Pandemic Convergence 1, Filamentous at the Red Head Gallery, 2022.

Filamentous (install shot), Filamentous exhibition at the Red Head Gallery, 2022.

Pandemic Convergence 4, Filamentous at the Red Head Gallery, 2022.

Uprooted (installation shot). Filamentous exhibition at the Red Head Gallery, 2022.

Uprooted (Detail). Filamentous exhbition at the Red Head Gallery, 2022.

Filamentous (Detail), at the Red Head Gallery, 2022.

Filamentous (Detail 2), at the Red Head Gallery, 2022.

Nightgown (Detail), Filamentous at the Red Head Gallery 2022.

Installation view of Corpus Halite, 2020 at the Red Head Gallery.

Corpus Halite, 2019
Mixed media with salt
Dimensions may vary

Installation view of Corpus Halite, 2020 a the Red Head Gallery.

Installation view of Treading Insidious Waters, 2020, at the Red Head Gallery.

Treading Insidious Waters, 2019
Digital image
9” x 12”

Installation view of Spawn, 2020, at the Red Head Gallery.

Contained (installation), 2018
Bed, bedside table, chair, crocheted shawl by Louise while in sanitorium, her books and music piano music sheets, personal items, table cloth, petri dishes with ink drawing and X-ray of lungs with TB

Fragile Forest, 2017
Grape stems, wax, partially decellularized maple leaves, pipette tips, cell culture plates
120”x 6”x 4”

Fragile Forest (detail), 2017
Grape stems, wax, partially decellularized maple leaves, pipette tips, cell culture plates

Fraught Air, 2018
Oxygen masks
150” x 96” x 3”

At Rest: Dwelling, 2018
Plastic tubing, sparrow feathers, test tubes, acrylic trays
6” x 12” x 3”

At Rest: Flight, 2018
Sparrow feathers, test tubes, Common Raven skull, acrylic trays
6” x 12” x 3”

Quiescent Growth, 2018
Partially decellularized maple keys, test tubes, cell culture plates, synthetic leaves
36” x 22” x 6”

Quiescent Growth (detail), 2018
Partially decellularized maple keys, test tubes, cell culture plates, synthetic leaves

Lungs of the Earth, 2018
Petri dishes, decellularized maple leaves with human lung epithelial cells
22” x 8”x 1”

Lungs of the Earth (detail), 2018
Petri dishes, decellularized maple leaves with human lung epithelial cells

Airborne 1, 2017
Ink monotype on paper
12” x 9”

Vestigial 2, 2017
Ink monotype on paper
11” x 14”

Contained (detail), 2018
Petri dish, digital photo of X-ray of lungs with Tuberculosis, ink drawing

Tuberculosis, 2018
Slide with sample of human lung Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, digital image of slide on transparency film, acrylic trays
6” x 12” x 3”

Installation view of Shiver, 2015, at the Red Head Gallery.

Ebola Graph, 2015
Grown salt crystals, wool, wire, halobacteria, petri dish
20" x 20" each
Photo by David Williams

Ebola Graph (detail), 2015
Grown salt crystals, wool, wire, halobacteria, petri dish
20" x 20" each
Photo by David Williams

Shiver animation, 2015
Images: Elaine Whittaker
Editing & Music: Clive Whittaker
Photo by David Williams

Shiver, 2015
2300 Petri dishes, grown salt crystals, wool, fishing wire, vinyl print, pipette tips, wire
104" x 56" x 56"
Photo by David Williams.

Shiver (detail), 2015
2300 Petri dishes, grown salt crystals, wool, fishing wire, vinyl print, pipette tips, wire
104" x 56" x 56"
Photo by David Williams.

Installation view of Screened for Cholera, West Nile Virus, Plague, Tuberculosis, Malaria, SARS, Rotavirus, HIV/AIDS, Rabies, Influenza, 2015, at the Red Head Gallery.

Screened for Rotavirus, 2015
Digital Print
16" x 16"

Screened for Ebola, 2015
Digital Print
16" x 16"

Installation view of Screened for Ebola, 2015, at the Red Head Gallery.

Installation view of I Caught it at The Movies, 2013, at the Red Head Gallery.

Andromeda Strain, 2013
Petri dish, digital image, agar, Halobacterium, sp. NRC-1
6" x 6" x 2"

Contagion, 2013
Petri dish, digital image, agar, Halobacterium, sp. NRC-1
6" x 6" x 2”

Rabies, 2013
Petri dish, mylar, gouache, agar, Halobacterium sp. NRC-
6" x 6" x 2"

Installation view of Ambient Plagues, 2013, at the Red Head Gallery.

Microbes, Tools & Transmitters, 2013
Acrylic boxes with mixed media
31" x 7" x 6"

Other World 1-4 (series), 2013
Microscopy digital prints
Dimensions may vary

Plague Doctor (series), 2013
Digital prints
Dimensions may vary

Bacteria Grandeur, 2013
Wire and grown salt crystal
170" x 84" x 9"

Virus Colossus, 2013
Metal and vinyl tubing
75" x 75" x 3"

ELAINE WHITTAKER

Elaine Whittaker is a Canadian visual artist. She considers biology as contemporary art practice. Her artworks are an intersection of art, science, medicine and ecology. Her practice is based principally in installation and includes sculpture, painting, drawing, and digital imagery, incorporating a range of materials: from the traditional - paint, pigment and wax, to the unconventional - mosquitoes, salt crystals, human cells, and live microorganisms.

To see Elaine’s exhibitions click below:
- Dreadful Visitations, 2006
- Spontaneous Generation, 2007
- Tether, 2009
- (in)trepid cultures, 2010
- Cc: me, 2012
- Ambient Plagues, 2013
- Shiver, 2015
- Contained, 2018
- Murky Bodies, 2020
- Filamentous, 2022
- Ode to a Fervent Sun, 2024

Whittaker has exhibited nationally and internationally, including among others, Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Ontario Science Centre (Toronto, Canada), BioBat Art Space (NYC, US), Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa, Canada), MUSA Museum of Salt (Cervia, Italy), Science Gallery London (UK), Riddoch Art Gallery (Mount Gambier, Australia), Harcourt House (Edmonton, Canada), Fudan University Science Gallery, (Shanghai, China), Gwacheon National Science Museum (Seoul, South Korea), Islip Art Museum (Long Island, US), Science Gallery Dublin (Ireland), Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art (Winnipeg, Canada), Yukon Arts Centre Gallery (Whitehorse, Canada), McMaster Museum of Art (Hamilton, Canada), the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (US), Kunsthaus Santa Fe (San Miguel de Allende, Mexico), and the Red Head Gallery (Toronto, Canada).

Whittaker has been an invited participant in residencies, workshops and festivals on science, art and medicine, and a featured artist on digital galleries including Art the Science, MEDinART, and Photomediations Machine. Artworks have been highlighted in literary, art, and medical periodicals and magazines, including Hamilton Arts & Letters, Interalia Magazine, SciArt Magazine, E-Squared Magazine, VLAK, Wreck Park, Clot Magazine and Tussle Magazine. Her work is also featured in William Myers' BioArt: Altered Realities, published by Thames & Hudson (2015). In 2018 she was one of the first Artists-in-Residence with the Ontario Science Centre (Toronto). She is currently Artist-in-Residence at the Pelling Laboratory for Augmented Biology (University of Ottawa), and has participated in two residences at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity (Alberta). She is a recipient of grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council, and holds a BFA in Visual Art from York University, Toronto, an Art Diploma from Toronto School of Art, and BA in Anthropology from Carleton University, Ottawa.

Red Head Creative Series Participation here.
For more information visit: www.elainewhittaker.ca
@elainetwsalt|#saltfrost