The Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College will present an exhibition of contemporary art, "In the Mind’s Sky: Intersections of Art and Science," from August 27 through October 15. This exhibition features works by six artists who create imaginative spaces that take their point of departure from scientific phenomena at extreme scales, both vastly huge or vanishingly small. In light of the recent decoding of the human genome and the many implications of this breakthrough, this exhibition’s scientific focus is particularly compelling.
The opening reception will be held on Saturday, September 2, from 7-9 p.m., and will include live music and hors d’oeuvres. Dennis Ashbaugh will talk about his work at 6 p.m., and Susan Rankaitis and David Somers will talk about their artistic collaboration at 6:30 p.m. The gallery is located at 11th Street and Columbia Avenue on the Scripps College campus. Admission to the gallery, opening reception, and related talks is free and open to public.
Artists featured in the show include: Dennis Ashbaugh, Claire Browne, Mark Francis, Nancy Macko, Susan Rankaitis (collaborating with neuroscientist David Somers), and Carol Saindon. Photographs of DNA protein molecules inspire Dennis Ashbaugh’s large-scale paintings that transform genetic coding into mysterious marks. Painter Claire Browne creates abstract images that echo constellations and galaxies; at the same time, her circular clusters, drawn in pencil on canvas, evoke cellular life. By contrast, British painter Mark Francis joins grids and pods that merge minimal abstraction and microscopic organisms. Carol Saindon explores the macrocosmic realm in sculptural installations of crushed glass that evoke galactic space and star fields. Constellations also figure in Nancy Macko’s sculptural installation of digital images that bring together the archaic past and the technological present. Susan Rankaitis collaborates with David Somers, who studies the brain processes underlying visual perception. Each of the artists in the exhibition creates imaginary, immeasurable spaces that suggest the infinitesimal and the infinite, the realms of the microscope and the telescope. The gallery’s director, Mary MacNaughton, selected this exhibition and wrote the accompanying illustrated catalogue.
Before the opening reception, on September 2, at 6:30 p.m., in the gallery, Scripps’ Fletcher Jones Professor of Studio Art, Susan Rankaitis and neuroscientist David Somers, professor from the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, will speak about their artistic collaboration and the influence of science on their aesthetic process. In addition, on September 12, at 2:30 p.m., in the gallery, artists Nancy Macko and Carol Saindon will speak about their work. For other artists’ talks or for more information and upcoming exhibitions, please contact gallery registrar and collections manager, Kirk Delman, at (909) 607-3397.
Also in conjunction with the exhibition, on September 14, at 7:30 p.m., in the Humanities Auditorium of Scripps College, Dr. Lynn Gamwell will lecture on "New Cosmology: Modern and Contemporary Art." As Director of the Binghamton University Art Museum of SUNY and curator of the New York Academy of Sciences, Dr. Gamwell is in a unique position to offer insight into the relationship between art and science.