What is a portrait in an era when technology enables us to see so far beneath the surface? Exploring issues of identity and classification, this exhibition deconstructs classical concepts of portraiture and extends them to a molecular level. The images superimpose portraits, human silhouettes, DNA sequencing ladders, and test tubes containing human tissue and DNA samples. Through these images, Ariel Ruiz i Altaba asks us to contemplate the factors that determine who we are and who we will become.
Artist and scientist Ariel Ruiz i Altaba was born in Mexico City and grew up in Barcelona. His photographic work explores the intersection of biology and art and focuses on issues of identity. He is the Louis-Jeantet Professor of Stem Cell Research at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He received his doctorate in molecular biology and biochemistry from Harvard University. His lab studies pattern formation, stem cells, and the development of the brain and cancer.
Ruiz i Altaba is the founding director of WetLab, a forum based in New York for the interchange of ideas between science and the visual arts. His photographs and texts have appeared in numerous shows and magazines. His work is included in the collections of the Bibliotheque National de France, Paris, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and many private collections.
Image: Ariel Ruiz i Altaba, Homo sapiens, 2002-2004, archival pigment print
Click here for essay by Katherine Ware, Curator of Photographs, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Click here to visit Ariel Ruiz i Altaba’s website
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