Rebecca Kamen, an established artist and lecturer who has exhibited and lectured both nationally and internationally has generously donated six of her large-scale paintings on aluminum to NIH. These paintings from the Kami Series, address the Japanese concept of kami, wherein the vital life force energy is believed to reside in natural objects. Kamen has long been interested in Japanese and Chinese concepts of beauty and spirituality as expressed by the natural phenomena such as clouds, rocks, and water. What is fascinating about these works is that they have traveled to Switzerland and Egypt, as part of the Arts in Embassies program, and will now permanently reside in NIH’s Clinical Center.
Walking into Kamen’s studio one can observe her extensive
scientific research into the exploration of art and how it intersects with
cosmology, history, philosophy, and science. Just to note a few of Kamen’s
accomplishments, she has been the recipient of a Virginia Museum of Fine
Arts Professional Fellowship, a Pollack Krasner Foundation Fellowship, two
Strauss Fellowships, and a Travel Grant from the Chemical Heritage Foundation. Most
recently, Kamen received an Artist in Residency Fellowship in the Neuroscience
program at NIH, using her work to create bridges between art and neuroscience.
Currently,
Kamen is working on collaborative art/science projects at Harvard
University’s Center for Astrophysics and in the Neuroscience Division at the National
Institutes of Health. We are so pleased to have such a wonderful donation from
Rebecca Kamen grace the walls of NIH.
