Artists to fuse science, tech, art in March 5-8 Wright Gallery exhibit

“Anna Dumitriu and Alex May: Recent Works,” a multimedia exhibit exploring the nexus of art, science and technology through the transcendent work of these two internationally acclaimed artists, was held March 5 – 8 at the Wright Gallery on Texas A&M University’s College Station, Texas campus.

A public reception for Dumitriu and May highlighted the March 5 opening at the gallery, which is located on the second floor of the Langford Architecture Center’s building A. Additionally, while on campus for the four-day exhibit, both artists lead a series of lectures, discussions and interactive workshops on topics like microbial art, video mapping and the collaborative process.

[Dumitriu] (http://www.normalflora.co.uk) uses microbiologists’ tools and techniques to combine bacteria with traditional artistic media, including sculpture, installation and craft, to create intricate pieces that explore our relationship to infectious diseases, biology and robotics. Her art reveals strange histories and emerging futures.

[May] (https://www.alexmayarts.co.uk) ’s video art, humanoid robots, full-scale installations and generative works transcend the boundaries between virtual and physical domains.

“These artists remind us that we are inherently collaborative organisms because we host other living entities and cannot live without them,” said Carol LaFayette, the exhibit’s curator and the Texas A&M Harold Adams Interdisciplinary Professor for Visualization. “Through their work, they heighten our visual and tactile experiences of a mysterious story we tell ourselves, one that changes with new knowledge.”

Dumitriu explores the impact of infectious diseases and antibiotics on people’s lives in her work, “Ex Voto,” which includes hand-made votives made by individuals sharing personal stories about how antibiotics and infectious diseases affected their lives.

The votives are hung on ribbons and stained or dyed with natural antimicrobial substances used as ancient medicines and chemical dyes in the laboratory for synthetic biology.

May’s video installation “No Violence to the Sky,” presents the architecture of One Canada Square, a César Pelli-designed London skyscraper reflected in the surrounding buildings and environment.

The piece, which will also be displayed in the Wright Gallery, responds to Pelli’s observations about the complex relationship between a building, its environment, the people in and around it, and the challenge of balancing all of these factors into a final design.

“Recent Works” is sponsored by the [Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts] (http://academyarts.tamu.edu) and co-sponsored by the Wright Gallery, the College of Architecture, the [Arts Council of Brazos Valley] (http://www.acbv.org) , the [Institute for Applied Creativity] (http://creativity.arch.tamu.edu/) and the Texas A&M [Health Science Center] (https://www.tamhsc.edu) .

About the Wright Gallery

The Wright Gallery is dedicated to showcasing the visual arts with a commitment to honor diversity in all its forms; provide a venue for emerging and established artists, architects and designers of local, regional, national and international acclaim; feature works by women artists and artists from other underrepresented groups; artists whose works promote dialogue on topics of social and cultural importance, and artists whose work challenges conventional art practice.

The gallery also serves as a center for campus and community visual arts engagement, education and enjoyment.

Its 2008 renovation was made possible by a generous gift from Jim Wright, a retired Page Sutherland Page senior partner with who earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Texas A&M in 1954, and his wife Mary.

Richard Nira

rnira@tamu.edu