Nothing is exactly what it seems in “Visual Inquiries: Artists Inspired By Science,” an exhibition on view at Pace University’s Peter Fingesten Gallery in New York City.
Some of the works on display appear to represent everyday things (Julia Buntaine’s sculptural hedgehog and serpent, for example) but are meant to portray scientific data (in this case, the shapes of typical brainwaves bent into steel wire and stacked atop one another). With other works, it is clear that the subjects relate to science, but the details of those connections may be difficult to guess.
Take two rectangular paintings whose yellowed, resinous surfaces vaguely resemble agar plates hosting microbial colonies. To artist Angie Drakopoulos, these works represent the emergence of order from chaos and depict biomorphic forms from the image of a root cross-section combined with garland-like, symmetrical representations of how sound affects matter. More than meets the eye.
In selecting the ...
