ARTISTS IN RESEARCH
Laura Splan
Artist in Research resident
September 2025 - April 2026
Open Fung is excited to welcome Laura Splan as its inaugural Artist in Research Resident from September 2025 to April 2026. A New York City-based artist, Splan works at the intersections of science, technology, and culture, developing multimedia exhibitions and interdisciplinary collaborations. During her residency, she will research with Open Fung's scientific team, Rachel Linzer and Rolando Perez, to explore fungi not only as a subject but as a framework for thinking across art, science, and ecology. Her work, grounded in what she calls the "tactical tactile," will foster intuitive comprehension of the interconnectedness of cultural and biological systems.
About Laura SPLAN
Laura Splan is a New York City based artist working at the intersections of Science, Technology, and Culture. Her research-based studio practice and interdisciplinary collaborations culminate in multimedia exhibitions and events. With an approach grounded in what she calls the “tactical tactile”, her work cultivates intuitive comprehension of the interconnectedness of cultural and biological systems. Recent projects have included immersive multisensory experiences, interactive installations, networked devices, participatory sculptures, and intimately scaled objects. These wide-ranging formats explore possibilities for understanding complexity through curiosity, wonder, and play. By reframing artifacts of the posthuman landscape with embodied encounters, Splan’s artworks reveal the “GUI/gooey” or liminal spaces mediating our relationship to nature and to our bodies. Her companion lectures and workshops unpack concepts and themes in her work—such as A.I., invisible labor, and genetic engineering—while providing insight into laboratory techniques, specialized software, and experimental methods used in her studio.
Splan’s internationally recognized artworks and exhibitions have been presented at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Brooklyn Museum (NYC), Musea Brugge (Bruges), Museum of Arts & Design (NYC), Santa Mònica Art Centre (Barcelona), Nantes Museum of Arts (Nantes), SÍM (Reykjavík), Galerie FOFA (Montréal), and The Nobel Prize Museum at Liljevalchs (Stockholm). Her work is represented in the collections of the Spalter Digital Art Collection, Thoma Art Foundation, and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Commissions include projects for the Museum of the Moving Image, CDC Foundation, Vanderbilt Planetarium, Beall Center for Art+Technology Black Box Projects, and Bruges Triennial. Her artist lectures and talks have been presented by The National Arts Club, Frontiers of Science Institute, University of Connecticut Humanities Institute, and Coalesce Center for Biological Arts. Publications featuring her artwork include “The Routledge Companion to Biology in Art & Architecture” and "Life Eternal" published by The Nobel Prize Museum. Reviews and articles including her work have appeared in The New York Times, Nature, Wired, BOMB, Discover, and Frieze and she has been featured on Science Friday and Voice of America. Her research has been supported by the Simons Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Creative Australia, EY Metaverse Lab, and NEW INC at the New Museum. Her contributions to contemporary art have garnered awards including the Herringer Prize for Excellence in Art, Wave Farm’s Media Arts Assistance Fund for Artists Grant, and AS220’s National Endowment for the Arts Digital Arts Fellowship.
Learn more about Laura at laurasplan.com.
GALLERY
Laura Splan, 2016, Embodied Objects Undo, detail of computerized Jacquard weaving. Courtesy of the artist . Laura Splan, 2022, Baroque Bodies Ambient Portal, archival pigment print on fine art paper. Courtesy of the artist. Laura Splan, 2024, Baroque Bodies, Sway Interactive installation. Courtesy of the artist. Laura Splan, 2022, Baroque Bodies Ambient Portals. Courtesy of the artist. Laura Splan, 2023, Baroque Bodies, A Guided Sublimation. Courtesy of the artist.Laura Splan, 2022, Tangible Variations, cubehelix kymograph detail. Courtesy of the artist.Laura Splan, 2022, Tangible Variations cubehelix 6000, detail of weaving. Courtesy of artist. Laura Splan, 2020, Renatured marine aquamarine skyblue. Courtesy of the artist. Laura Splan, 2020, Unraveling animation still. Courtesy of the artist. Laura Splan, 2004, Doilies Hepadna, computerize machine embroidered lace. Courtesy of artist.