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MOLECULAR ART DISCUSSION
13 May 2010
Speakers:
ORON CATTS / Director, SymbioticA, University of Western Australia
JANET LAURENCE / Artist, Sydney
SERGE SPITZER / Artist, New York
VLADIMIR VOLLOCH / Molecular Biologist, Harvard University, Boston
SPEAKERS:
ORON CATTS
Oron Catts is an artist, researcher and curator whose work with the Tissue Culture and Art Project (which he founded in 1996) is part of the NY MoMA design collection and has been exhibited and presented internationally. In 2000 he co-founded SymbioticA, an artistic research laboratory housed within the School of Anatomy and Human Biology, The University of Western Australia. Under Oron’s leadership, SymbioticA has gone on to win the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica in Hybrid Art (2007) and became a Centre for Excellence in 2008. In 2009 Oron was recognised by Thames & Hudson’s 60 Innovators Shaping our Creative Future book as one of five in the category “Beyond Design”, and by Icon Magazine (UK) as one of the top 20 Designers, “making the future and transforming the way we work”. Oron was a Research Fellow in Harvard Medical School and a visiting Scholar at the Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University.
JANET LAURENCE
Janet Laurence’s work echoes architecture while retaining organic qualities and a sense of instability and transience. Her work occupies the liminal zones or meeting places of art, science, imagination and memory. Profoundly aware of the interconnection of all life forms, Laurence often produces work in response to specific sites or environments using a diverse range of materials. Alchemical transformation, history and perception are underlying themes. Janet Laurence exhibits widely and has an impressive record of representation in important group exhibitions, including the 9th Biennale of Sydney (1992) and Australian Perspecta (1985, 1991, 1997). Following her solo exhibition in 1991 at Seibu Gallery, Tokyo, and since she was awarded an Australia Council studio residency in Tokyo in 1998, Laurence has exhibited regularly in solo and group exhibitions in Tokyo and Nagoya. She has twice been invited to create permanent installations for the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial in Japan (2003, 2006). Janet Laurence is represented in major Australian and international collections and has been included in national survey exhibitions. Pesaro Publishing released a major book on her work in 2006. In 2006 Janet Laurence was awarded a Churchill Fellowship. She was a Trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (1996–2005) and is completing a PhD in ephemeral architecture at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Her work is represented in major Australian and international public, corporate and private collections.
Serge Spitzer is an American artist who uses sculpture, site-specific installations, works on paper, photography and video to question, explore and reflect on the shared reality everywhere. He was born in Bucharest, Romania, in 1951, and since the early 1980s has lived and worked in New York.His work has been shown in many museums and art institutions, among them Folkwang Museum Essen, 1979; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1983; Kunstmuseum, Bern, 1984 and 2006; Magasin, Grenoble, 1987; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, 1992; Kunsthalle and Kunstverein, Düsseldorf, 1993; IVAM Centro Julio Gonzales and Centro del Carme, Valencia, 1994; Henri Moore Institute, Leeds, 1994; Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, 1995; Kunsthalle, Bern, 2003; (MMK) Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, 2006; Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut, 2008; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2010. He has participated in many international art exhibitions and biennials such as Documenta 8, Kassel, 1987; Istanbul Biennial, 1994; Biennale de Lyon, 1997; Kwangju Biennial, 1997; Venice Biennale, 1999, Sydney Biennial, 2010. He has also contributed works to many group and thematic exhibitions. His work is represented in many public and private collections, among them Brooklyn Museum, New York; Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge; Museum Folkwang, Essen; Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; Kunstmuseum, Bern; IVAM Instituto Valenciano d’Arte Moderno, Valencia; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Musée d’Art Contemporain, Lyon; Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt am Main; Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Staatliche Museen Neue Galerie, Kassel; Staatens Museum for Kunst, Kopenhagen; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Menil Collection, Houston; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.
VLADIMIR VOLLOCH
Vladimir Volloch received his education at Moscow University, USSR (BA, MSc) and at the Weizmann Institute, Israel (PhD). He practices the Arts of Biology at Harvard University in Boston, USA.
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