Bio Art pioneer Suzanne Anker speaks, Nov. 14

Bio Artist Suzanne Anker talks about how her artwork envisions and critiques our biological futures on Thursday, Nov. 14, 6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design (1903 Hillsborough St.). Anker's visit is in conjunction with the multi-site exhibition “Art's Work in the Age of Biotechnology: Shaping Our Genetic Futures”—a Libraries' collaboration with the Genetic Engineering and Society Center and the Gregg Museum. Anker’s talk is free and open to the public.

Anker's composite photographs at the Gregg, and her rapid prototype sculptures at the Hill Library Exhibit Gallery, mine the scientist's world to spark the wider cultural imagination. Her practice investigates the ways in which nature is being altered in the twenty-first century through genetics, climate change, species extinction, and toxic degradation. She frequently works with materials such as botanical and geological specimens, medical museum artifacts, lab equipment, and microscopic images. As the chair of the School of Visual Arts (SVA) Fine Arts Department in New York since 2005, Anker continues to interweave traditional and experimental media in her department’s new digital initiative and the SVA Bio Art Lab.

Anker’s visit sets the stage for “The Handmaid’s Tale” author Margaret Atwood’s presentation (tickets are sold out; live stream available) at NC State the following evening.