of near-hibernation, using as its burrow the U of M School of Art and Design. In the spring and summer it returns east to Massachusetts, where it gets violently sunburned as often as it is able within the confines of Fenway Park.

Posted by gharp at 11:51 PM | Comments (0)

Brad Smith

Brad Smith
Prior to joining the University of Michigan faculty, Brad Smith was an assistant research professor in the Department of Radiology at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. There, he initiated a major NIH-funded project titled The Multi-dimensional Human Embryo. From 1999 to 2004, he served as director of the graduate program in Biomedical Illustration at the U-M School of Art and Design.
At Duke University, Smith created innovative visualization methods to study cardiovascular development and established globally adapted protocols for magnetic resonance microscopy (MRM) studies of embryos using novel MRI contrast agents. His research has been published in journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Developmental Biology and Magnetic Resonance in Medicine as well as Scientific American. He has served as principal investigator on major NIH- and state-supported projects, and as co-investigator on federally supported research.
At the University of Michigan, Smith has led the implementation of a new three-year Masters of Fine Arts curriculum that engages the creative work of artists and designers with work from disciplines such as the life sciences, sociology, education, law, ecology, politics, business, and other fields.
In addition to his research and administrative achievements, Smith creates animations and graphics demonstrating developmental biology for museums and documentary film companies, including National Geographic, BBC, Nova, and the Discovery Channels. His current work addresses the intersection of science and art, with a focus on reproductive technology and its impact on society’s understanding of the social and political status of the embryo.

Posted by gharp at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)

Deanna Krueger

Deanna Krueger received her BFA summa cum laude from the University of Michigan in 2002, and her MFA from Eastern Michigan University in 2004. In spring 2003 she attended ‘Art in Italy’, an intensive studio and art history study abroad program in Rome, Pompeii, Padua, Venice, Ravenna, Florence, Milan and Siena. Since receiving her MFA in August 2004, she has had solo shows in Massachusetts and Michigan, in addition to exhibiting in numerous group shows. In 2005, she was granted a Fellowship Award for Residency at Contemporary Artists Center, an affiliate of MASS MoCA. Her work received the "Best in Show" award from Sean Ulmer, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at UMMA, in the Great Lakes Juried Exhibition at River Gallery in Chelsea, MI. Krueger’s work is now in corporate and private collections in CA, FL, MA, MI, and TX.

Posted by gharp at 11:49 PM | Comments (0)

Lisa Rockford

Lisa Rockford
i was born in Texas but only lived there until until i was six, when my parents divorced and we moved to florida. The divorce was the result of my dad having left my mom for another woman. i later figured out that this event has largely shaped the themes of my artwork and interest in sexual choices. i did not even learn about the circumstances for my parents breakup until i was 19, going to school for Art therapy at Bowling Green State University, and in the process of my artistic transition from abstract expressionism to increasingly conceptual painting. i figured out that i was more interested in my own art than that of others, added on my Fine arts degree, and went straight on to graduate school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Here i learned about a greater diversity of contemporary artists and new media, and quickly transitioned the appearance of my art once again. i was becoming influenced by the work of Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, and the Guerrilla girls. my paintings were beginning to look like posters, so the logical option was to take Offset Printmaking, in which i could Mass produce a visual message. i began producing posters and postcards to distribute in public, which seemed a more appropriate setting than a gallery. While at SAIC, i created "Slits, slots & clots," an installation of decorated slotted boxes, hung at pelvis height. Second, i met the pink nun, and teamed up with her to distribute and form my artwork. Also, i took a class called "Propaganda and Decoration," which combined screen-printing with the expression a conceptual message. This class, in which i first designed and printed "Purity panties" for the pink nun, was another important inspiration for my artistic path. By the time of my thesis show, i had created other products, printed packaging and formed a store installation for the final show, in which the pink nun handed out coupons. Since my graduation, my artistic process has included making occasional paintings, mixed media sculptures & collages, and to produce pink nun products, and subsequent performances with the pink nun. Professionally, I teach Adjunct College Art classes, and sell pink nun products and vintage clothes on the side.

Posted by gharp at 11:48 PM | Comments (0)

Chris Landau

Chris Landau is currently finishing his MFA thesis at the University of Michigan, School of Art and Design. He received his BFA in Printmaking from the Cleveland Institute of Art, graduating at the top of his class. Chris’s creative work ranges from traditional to digital media in projects that bridge scientific visualization and fine art. His current written work is a synthesis of both media theory and cognitive evolution.
Chris’s most recent project, theflockingparty.com, brings many of his favorite themes together, living systems, multi-linear narrative, and speculative technologies. He has also begun illustrating a cognitive psychology book by the esteemed psychologist, Steven Kaplan. In another project, he will be creating an animation of a yeast cell’s development for Organelle View, a project that visualizes the protein database created by Kumar Lab. Upon graduation, Chris plans to move to Philadelphia to be with his wife and start a company that feeds his interests in the life sciences and digital media through inventive forms of visualization.

Posted by gharp at 11:46 PM | Comments (0)

Andrew Yang

Andrew Yang studies broadly in the areas of evolutionary biology and the history/philosophy of science. His research includes the behavioral ecology of ants, evolution & development theory, and visual representation of biological phenomena and in the sciences. He received a PhD in biology from Duke University in 2004 and currently is Assistant Professor of Biology & Liberal Arts at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he teaches biology and biology/art related courses.

Posted by gharp at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)

Patrick Dominic Visentin

Patrick Dominic Visentin is an Artist and Educator living and working in Montreal, Quebec. He studied in Canada, receiving a Masters degree in Print Media from Concordia University, a BFA from Mount Allison University and a BA from St. Francis Xavier University. He is a multidisciplinary artist whose work includes anything from drawing, print, and photography to video, installation, and performance. He has participated in various group and solo exhibitions throughout Canada and the United States. He has sold work both privately and publicly, including most recently Le Biblioteque National Du Quebec. Currently, he is involved showing his work as well co-curating/organizing a group show to be held in 2007 in the Mile End, Montreal, Quebec.

Posted by gharp at 11:43 PM | Comments (0)

Rachel Clarke

Rachel Clarke is a New Media artist and is Assistant Professor in New Media in the Art Department at California State University, Sacramento. She works in digital imaging, time-based and interactive media. Her research explores the convergence of new technologies, human identity and organic systems.
Clarke has exhibited internationally and throughout the United States. In fall 2003, she curated a show of national and international artists using New Media, entitled Postflesh: Visualizing the Techno-Self at the University Library Gallery, Sacramento State University. Time-based work includes Avatar (video with music by Stephen Blumberg) screened at VAD International Festival of Video and Digital Arts in Girona, Spain (11/05) and INPORT Video Performance Art Festival in Tallinn, Estonia (12/05). In 2003 she created Skirr – a collaboration with composer Stephen Blumberg – for chamber ensemble with digital projection, performed at the Mondavi Center, Davis (11/03), the Festival of New American Music, Sacramento (11/03) and Florida State University, Tallahassee (2/05). It was awarded a jurors’ citation at the San Francisco Art Institute 11th Annual International Film Festival (2/04). Exhibitions include the IDEAS exhibit at the International Digital Media and Arts Conference Orlando, Florida – a collaborative work with Sam Parsons (3/04) – and Light in the Dark, Space Gallery, Portland Maine (1/05). Upcoming exhibitions include solo shows at Auburn University, Alabama (1/06) and the Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento (9/06).

Posted by gharp at 11:42 PM | Comments (0)

Vincent Debat

Vincent Debat: Born in Paris in 1974, I started collecting butteflies at 7. I was so passionate that I decided to become a professional butterfly catcher until I realized I could not realistically live from it. A few years later, I started biology studies at the University of Paris, Jussieu. I came to evolutionary biology through Steve Gould’s books I used to borrow from my father. I moved to Montpellier to get a degree in Paleontology, for I believe that an evolutionary biologist must possess at least some elementary knowledge in Paleontology. I did my PhD there with Jean Christophe Auffray. After 3 postdocs – in Paris with Jean David, in Riverside California with Derek Roff, and in Manchester with Chris Klingenberg – I was just appointed Assistant Professor at the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle of Paris. My research involves the coupling of geometric morphometrics, quantitative genetics, and developmental genetics to investigate the origin of phenotypic variation, which is part of the field of evolutionary developmental biology, or Evo devo. I have not lost the fascination for the amazing beauty of living things, which remains one of the reasons why I am a biologist.

Posted by gharp at 11:40 PM | Comments (0)

John Bowers

John Bowers is an Associate Professor in Graphic Design at Oregon State University. He studied under the architect and industrial designer Hu Hung Shu at the University of Iowa, where he earned a BFA, MA, and MFA in Design, and conducted post-graduate work with Wolfgang Weingart and Armin Hofmann at the Basle School of Design.

His professional experience includes working as senior identity designer at Landor in San Francisco. He has been published in the AIGA Annual, Communication Arts, Graphis, I.D., and Print, and is the author of Introduction to Two-Dimensional Design: Understanding Form and Function (Wiley, 1999). Supported by an Oregon Council for the Humanities Research Grant, he is currently researching how billboards influence the cultural and physical landscape of the Pacific Northwest.

Posted by gharp at 11:39 PM | Comments (0)

Robert Pepperell

Born in London in 1963, Robert Pepperell studied at the Slade School of Art in London. During the late 1980s and 1990s he exhibited numerous innovative electronic works, including at Ars Electronica, the Barbican Gallery, Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art, the ICA, and the Millennium Dome. He has also published several influential books, including The Posthuman Condition (1995 and 2003) and The Postdigital Membrane (2000), as well as many articles, reviews and papers. He currently teaches Fine Art at both the University of Wales where he runs the MA programme and the University of Plymouth at Exeter, where he currently runs the painting department, and is an associate editor with Leonardo, the journal of the International Society for Arts, Technology and Science. Central to his work is an investigation of the nature of perceptual consciousness, carried out through both philosophical inquiry and the practice of painting and drawing — topics on which he lectures internationally.

Posted by gharp at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)

Jason Nelson

Jason Nelson
Being curious about the happy, happy union of words and interaction,
sifting image and sound, Jason translates fiction/poetry into non
linear twists, digital literatures for interface and online play. And
aside from being paid by the Australians of Griffith University, he
misses the prairie and leaves his odd little creatures at :
www.secrettechnology.com.

Posted by gharp at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)

Karen Woodward Sarrow

Karen Woodward Sarrow was born in Coventry, England in 1969. She has participated in juried shows and invitationals at galleries across the nation, including the Hammerstein Ballroom, New York; the Chocolate Factory, Brooklyn; the Schatten Gallery at Emory University; and Eyedrum, Atlanta. In addition, her work has been included in group exhibits at Exit Art, New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Soho Myriad, Atlanta.
Ms. Sarrow’s painting Peace is in a public collection in Eureka, Missouri and her graphic contribution to the artist’s book 9-11 and the Aftermath is found in public collections in Brooklyn; Los Angeles; Montreal, Canada; and in Stuttgart Germany’s Staatsgalerie Landesbibliothek.
Ms. Sarrow received distinctive merit awards for Fine Art and student leadership from the Pratt Institute where she received a M.F.A. in Fine Arts in 2003. She has been an art history instructor at San Diego State University, a museum art resource manager in L.A., an exhibit installer in New York, a curator in Atlanta, and a library reference assistant in Ohio.
Ms. Sarrow lives with her husband Jonathan and infant son Jackson in Los Angeles, California.

Posted by gharp at 11:35 PM | Comments (0)

Christa Donner

Christa Donner is a Chicago-based visual artist who uses drawing to map out alternate models for bodily systems based on sensation and imagination. “Here’s to Haeckel: a fictional morphology” references the work of controversial biologist and artist Ernst Haeckel, whose intricate illustrations of jellyfish and other organisms fused fact with fiction to support his own theories of symmetry and evolution. In her homage to Haeckel, Donner begins with one such drawing to propose a new evolutionary progression from marine invertebrate to human genitalia (from male to female) to invented future organism.
Donner’s large-scale wall drawings, three-dimensional paper installations, and small-press comics have been exhibited nationally and internationally, including major exhibitions at Kravets-Wehby Gallery (New York, NY), POST Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (Cleveland, OH), Gallery 400 (Chicago, IL), and Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA). Her work is represented by Kravets-Wehby Gallery, New York. Whenever she can, Donner accompanies her art with public workshops focusing on self-publishing, body image, art and activism. More of her projects can be found online at www.christadonner.com

Posted by gharp at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)

Tatsuya Saito

Saito is a researcher who has been working in many different fields.
One of his interests is how to create a form that is observed by human
beings to be alive. This is a very important question that involves
diverse discourse ranging from natural morphology, perceptual
psychology to artificial intelligence. His solution to this question
was to create forms based on very simple rule set that generates many
different visual patterns through minimum degree of interaction. This
study may give us a hint to answer to the question why we feel a
certain form to be alive and the profound question why we think these
forms are 'interesting'. Saito holds B.A from Keio University where he
has been a visiting scholar. His previous works include Micro
Archiving Project, which he exhibited at SIGGRAPH 2001. Currently he
studies in Design and Media Arts program at UCLA.

Posted by gharp at 11:32 PM | Comments (0)

Ellen K. Levy

Ellen K. Levy, an artist and teacher of art, science, and technology interrelationships, is President of the College Art Association (2004-6). Recipient of a NASA commission and of an AICA Emerging Artist Award, she was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow of Arts and Sciences at Skidmore College in 1999, a position funded by the Luce Foundation. She creates genealogies of technological inventions, using the citations that accompany patents to locate earlier manifestations of a particular technology. The more recent inventions incorporate useful aspects of the earlier patents, reflecting that learning (adaptation) has taken place. This procedure is dynamic, involving feed-back, and it can suggest how seemingly obsolete technologies can become “exapted” for new uses. Levy has exhibited widely in the US and abroad, most recently at the Michael Steinberg Gallery (NYC) and the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University (CT). She has been a contributor to symposia and to several books and journals dealing with art and biotechnology. Her publications include Art Journal, Leonardo, Endeavour, and Perspectives in Biology and Medicine.

{"Ellen K. Levy's installation of scrolls and outsized 'patent' drawings speaks to our collective imagination in a language that is seductively aesthetic and cerebrally challenging. Her 'collaborations' with inventors transform and combine images and texts from registered patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database to create a genealogy of inventions. These multimedia works, explore the intersections of several industries (e.g., the biotechnology, oil, space, and nuclear industries). Levy offers a running commentary on the nature of capitalism, innovation and our expansive desire to invent future worlds, leavened by poetry and wit."

Zilkha Main Gallery (curated by Nina Felshin)}

Posted by gharp at 11:31 PM | Comments (0)

Gabriel Harp

Gabriel Harp is a biologist, writer, artist, and teacher. He was born and raised in Detroit, MI during the economically difficult yet culturally enriched period of the 1970s and 80s. Gabriel is broadly interested in community evolution- from interspecies and intersexual relationships to the ways in which contemporary art and scientific practices mediate perception and life history evolution. Having obtained his B.A. and M.A. from the prestigious Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior program at Indiana University, Bloomington, Gabriel is now pursuing an MFA at the University of Michigan School of Art & Design. His recent projects include co-organizing the exhibition Endless Forms: Engaging Evolution- the first contemporary art exhibit devoted to representing mechanisms of biological evolution. Gabriel is also engaged in multiple projects that question prevailing representations of genes in society- from metaphors to images. In the near future, Gabriel hopes to devote more time to studying contemporary art practice as social behavior in an evolutionary context.

Posted by gharp at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)

Jessica Langley

Jessica Langley was born in 1981 in Milwaukee Wisconsin, but she spent her formative years in Mansfield, OH. She went on family road trips
all over the United States as a kid, and still has a love for singing
summer camp songs on those endless expanses of time. At the ripe age
of 18 Jessica moved to New York City to attend Pratt Institute's
Fashion Design School. After a year, she transferred to the Cleveland
Institute of Art where both her mother and brother graduated from.
Upon this move, Jessica flourished. She graduated from the Cleveland
Institute of Art in 2005 with a major in Painting, and is planning on
attending graduate school in the fall of 2006. During school she
traveled to Europe where she developed a love for men in designer
jeans, gypsies, and gelato. She is currently living in Pittsburgh
where she works at the Mattress Factory as a museum educator. She is
painting, working to make a living, learning to play the guitar, and
is very happy.

Posted by gharp at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)

Ben Pranger

Ben Pranger has shown his sculptures, works on paper and installations nationally, with reviews in publications such as Artforum, Art in America, ArtNews and Art Papers. He has participated in artist residencies at Kohler Art/Industry, Fine Arts Work Center of Provincetown, the Marie Walsh Sharpe Program and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He has received sculpture grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. He currently lives in Roanoke, Virginia and teaches performance and new media at Hollins University.

Posted by gharp at 11:27 PM | Comments (0)

Zack Denfeld

Zack Denfeld is interested in the environment. The built environment is where he plays. You can find him on street corners serving free soup, or making art in alleyways. His artwork is about the mental environment. That's a fancy way of saying he wishes more people wouldn't have to deal with the bazillion commercial messages they are bombarded with every day, that say,
“BUYthisTHINGorNOoneWILLlikeYOU&YOUwillNEVERhaveSEXagain.” He is also interested in the natural environment. Like Bruno Latour said, "yeah, that's nature too."
After completing a degree in public policy from Syracuse University, he proceeded to trick the University of Michigan into letting him work toward a degree in "Creative Work." His mom does not know how to tell the rest of the family about that. He is thinking about a job as a consultant.

Posted by gharp at 11:26 PM | Comments (0)

Joseph Smolinski

Joseph Smolinski originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, earned his BFA from the University of Wisconsin at River Falls in 1998. In 1999 he moved to Connecticut to complete his MFA at the University of Connecticut, 2001. Joseph currently teaches drawing at the University of New Haven and Gateway Community College. His mixed media installations and drawings are based on his interest in electronics, science, and the cycles of life and death. Joseph has shown his work both nationally and internationally. Currently he lives and works in New Haven, Connecticut.

Posted by gharp at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)

Cara Levine

Cara Levine- I was born in Washington D.C. in 1983 and grew up in Los Angeles, California. I attended Harvard-Westlake high school in North Hollywood where I became interested in sculpture, namely ceramics. I worked with glass artist John Luebtow who acted as my guide through my first years of interest in material and form. After high school, I moved to Segovia, Spain, to work under ceramic artist Marisa De Lucas. With Marisa I was able to gain experience with other materials besides clay, metal, plastics, stone, and glaze chemistry. In the fall of 2003, after one year in Spain, I came back to the States to attend The School of Art & Design at University of Michigan. In the fall of 2005, I studied abroad at Kyoto Seika University as an exchange student in sculpture. I am in my third year at A & D.
In the last couple of years, I have found a deep interest in the role of absurdity art—what is its place? What is its logic? How can it be used? I have made work with various media that attempts to answer those questions. For evolution, I am interested in illustrating a different type of time line. I am interested in using traditional means, weaving on a loom, with non-traditional methods, adding plastic toys to the weaving. This piece describes the evolution of the predator and illustrates his progress, entangled in his environment, tied back, yet moving forward.

Posted by gharp at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)

Patricia Olynyk

Patricia Olynyk teaches print media and courses which examine the intersections of art and the life sciences at the University of Michigan. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Art and Design and a Research Associate Professor at the Life Sciences Institute. Her research interests are grounded in interdisciplinary practices that include printmaking, installation, biomedical imaging technologies, and sound. Her recent work is a response to a technology mediated world increasingly desensitized to physical sensation. With her large-scale works, she calls upon the viewer to expand their awareness of the worlds they inhabit, whether those worlds are their own bodies of the spaces that surround them. By incorporating her own scanning electron micrographs of transgenic and/or manipulated organic materials, she calls into question the ways in which human and non-human species are destined to evolve.
Olynyk's most recent interactive installation entitled Sensing Terrains is currently on exhibit at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C. Her work has also been shown internationally in such exhibitions as Transfigurations at the Galleria Grafica Tokio, Ginza, Tokyo; the L.A International Biennial Exhibition at the Toby Moss Gallery, Los Angeles; Digital Printmaking Now at the Brooklyn Museum of Art; Mois de L'Estampe at Galerie Michele Broutta, Paris; and Paper Road at Museo del Corso, Rome. Her work is included in collections of the Fogg Museum at Harvard University, the Hewlett Packard Headquarters in California, the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, and the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan.

Posted by gharp at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)

Marta de Menezes

Marta de Menezes is a Portuguese artist (b. Lisbon, 1975) with a degree in Fine Arts by the University in Lisbon, and a MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture by the University of Oxford. She has been exploring the intersection between Art and Biology, working in research laboratories demonstrating that new biological technologies can be used as new art medium. In 1999 de Menezes created her first biological artwork (Nature?) by modifying the wing patterns of live butterflies. Since then, she has used diverse biological techniques including functional MRI of the brain to create portraits where the mind can be visualised (Functional Portraits, 2002); fluorescent DNA probes to create micro-sculptures in human cell nuclei (nucleArt, 2001); sculptures made of proteins (Proteic Portrait, 2002), DNA (Innercloud, 2003) or incorporating live neurons (Tree of Knowledge, 2005). Her work has been presented internationally in exhibitions, articles and lectures.
www.martademenezes.com

Posted by gharp at 11:17 PM | Comments (0)

Michael Liang

Michael Liang- Michael is currently a sophomore at the School of Art and Design and also pursuing a minor in Environmental Science. Much of his work is influenced by his experiences working as a national park ranger during his summers as well as his subsequent road trips and explorations of the outdoors. He is not focusing on any particular medium but enjoys experimenting with whichever best expresses the ideas of travel and nature. Michael has participated in several Art and Design exhibitions and just had his first solo show, The North Cascades Project. He is an active leader of the student government, Society of Art Students, and the collaborative performance collective, The Funambulists. He plans to study abroad in Mali for the fall semester.

Posted by gharp at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)

Andrea Gaydos Landau

Andrea Gaydos Landau received her M.F.A. from Cranbrook Academy of Art and her B.F.A. from The Cleveland Institute of Art both in the department of Fiber and Material Studies. Andrea has shown in several exhibitions outside of school including the ‘First Look’ exhibition at The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill, NY, featuring graduating, immerging artists from across the country. She also participated in a group show called ‘Delinquent Systems’ at Warren Robbins Gallery at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI.; as well as ‘GROUP SHOW’ at the Museum of New Art in Pontiac, MI. Andrea also has work in DaimlerChrysler Services permanent collection. Currently, she lives in Philadelphia and works at the Fabric Workshop and Museum as a Project Construction Technician.

Posted by gharp at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)

Ed Johnston

Ed Johnston is an artist whose work involves exploring and visualizing structures and patterns that make up organisms and their environments. Themes in his work include decisions of demarcation (where we draw the boundaries on information) and human preservation. Currently, Johnston’s exploration involves collaborating with Dr. Adam Hoppe and Dr. Samuel Straight through University of Michigan’s Center for Live-Cell Imaging in which he is making 3D reconstructions of the microscopic data of various types of cells collected by Hoppe and Straight. These are manifested as surface models and animations in a virtual environment.
Born in Washington, D.C., and raised on Capitol Hill, Edward S. Johnston has received a Master of Education and a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame. In May 1999, Johnston received an Award for Excellence in Art in the D.C. Congressional Art Competition. For the 2004-2005 academic year, he was the recipient of a partial scholarship to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art for a year of Post-baccalaureate study in studio art. He received his Post-baccalaureate Certificate in May 2005. In 2005, his work was shown in two MICA exhibitions as well as the Work In Progress Show at the Robbins Gallery here in Michigan. Currently, Johnston is attending the University of Michigan School of Art and Design in the Master of Fine Arts Program where his focus is scientific visualization.

Posted by gharp at 11:14 PM | Comments (0)

Colleen Lynne Cox

Colleen Lynne Cox is a visual artist and a student at the University of Michigan, School of Art & Design. Her work ranges from large-scale drawings to rehashed video works and often deal with narratives and psychology. She will be an artist-in-residence this summer at the Contemporary Artist's Center - in the meantime, she works as a webmaster, art director, and collaborator during the school year.

Posted by gharp at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)

Alison Byrnes

Alison Byrnes was born and raised in small-town Wisconsin, obtaining a B.A. in Classics and a B.S. in Art from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She is currently interested in depicting the inherent subjectivity of history in both written and visual forms. Her favorite subjects are the Romans, but she has been known to paint a wide-range of historical figures and events. Alison is currently an M.F.A. candidate at the University of Michigan's School of Art & Design. Her website resides at www.alisonbyrnes.com.

Posted by gharp at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)

Show Announcement

Posted by gharp at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)

March 08, 2006

This Evolution Will Not Be Televised

This Friday - ONE NIGHT ONLY! - The Evolution Revolution.

Continue reading "This Evolution Will Not Be Televised"

Posted by zcd at 05:18 PM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2006

Tuesday

Installation:Day 3

things left to do:

sweep
touch up
lighting
paint a couple of pedastals
cara's platform
interpretive sinage
labels
etc
etc
et cetera

Posted by gharp at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2006

installation continues

Posted by gharp at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)

Day 2

today began much the same way as yesterday: coffee...getting situated...waiting for work...some pr...more deliveries...install, install, install...

It's mostly hung, and it looks good...a few more pieces and details to go....we're in good shape for tuesday...

Posted by gharp at 10:12 PM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2006

Installation

Day 1.

(most of) The work has arrived from all over the world. Chris, Gabe and I are excited that the work is smaller than we had imagined; we thought we were going to have to hang this thing salon style.

Posted by zcd at 01:25 PM | Comments (0)