MEMBER SHOW PROFILE // Science Class with Painter Joana Ricou

"Our Self Portrait"

"I'm kind of a biology geek," Joana Ricou tells us. The Portuguese-born painter spent high school on a heavily science-oriented track, eventually to become biology major at Carnegie Mellon--until she discovered there could be a happy co-existence between science and art.

Now, Ricou works mostly in oil painting, doing BioArt and figure painting (in addition to line sketches and a bit pf photography)--her work for the upcoming 3rd Ward Member Show on November 18th is a bit of both. "I read this neurology book with a Walt Whitman quote 'I contain multitudes,'" she says. "The pieces I proposed for the member show are kind of a representation of that." 

Her particular brand of BioArt is gaining quite a following--she's part of an online exhibit at the Arte Institute, and she's showing in the Eclectic Chaos series in New Jersey this month. Ricou's had her work selected as the cover for Journal of Neuroscience and has given talks about art as education.

While Ricou says she still loves to read biology journals and stay up on the research ("the really exciting stuff"), she doesn't see herself returning to the lab anytime soon. "I'm doing exactly what I want to be doing," she tells us. Amen. ...Now hit the jump to catch a couple more glimpses of Ricou's work.

"Hum Hum Together""Other Self"

-- Layla Schlack