LAMINAproject−the gallery/platform devoted to art/science−is thrilled to exhibit works on paper by Shanthi Chandrasekar, Michal Gavish, and Jody Rasch at Art on Paper on Pier 36 in downtown Manhattan, September 8-11, Booth A14. The gallery was also invited by the fair organizers to present a striking site-specific Public Project installation by Shanthi Chandrasekar on the Main Floor of the fair.

Maryland-based Shanthi Chandrasekar has been drawing and painting since early childhood, and has been trained in the traditional art forms of Kolam and Tanjore-style painting. While many of her works are influenced by her Indian heritage, her true inspiration comes from the mystery and majesty of the world around her; her muse lives where the scientific overlaps with the spiritual.  Her artistic practice combines scientific and philosohical enquiry—facts and theories—with a wild imagination and constant exploration. For Art on Paper, she has created a series of works inspired by Cosmology, from gravitational waves and the orbits of the planets to overlaping fields of particles. Like the rest of her oeuvre, these strikingly beautiful and complex drawings question our known reality and seek to learn more about the unknown.

For Michal Gavish, multimedia artist and former research scientist, the brain, viruses, proteins, and crystals aren’t abstractions—they are figures, objects and nano-scale landscapes. Observing the beauty of the microcscopic world that is hidden from the naked eye, the artist is captivated by the minute shapes and interprets them in their intricate environments. Works exhibited at Art on Paper include Neuroscape, a mixed media painting on paper inspired by observations of brain neurons. Using a triptych format, Gavish transforms the micsoscopic imagery of biological neural networks into imaginary landscapes, connecting them to Japanese screens and medieval scrolls. In her series entitled Neuron Field Guide, she adopts traditional watercolor rendering to create a separate image for each individual neuron species.

Jody Rasch’s work is drawn from various science practices, including astronomy, biology, and sub-atomic physics. In his subject matter and techniques, Rasch builds on historical concepts and follows in the footsteps of artistic movements from Pointillism and Constructivism to Dada and Surrealism, that were influenced by science. Abstract yet recognizable to scientists, the stunning patterns and colors in his drawings and paintings elevate the movement and behavior of their subjects. Particle showers are painted as glowing traces of post-collision movement, the blueness of Einstein’s ring is accentuated, and skin cells are transformed into a vibrant multi-color panorama. Rasch brings images to a more human scale by enlarging the infinitesimally small or closing the distance to cosmic phenomena, making these hidden and remote elements of the universe relatable to our existence in it. As an expression of both the patterns of the natural world and the metaphors underlying modern science, his work reminds us that there’s more to the universe than meets the eye.

Art on Paper's Projects challenge and engage visitors with their interactive presentation and immersive constructions. This invitational program works with participating galleries and cultural organizations to activate Art on Paper's public spaces. Chandrasekar’s work entitled Entropy: Macrostates & Microstates is a site-specific installation entirely out of paper that explores the play of light and shadow, creating shapes that change as the viewer moves.  The lace-like effect formed by the overlapping of the hole-punched paper leads to complex images, questioning reality and our perception of it, and visualizing the meaning of entropy and the emergence of complexity from simplicity. Though entropy is often interpreted as the degree of randomness or disorder in a closed system, it is a concept that plays a significant role in the workings of the cosmos and also in our lives.

ABOUT LAMINA PROJECT

Some of the most innovative artists working today are fusing art and science and taking inspiration from science. LAMINAproject showcases artwork by emerging and established artists that integrates ideas, images and metaphors of science to convey fundamental truths about the world and explore different characteristics of art-science relationships. LAMINAproject’s artists not only show the beauty of science, but also communicate how these images relate to and help us see beyond our daily existence. As expressions of both the patterns of the natural world and the metaphors underlying modern science, their art allows us to see beauty in the repulsive, to find knowledge in the unknown, and to observe the unseen to more clearly see our world. By exploring the invisible, Chandrasekar, Gavish, and Rasch invite the observer to look beyond the “seen” to appreciate the beauty and mystery of the “unseen.”