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5 Science Art Exhibits Opening This Month

Five fascinating science art exhibits open this month—on the cosmos, changing seas, our relationship with nature and more. Get out and enjoy!

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


After posting our early edition of 2016 science art exhibits nationwide, several artists got in touch to let me know about upcoming shows they are in. I updated the roundup accordingly and in the process, discovered four opening receptions in the next three weeks. If you are in the area and available, don't miss the opportunity to meet these accomplished artists face-to-face:

In Texas: COSMIC

**Opening reception Friday, January 15 from 7-10pm**


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Exhibit details: COSMIC January 15 - February 20, 2016 Art.Science.Gallery 916 Springdale Road Building 2 #102 Austin, TX

Origin of the Universe. Evolution of the Universe. String Theory. Dark Matter. Dark Energy. Multiverse. Unification of Space + Time. Our Solar System. Cultural Cosmology. Art.Science.Gallery.’s science-inspired printmakers explore the cosmos in this far out exhibition for PrintAustin 2016, a city-wide printmaking festival.

In Utah: RAW & COOKED

**Opening reception Friday, January 15 from 6-9pm**

Exhibit details: RAW & COOKED January 15 – March 11, 2016 Rio Gallery 300 S. Rio Grande St. Salt Lake City, UT

This exhibition explores the relationship between culture and nature, one of the oldest human tropes. In this recurring schism, humans believe ourselves to be of nature and, alternately, distinct from it. As we search texts and traditions to support either position, the persistence of the trope itself is underscored; it’s an impasse, shifting in form. It’s also an embrace of or a resistance to the natural world that produced us; from which we believe we stand apart.

In Raw and Cooked, artists Jim Jacobs, Joshua Winegar, and Paul Crow present work within this nature/culture dialectic. Jacobs begins with an ancient horticultural intervention, the graft, to focus our attention on a literal intersection of the natural and the human-made. Winegar takes on the natural world as a partner in a conversation with his psyche, alternately responding to, and intervening in, the world which surrounds him. Crow maps the span of his life onto the time frame of the human awareness of global climate change. Each artist begins with material that exists before agency and brings it through a process of intervention to manifest a hybrid: the artist in dialogue both with the world and without, and with an inner understanding of that world.

In Virginia: COURTNEY MATTISON - Sea Change

**Opening reception Friday, January 29th from 6:30-8:30pm**

Exhibit details: COURTNEY MATTISON: Sea Change January 30 - April 17, 2016 Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art 2200 Parks Avenue Virginia Beach, VA

Artist and ocean advocate Courtney Mattison creates large scale ceramic installations and sculptures inspired by science and marine biology. Her intricate hand-crafted porcelain works celebrate the fragile beauty of endangered coral reef ecosystems and promote awareness to conserve and protect our natural world.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Courtney received an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts in Marine Ecology and Ceramic Sculpture from Skidmore College in 2008 and a Master of Arts in Environmental Studies from Brown University with coursework at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2011. Mattison has exhibited her work nationally including at the Tang Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY, the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She lives and works in Denver, Colorado.

Organized by the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. Curated by Alison Byrne, Director of Exhibitions and Education.

In California: Botanical Paintings by Nina Antze

**Opening reception Saturday, January 23, 3-5pm**

Exhibit details: Botanical Paintings in Colored Pencil by Nina Antze January 7, 2016 – April 25, 2016 Please call ahead 707-527-9277 x 107 to see exhibit Heron Hall, Laguna Environmental Center 900 Sanford Road, Santa Rosa, CA

California Flora is an exhibit of botanical paintings by colored pencil artist Nina Antze. The paintings were created over the past eight years and focus mainly on California natives. Also included are paintings documenting Luther Burbank’s Experiment Farm in Sebastopol and a piece from the Alcatraz Florilegium, a documentation of the plants of the Alcatraz gardens.

Nina Antze is a botanical artist and quilt maker living in Northern California. She has a degree in Fine Art from San Francisco State University and has a Certificate in Botanical Illustration from the New York Botanical Gardens. She teaches Colored Pencil classes in the Botanical Certificate Program at Filoli Gardens, at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts and around the Bay Area.

Her botanical paintings and colored pencil drawings have been exhibited in New York, at the Huntington Library, and at Filoli Gardens and her quilts have won numerous awards. She works in colored pencil, watercolor pencil and fabric. Her botanicals can be viewed at her website, www.pcquilt.com

Also in CA: The Alcatraz Florilegium

Exhibit details: The Alcatraz Florilegium January 16 - 29, 2016 University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley 200 Centennial Drive Berkeley, CA

The Northern California Society of Botanical Artists (NCSBA) in collaboration with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and the Garden Conservancy has created a florilegium, a series of botanical paintings, to document the plants of The Gardens of Alcatraz. The UC Botanical Garden is thrilled to welcome the NCSBA to exhibit this special showing of the Alcatraz Florilegium, with over 70 drawings and paintings, in the beautiful Julia Morgan Hall. For those unable to attend the exhibit in person, visit the online version here.

_______________________________ If you have a scienceart exhibit that should be included in Symbiartic's regular scienceart roundup,

drop me a line with the relevant details.