As part of Medical Device Week, which will run from 3-6 June, NUI Galway will host Chimera, Art of Exploration exhibition. Chimera, Art of Exploration is a curated group exhibition in which artists works exploring notions of biosciences are exhibited alongside industrial medical devices, and will bring professional artists, student artists, the medical device industry, biomedical science and engineering researchers together.

Chimera, Art of Exploration will open on Tuesday, 3 June at 5pm and will run daily from 12pm to 4pm in the Biosciences Building on campus.

Siobhan McGibbon is an Irish artist based in Roscommon, she graduated from sculpture in Galway Mayo Institute Technology in Galway in 2009 and was awarded sculpture student of the year. In 2014 she was awarded a scholarship from the Limerick City of Culture to undertake a research led practice based masters in LCAD, Limerick, entitled ‘The modern prometheus, otherness and the body’. Her practice is predominantly sculpture based with a distinct medical slant. In 2014 McGibbon will embark on a self-directed residency in the University Collage Hospital Galway within the histology, radiology, pathology and oncology laboratory’s.  McGibbon has been awarded a fellowship to study in the Mutter Museum of the College of Physicians, Philadelphia which will take place in the Autumn of 2014.

Marie Connole is an Irish visual artist and teacher based in Co. Clare. Her studio practice combines drawing, painting, installation and animation.  She works through highly personal thematic content involving the subconscious, the body and the domestic environment.  In 2005 she was awarded a two-year bursary from the Clare Arts Office to undertake a research based Masters in Fine Art from NUI Galway and Burren College of Art.  Connole is a tutor with Limerick and Clare Education Training Board and an art teacher at second-level. Her work is supported by Clare Arts Office. www.marieconnole.com

Paul Maye graduated with a BA Fine Art - Paint & Printmaking in 1996. In 2002, he was awarded an Arts Council for a residency at Arthouse, Dublin. He was selected to participate in the Florence Biennial in 2003 and again in 2005. More recently he was commissioned by Absolut Vodka for the 2011 Galway Arts Festival.

The exhibition will present works by students of the Centre for Creative Arts and Media, Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, who are participating in a short research project to create works in response to what they have seen and experienced in the NFB research laboratories.

The exhibition also includes medical devices, by companies such as Boston Scientific, Vornia, Aerogen, and Osteoanchor, and some other material designed to educate the public on medical device research.  Local artist Cecilia Danell and Professor Rhodri Cedrig from the National Centre for Bioengineering Science will choose the winners of the ‘Biosciences Art Competition.’ The competition includes art works by research scientists and engineers within the Biosciences building and the winners will be announced at the wine reception on Tuesday evening.

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