Shared Vision: Tales of Science Illustration

Artist(s): Kate Baldwin, Kandis Elliot, H. Adam Steinberg '88, and Laura Vanderploeg

Date:  January 19 - May 20, 2016

Location:

Mandelbaum & Albert Family Vision Gallery

9th floor Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research building

1111 Highland Ave

Art and science interact perhaps most closely in the craft of science illustration. In science illustration the aesthetic aspects of art combine with the precise concepts of science to visually communicate ideas derived from data. Science illustrators play an important role in engagingly conveying the results of scientific research.

In this exhibition, four science illustrators associated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison – Kate Baldwin, Kandis Elliot, H. Adam Steinberg, and Laura Vanderploeg – tell how they transform scientific data into works of art that communicate scientific ideas. They show the raw data or images, the “napkin” sketches, the rudimentary ideas provided to them by scientific researchers. They describe how they take the difficult-to-explain and make it approachable and understandable, how they transform scientific data and ideas into revealing and appealing works of art.