Misadventures in Art and Nanoscience: An Unusual Education
Artist and TED Fellow Kate Nichols synthesizes nanoparticles to mimic structurally colored animals, grows artificial skin from microorganisms, and cooks up her own paints, following fifteenth-century recipes. Nichols will give us a peek behind the scenes of her unique practice, which navigates the permeable (and often messy) boundary between science and art. Nichols argues that living as we do, amid a revolution in nanotechnology and biotechnology, artists have a unique role to play in this transformation. Furthermore, as artists rise to the occasion, the boundaries that define the domain of the artist will be redrawn.
Diebenkorn Teaching Fellow
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco artist Kate Nichols synthesizes nanoparticles to mimic structurally colored animals, grows artificial skin from microorganisms, and cooks up her own paints using fifteenth-century recipes. The long tradition of painters as material innovators inspired Nichols to become the first artist in residence in the Alivisatos Lab, a nanoscience laboratory at University of California, Berkeley. In 2010, she was appointed a TED Fellow and was awarded a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship. Her artwork has been featured on the cover of the journal Nature, on the TED stage, and in the Leonardo Museum’s permanent collection. Nichols received her BA in Studio Art from Kenyon College, her MA in Visual Studies from UC Berkeley, and her MFA from California College of the Arts. Nichols was recently awarded the 2015 Richard Diebenkorn Teaching Fellowship, an honor SFAI extends to one early- to mid-career painter each year.