Organic Worlds: Symbiogenesis in Art

Feb. 7- April 28, 2026

SP/N Gallery

University of Texas at Dallas

https://bass.utdallas.edu/spn-gallery/

            Biology is more than genes, pharmaceuticals, and natural selection. Before any of these, biology is historical, modeled by where, when, and how it is written, bearing the legible marks of a cultural moment like rings on a tree or plaque on a tooth. Every quality of biology is thus situated in time and circumstance. Genes function properly inside of cells; drugs are profit engines for pharmaceutical companies; and natural selection is one circle of selective activity among others operating within earth’s atmosphere. So, life is almost always coupled to other life. It is symbiotic. Symbiogenesis is the leading theory of evolution, which is based on symbiotic cooperation between microbes occurring millions of years ago, as mitochondria and chloroplasts, organelles essential to the metabolism of animal and plant cells, bear the DNA of once free-ranging microbes.

Organic Worlds: Symbiogenesis in Art is an exhibition of art about biology understood from the perspective of context, collaboration, and coupling. It focuses on biological symbiosis in the artwork of Amy Youngs and Ken Rinaldo, setting in relief the significant role non-scientists play in writing biology. Exhibition artworks include two-dimensional works and time-based media that involve sound, touch, smell, immersion, amplification, and magnification.

Ken Rinaldo is internationally recognized for interactive AI bio-robotic art installations. He creates hybrid ecologies that integrate humans, machines, plants, animals, and more-than-human others, exploring idealized social and biological symbioses. Amy M. Youngs creates eco art, interactive sculptures, and digital media works that explore entanglements between technology, plants, and animals. Her interdisciplinary research involves empathy, relationships with non-humans, ecosystem construction, and seeing through the eyes of machines.

--Charissa N. Terranova, Curator of Organic Worlds: Symbiogenesis in Art and Margaret M. McDermott Distinguished Chair in Art and Aesthetic Studies at the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology, University of Texas at Dallas