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Rebecca Cummins

…explores the sculptural, experiential and sometimes humorous possibilities of light and natural phenomena, often referencing the history of optics in installations that have included a machine for making rainbows, a photographic rifle, paranoid dinner-table devices and a variety of sculptural and photographic approaches to marking time. Recent investigations explore imaging in contemporary life sciences.

In addition to independent studio practice, Cummins is active in public art and cross-disciplinary collaborations with artists, scientists and community partners.

Cummins has exhibited widely in the U.S., China, Australia and Europe; venues include the 2006 Shanghai Biennial, Shanghai Museum; The Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA, Helsinki, Finland, 2004; and The 2008 Biennial of Seville, Spain.  Public commissions include the Skylight Aperture Dial, 2006 for the Office of Arts & Culture, City of Seattle & the Seattle Public Library, Montlake Branch, 2006; Oculus Table and Solar Hour Benches for The Exploratorium: Museum of Science, Art & Perception, San Francisco, 2013, Lunar Drift: Sun and Moon Pointers for the Washington State Arts Commission / University of Western Washington (Miller Study Space), 2014 and Fitting, 2016 in Delridge for the Office of Arts and Culture, City of Seattle and Seattle Public Utilities.

Recent awards include a Full Professor Cross-Disciplinary Conversation Award: Visualizations & Dialogues in Art & Biophysics (2017)with Linda Wordeman, UW Wordeman Laboratory (Physiology and Biophysics) sponsored by the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington, Seattle, WA; an Artist Trust Fellowship (2015), Seattle, WA; Honored Educator, 2014 Northwest Regional Society for Photographic Education Conference, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA;  a 2012 Royalty Research Fund Scholar and Royalty Research Fund Grant, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle and a SiCa Arts, Science and Technology Grant (2011), Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.

Cummins was Artist-in-Resident at Bundanon Turst in Nowra, NSW, Australia in July / August 2017 and at SymbioticA, School of Anatomy and Human Biology, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia in Autumn 2015 where she was introduced to lab protocol and tissue culture. Cummins attend lab meetings in the Wordeman Lab and the Monnat Lab (Pathology and Genome Sciences).

Cummins is a Professor and Chair of Photomedia in the School of Art + Art History + Design at the University of Washington, Seattle. She received a BFA from the University of Northern Iowa, an MA from the University of New Mexico and a PhD from the University of Technology, Sydney; she previously taught for sixteen years at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney.

This website was supported with a generous Milliman Award through the School of Art + Art History + Design, University of Washington. Thank you to Matthew Allen Bell for website design.