Nature, Interrupted
Art channels our perceptions. It opens our eyes to parts of the world that otherwise we would not notice.
Through photomicrography, one can elicit the natural existence of art at the microscopic level and yet remain within the context of science. It is an exciting journey, this transformation from an object to an image. Colors, curves, and patterns undisputedly exist in the simple basic substances from the world around us. However, they’re microscopic. We simply do not see them. There is a complex, hidden matrix underlying our fragile human environment that only photomicrography can view.
The explosive progress of the genomic age has propelled biomedical science into our lives, never again to be relegated to the arcane environment of academia. It became increasingly important to bring the images of science into the iconography of our popular culture. By exploring the beauty and tranquility of a wide variety of chemical agents, I am trying to convey the charm of images derived from natural compounds in an aesthetic medium. This communicates and highlights some of the natural beauty that lies in the molecules of science.
These images represent a new style of photography. The microscope is just a tool for creating a new genre of visual art, “photomicrograph art.” It elicits the natural existence of art within science - at the microscopic level. Some critics suggest parallels between my findings in normally sub-visual images with the paintings of Kandinsky, Miro, Pollock, and Motherwell: (“Painters in a way predicted how small the world was.”) Drawing this comparison to the twentieth century masters suggests that such artists – well in advance of their contemporary scientists - may have “seen” the microscopic essence of Nature. Microscopic reality becomes expressionism. My artistic expression is the unification of a representational subject with its abstract imagery. It is a quest for expansion of the visual vocabulary of human beings.
Each image is available in limited editions of eight (unmounted):
22” x 33” - $1450 (1/8)
28” x 28” - $1550 (1/8)
30” x 45” - $2700 (1/8)
40” x 60” - $4800 (1/8)
Each print is numbered and signed by the artist.
Rafal Olbinski Studio
142 East 35th Street, New York, New York 11432
September 19, 2006
During the span of my thirty-year career as an illustrator, designer, and painter, I was fortunate to have encountered and worked with many outstanding professionals in the field of visual communication. I consider Margaret Oechsli to be one of those outstanding professionals, who recently captured my attention with her truly innovative artistic accomplishments.
Oechsli’s work is an astonishing result of amplified, scientific, microscopic images, through the means of photomicrography. The transformation of magnified molecules, enhanced by various chemical compounds, has produced astounding abstract images filled with evocations of color and pattern.
The French writer Francoise Sagan once wrote that "art should take reality by surprise." Margaret Oechsli has the uncanny ability to transform glimpses of reality into surprising, memorable images. She captures hidden properties, evoking compositions that encompass stillness and mystery...a true provocation for the eye and imagination. The work is rich visually and conceptually; each piece unlocks a revelation and leads to a new discovery.
- Rafal Olbinski
Rafal Olbinski is an established prominent painter, illustrator, and designer. He has received more than 150 awards for his artistic achievements including gold and silver medals from the Art Directors Club of New York, gold and silver medals from the Society of Illustrators in New York and Los Angeles and “The Big Crit” 2000 Award by Critique magazine in San Francisco.
In 1994 he was awarded the International Oscar for The World’s Most Memorable Poster, Prix Savignac in Paris. In 2002 the City of Fondi, Italy, awarded him Premio Divina Guilia for his contribution to the contemporary art. Rafal Olbinski’s paintings are included in the collection of the National Arts Club in New York, the Smithsonian Institute and Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; the Suntory Museum in Osaka, Japan; as well as numerous private collections.
In the last decade he held over thirty one man shows in the U.S., Germany, Japan, Belgium, Mexico, Switzerland, Chile, and Poland. In 2002, a selection of Olbinski’s paintings was included in the Great Art, Grand Space projection in Grand Central Terminal, as a highlight of the Earth Celebration in New York. (The other artists presented in the show were Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol.)
His work also frequently appears on the covers of the international magazines such as Time, Newsweek, and der Spiegel.