RASCH

Jody Rasch is a New York City area-based artist whose work is based on themes from astronomy, biology, physics and spectra. The artist has been exhibiting his work nationally for over 25 years. Duality–abstraction and representation, the literal and the metaphorical, science and mysticism, the unseen and the seen–is a predominant theme in Rasch’s work.

“These pieces, based on electron microscopy, particle accelerators, and radio astronomy are an expression of both the patterns of the natural world and the metaphors underlying modern science. They allow us to see the beauty in the repulsive, to find knowledge in the unknown, to observe the unseen to more clearly see our world.”

In Atlanta, The David J. Sencer CDC Museum’s new exhibition--The World Unseen: Intersections of Art and Science—gathers the work of ten international artists who draw upon microbiology, biotechnology, anatomy, and texts in their investigations of microbes and cells, DNA, history of disease and science, the body, and beauty.

Duality–abstraction and representation, the literal and the metaphorical, science and mysticism, the unseen and the seen–is a predominant theme in New York artist Jody Rasch’s work, which is explored in Duality: Art + Science, a stunning exhibition curated by The American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, DC as part of its Art of Science and Technology Program. The exhibition also features work by Betsy Stewart and is on view through February 1, 2019 in the gallery space at AAAS’s headquarters. Rasch uses science images to look beyond what we see in the macro world of our daily lives and challenges us to explore the world around us, question our world-view and how we react to information. Duality: Art + Science presents paintings and drawings inspired by astronomy, biology, physics and spectra.

Images from electron microscopy, particle accelerators, and radio astronomy are beautifully transformed in sciartist Jody Rasch’s vibrant works. Some of his latest pieces are on view for the first time in Duality: Art + Science, an exhibit curated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) as part of its Art of Science and Technology Program. The show is on view until February 1, 2019 at the AAAS’s gallery space in Washington, DC.

Rasch’s unique works toy with preconceptions about scale and colour, abstraction and representation, seen and unseen. Using a variety of techniques and media—from acrylic paint to pen and ink—he reveals stunning patterns within scientific images that would otherwise go unnoticed. The resulting works “look beyond what we see in the macro world of our daily lives” to question how we view, react to, and interact with information.

The paintings and drawings in “Duality: Art and Science” are clearly handmade, yet are inspired by things glimpsed through machines, notably microscopes and radio telescopes. As interpreted by New York’s Jody Rasch and the District’s Betsy Stewart, the phenomena celebrated in the American Association for the Advancement of Science show appear similar in form, whether they’re massive or microscopic in actuality. They lose their original scale and, in some cases, their menace.