Under the Scope
Exhibit Dates
Under the Scope will be presented at Goucher College's Silber Art Gallery in the Sandy J. Unger Athenaeum from October 25, through December 4, 2016. This exhibit, which is free, open to the public, and accessible to all, can be viewed Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Artist Reception
Artist's Reception and Talk will be held Thursday, October 27, 2016, from 6 to 9 p.m. in the Sandy J. Unger Athenaeum. Please visit www.goucher.edu/silber or call 410-337-6477 for more information.
About the Exhibit
Under the Scope is an exhibition of works by seven contemporary artists whom each explore different methodologies and aspects of science. Through sculpture, installation, painting, printmaking, performance, photography, and video, the artists probe beneath the surface of things, often diving into the depths of the microscopic world.
Artists featured in Under the Scope:
Ben Andrew
Benjamin Andrew is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the frontiers of storytelling
and technology. Born in Ithaca, New York, he studied art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn,
NY, and the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, where he received his
M.F.A. from the Mount Royal School of Art in 2013. After working and teaching in Baltimore
for several years, he recently relocated to State College, Pennsylvania, where he
is involved in several interdisciplinary teaching projects. His writing has appeared
in Bmore Art and What Weekly; his artwork has been featured throughout Baltimore, Washington, DC, and New York,
including public art projects in Arlington, Virginia, and the Foggy Bottom Sculpture
Biennial in Washington, DC.
Selin Balci
Selin Balci received her B.Sc. from Istanbul University, B.F.A. from West Virginia
University, and M.F.A. from University of Maryland. Balci's many accolades include
the prestigious College Art Association (CAA) 2012 Professional-Development Fellowship,
So-Hamiltonian Fellowship in Washington, DC, 2013-15 Bethesda Urban Partnership's
Trawick Prize Finalist Award, and Smack Mellon's Hot Picks Artist Award. Numerous
galleries have mounted solo and group exhibitions of Balci's work including the Hamiltonian
Gallery, DCAC (District of Columbia Arts Center), WPA (Washington Project for the
Arts), ConnerSmith Gallery, Honfleur Gallery in Washington, DC, Rush Arts Gallery
and Smack Mellon in NY. Balci explores the theater of conflicts, dominance, and predation
in a cultivated, living environment: the Petri dish. The environment serves not only
as a vivarium for mold, bacteria, and fungus but also as a living studio. By constructing
a landscape simultaneously natural and artificial, Petri dish provides a platform
on which she acts as a curator and creator.
Elizabeth Crisman
Elizabeth Crisman was born and raised in Virginia and has lived in the Washington,
DC, area for most of her life. She received a B.F.A. in Ceramics from Virginia Commonwealth
University in Richmond, VA, and an M.F.A. in Photography and Digital Imaging from
Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.
Crisman has exhibited nationally in group and solo exhibitions including Baltimore,
Philadelphia, and Brooklyn, NY. She was a fellow in various programs, including the
Center for Emerging Visual Artists in Philadelphia, Vermont Studio Center, and the
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Amherst, VA. She has been a recipient of
various grants such as the Maryland State Arts Council Grant and the Alumni Travel
Grant from the Center for Emerging Visual Artist, which allowed her to travel to Israel
for a month to volunteer on an archaeological excavation at Kfar Hahoresh, east of
Nazareth in Israel. This experience continues to inform her artwork. Most recently,
she was a fellow at Le Moulin à Nef, (VCCA), in Auvillar, France. She collaborated
with Baltimore writer Jen Michalski in a narrative collaboration utilizing photographs
and writings that were recently published in the LA-based online publication PairShaped.org.
Crisman had been an adjunct professor of photography and art history for ten years
at various Baltimore- and DC-area colleges, but is now the Technical Director at the
Montpelier Arts Center in Laurel, MD.
Lauren Kalman
Lauren Kalman has a diverse cross-disciplinary practice that is rooted in jewelry and metalsmithing. She utilizes traditional jewelry/metalsmithing, garment construction, and sculpture techniques combined with digital photography, performance, installation, robotics, and video. Through her practice, she investigates historical, political, and social contexts relating to sex, gender, power, pleasure, pain, taste, and beauty. In her work, skin markings have been presented as jeweled infections, fabric growths, or wearable devices.
A. Gray Lamb
A. Gray Lamb is an emerging installation artist focused on the relationship between
museums and belief. She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2014
with a B.F.A. in general fine arts. Since then she has been working to expand her
New Institute of Historical Cosmological Exploration project, parts of which have
been exhibited in various places including the Arlington Arts Center and Washington
Project for the Arts. Recently she was an anchor project artist for Artscape 2016,
Space: Explore What's Out There, as well as a member of their Space Advisory Committee.
In her spare time she travels to places with unique landscapes, star gazes, and plays
with her cat, Neptune.
Nicole Shiflet
Nicole Shiflet was born in Wisconsin, grew up in Georgia, and, for the last thirteen
years, has called Baltimore home. Her mediums of choice are drawing, painting, installation,
and 2D animation. She has shown her work nationally and internationally. Her interests
include animals, the intersection of science and art, food, and organizing things.
In her free time she works as a patent examiner.
Kathy Strauss
Kathy Strauss is a working artist, scientist, and mother. She, her husband, and son
live in Baltimore. She earned her degree in art from Westminster College (Pennsylvania)
with concentrations in biology and mathematics, and has been making and exhibiting
both fiber art and works on paper for over 30 years. She has shown work in many Baltimore
area venues including Maryland Art Place, the Creative Alliance, and at Baltimore's
annual arts festival ArtScape, as well as exhibiting in Pittsburgh, Washington, DC,
and New York. Her work has been included in textbooks (Gateways to Art, Understanding the Visual Arts) and publications (Link: A Critical Journal on the Arts in Baltimore and the World), and is in permanent collections, (including Institute for Genome Sciences and Notre
Dame of Maryland University, both in Baltimore). She has worked with the staff at
the Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, and the Textile Museum in Washington, DC,
demonstrating and lecturing on fiber art techniques.
Strauss' work in the sciences has influenced and informed her art making. Initially
inspired by imagery of the sciences, the systems and integrations of chemistry and
mathematics also found their way into her fiber art and works on paper. Strauss currently
works at University of Maryland Medical School, Division of Malaria Research. She
previously worked in UMMS Department of Epidemiology, where the research on the Vibrio cholerae bacterial capsule that is shown in Search was done.
Event Sponsors
BCCAS