Epigenetics, asthma, polyps and mitral valve regurgitation might seem unlikely subjects of artistic inspiration, but the marriage of medical science and visual art is drawing visitors to “The Art of Science” at Crosstown Arts. 

Danny Broadway, LC Mashburn, Tad Lauritzen Wright, Sharon Havelka, Jasmin Cage and Clay Palmer are among the more than 40 Memphis area artists involved in the show. 

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They paired up with local researchers and clinicians to create science-inspired pieces offering glimpses inside the clinics and laboratories of renowned health care organizations St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. 

“Creative engagement with both science and the arts really changes people in terms of their practice,” said artist and exhibition curator Tawny Skye. “A lot of the artists will start thinking about their research in different ways and a lot of the scientists will ask questions they wouldn’t normally ask. I think it’s beneficial to both fields for them to work together.”

This is the seventh time “The Art of Science” has been presented since 2011, said founder Dr. Heather Smallwood, who teaches immunology and virology at UTHSC’s College of Medicine. 

She was researching pathogen interactions as a postdoctoral fellow at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital when conversations with Memphis College of Art alumni inspired her to create an exhibition in which artists displayed their unique interpretations of scientific concepts. 

Through the years, venues for the show have included Marshall Arts and Memphis College of Art’s Hyde Gallery. 

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Smallwood said Crosstown Concourse, with its high school, health care practices, restaurants and other amenities, has proven to be the most accessible space for the show. 

“Crosstown offers a great space not only in terms of just showing off the art and the science, but also being able to have kids come in and a space for us to be able to interact and do some educational components,” she said. 

In “The Art of Science,” each piece of artwork is displayed alongside the medical or clinical images that informed and inspired it. 

Jesse Butcher, registrar at Crosstown Arts, said the show is the gallery’s first display with a direct emphasis on health care. 

“We’re very proud to host this show, and we’re very excited that the public has been very receptive,” he said. 

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The show was delayed two years due to the pandemic. Planning for the exhibition was in progress when COVID-19 struck in March of 2020. 

“All the artists and scientists were present at Le Bonheur on a Friday, and we were getting ready to start pairing when COVID hit,” Butcher said. 

Skye said the delay gave artists an opportunity for deeper exploration of their subject matter while the pandemic gave them new insights. 

“I do think that the artists got a lot more passionate about the project throughout the pandemic,” she said. “Some did another piece based on how things have changed for them. It brought this connection and engagement to public health. Something shifted, and they wanted to revamp their projects.”

A truly multimedia exhibition, “The Art of Science” includes a wide range of media, from oils on canvas and ceramics to LED displays and 3-D videos. 

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But one of the show’s most powerful pieces is perhaps its most unexpected. 

Skye collaborated with fellow artist Toonky Berry and Dr. Derek Kelly, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Le Bonheur and Campbell Clinic, to create one of the exhibit’s showstoppers, featuring jarring visual reminders of the realities of pediatric gun trauma. 

Handwritten lists with details of every 2022 school shooting are tethered to an oversized teddy bear.

It’s surrounded by a display of smaller plush toys, symbolic of how Americans memorialize sites where children are killed by gun violence. 

The piece was designed partly in reaction to 2022’s 27th school shooting, in which 19 children and two adults were killed in Uvalde, Texas. 

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Adjacent to the display are x-rays of Memphis child victims of gun violence, accompanied by text from Kelly. 

“It was an important topic for us,” Smallwood said. “The artists wanted to approach it in a way that was respectful to the families of the victims and the victims themselves.”

Smallwood hopes “The Art of Science” will foster more trust between the public and the scientific community while engaging Memphians with the important healing work and groundbreaking research that’s happening in their community. 

“Particularly in the pandemic, people have gotten sort of polarized, and science has been used as a political tool,” she said. “As a scientist, I feel it’s my responsibility to communicate with people and to interact with them. I encourage people in the community to seek out things like this where they meet new people, broaden their horizons and be educated on some of the amazing science that’s going on here in Memphis.” 

Originally on view through September, “The Art of Science” has been extended through Oct. 23 at Crosstown Arts.