Lindsay Olson: Art and the Elegant Universe

Art and the Elegant Universe, at the Kavanagh Gallery, showcases the art of textile artist Lindsay Olson. Olson's art grows out of an intense curiosity about how science and technology support our society. She uses her training as an artist to create art about the hidden realities of our world.

As Fermilab's (America's particle physics and accelerator laboratory based in Batavia, IL) first artist in residence, Olson worked with scientists, members of the operations crew, and numerous staff throughout the lab to learn the basics of high-energy physics and created a body of textile artwork and works on paper to shed light on both the smallest frontiers and the structure of the universe: the subatomic realm of neutrinos, quarks and leptons. Olson is fascinated by the behavior of nature's fundamental building blocks that make up all that we see.

Art and the Elegant Universe is a collection of over 20 pieces reflecting the time Olson was Fermilab's artist in residence. The exhibition includes two large textile pieces - Dark Glamour: Neutrinos I & II. These pieces use a visual metaphor of nets to suggest how detectors capture images of these rarely interacting, elusive particles. The art borrows techniques used in high fashion to project an image of dark glamour. Olson says "our universe is permeated with neutrinos - nearly massless, neutral particles that interact so rarely with other matter that trillions of them pass through our bodies each second without leaving a trace. These tiny particles, studied in world-leading Fermilab experiments, could be key to a deeper understanding of our universe". Olson views this show as an ideal way to invite others with little or no technical background to explore the very underpinnings of reality itself.

Art and the Elegant Universe opens on Thursday, September 5, and runs until October 10. 

The artist Lindsay Olson will be at our opening gallery reception on September 5 from 6 to 8 p.m. Like all receptions at Fine Line's Kavanagh Gallery, this reception is free and open to everyone. It's a great opportunity to meet Olson and hear how she connects art and science.