New Growth: Ten Years of ArtLab at Mountain Lake Biological Station

Ruffin Gallery at the University of Virginia is pleased to announce New Growth: Ten Years of ArtLab at Mountain Lake Biological Station. Founded in 2013 by Megan Marlatt (Professor of Studio Art at the University of Virginia) and Butch Brodie (B.F.D. Runk Professor in Botany at the University of Virginia), ArtLab brings together artists with scientists to observe, explore, and investigate the natural world. Each artist in New Growth is a past participant of the residency, and each artwork reflects in its own way the type of exploration and research that ArtLab fosters. 

The artworks curated here communicate the profoundly positive impact of interdisciplinary interaction. Tapping into the principles of observation, they focus on the natural world and our relation to it, and call attention to the artist’s central role as observer. This has the collective result of blurring the fictitious line between observer and the observed, and of highlighting the human ability to step out of and interpret the workings of our planet. 

Please join us in celebrating New Growth: Ten Years of ArtLab at Mountain Lake Biological Station on Friday, November 8. The evening will begin with a panel discussion in the gallery at 4:00pm, bringing together artists and biologists who have been involved in ArtLab to discuss the ways that cross-disciplinary observations and perspectives enrich their work. The panel discussion will be followed by an exhibiton reception. Refreshments will be served.

Curators: Sarah Irvin, Artist and Curator and Tracy Stonestreet, Artist, Writer, Researcher, and Director of University of Mary Washington Galleries.

Artists: Nancy Blum, Sara Bouchard, Gregory Brellochs, Rob Carter, Zehra Khan, Meredith Leich, Chris Mahonski, Nathalie Miebach, Ash Eliza Williams.

Panel discussion: November 8, 4–5pm, Ruffin Hall / Exhibition reception: November 8, 5-7pm, Ruffin Hall.

Ruffin Gallery at University of Virginia
Since 2008, the Ruffin Gallery has been an active part of the Studio Art program. Each year the gallery hosts four to six exhibits that serve as one of the University’s most important showcases for contemporary art and are an integral part of the Studio Art experience. Students are involved with the production of these exhibitions and gain valuable experience in the handling and hanging of exhibits. Every Spring the gallery is the site of the Fourth-Year Thesis and Aunspaugh Fellows Exhibitions. The openings are important occasions when the Studio Art program celebrates the successful completion of the major.

Press contact: Elena Yu, Gallery & Visiting Artist Coordinator, University of Virginia Art Department, ruffin-gallery [​at​] virginia.edu.

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New Growth: Ten Years of ArtLab at Mountain Lake Biological Station is supported by an Arts Enhancement Grant from UVA Arts & the Office of the Provost & the Vice Provost for the Arts.