SP25

Art Reception for ‘Microcosm’ by Andi Wolfe

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Join us to celebrate the installation of Microcosm by Andi Wolfe in the Living Art and Ecology Lab (Hopkins 340) on January 30th, 2025 at 5:30pm. This artwork features ~168 glass protozoans (single-celled, eukaryotic microorganisms), which were initially created by Wolfe during an invited art & science residency with University of Wyoming’s Microbial Ecology Project. We will meet in the lab at 5:30pm to appreciate the sculpture indoors, then migrate outside to look at the artwork through the lab’s large windows using binoculars. This practice serves to emulate the experience of observing real protozoans through a microscope. Binoculars to share will be provided. Microcosm will remain on display in LAEL for one year.

About the Artist: Andi Wolfe spent her career as a botanist at The Ohio State University. During this time, she examined the natural world of plants from the macroscopic landscape to the molecular. Simultaneously, she explored art whenever she had time via sculptural woodturning, photography, painting, and glass. She is currently a Professor Emerita, allowing more time to focus on her artistic endeavors. Her work is in many private and public collections and has been featured in exhibits throughout the USA, including the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Honolulu Museum of Art, and Gallery of Wood Art in Minnesota. Examples of her wood art can be seen at www.AndiWolfe.com. Other explorations can be viewed on Instagram @andiwolfe.

Visiting Artist: Ruth Burke

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Join us to welcome Ruth Burke to campus for a visiting artist talk on Wednesday, January 29th, 2025 from 4-5pm in Hopkins Hall 358.

Ruth Burke is an interdisciplinary artist whose socially-engaged practice straddles the fields of contemporary art, human-animal studies, and agriculture. From and of the Midwest, she lives and works in Central Illinois on lands that were once home to the Illini, Peoria and the Myaamia people, as well as many other Nations later displaced to the region by colonial encroachment and genocide. Burke’s work has focused on collaborating with animals since 2015, and her current focus is a series of large-scale native plant earthworks powered by animal traction.

Burke has published articles and creative work in various peer reviewed journals, presented her work at venues and institutions nationally and internationally, created earthworks in three US states, and received numerous grants from various entities. She was recently honored with the Harold Boyd Endowed Professorship (2024-2026) from the ISU Wonsook Kim School of Art, the ISU College Teaching Initiative Award (2024), and a 2024 Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) Partnership Award (2024), amongst other awards and residences.

Ruth Burke holds a BFA from the Ohio State University, an MFA  from the University of Michigan, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Video Art in the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts, School of Art. She also runs DAP STUDIOS LLC, an art-and-agriculture business for hire on public artworks and small scale agricultural or garden projects.