Laura Ferguson has made her own body the subject of her work, finding beauty in a curving spine and exploring the connections between pain, consciousness, and creativity. Her body awareness is grounded in years of dance anatomy study, neuromuscular training, and movement practice. She draws from bones and cadaver dissections in the anatomy lab, and from 3D radiology scans of her own body made for the purpose of art.
Laura’s drawings and prints have been featured in seminal exhibitions on art and medicine, including “Seeing Ourselves: The Science and Art of Diagnostic Medical Imaging” at MuseCPMI in New York (2012), “Beyond the X-ray” at the Boston Museum of Science (2005-10), and “Humans Being: Disability in Contemporary Art” at the Chicago Cultural Center (2006). Her “Visible Skeleton” series was the subject of a major installation at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington DC (2004), and traveled to venues around the country (2005-10). Her work is represented in many corporate, private, and public collections including the National Library of Medicine and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
In 2008, Laura brought her artist’s perspective to the NYU School of Medicine as Artist in Residence in the Master Scholars Program in Humanistic Medicine. The innovative Art & Anatomy drawing class she created has received national attention and inspired a book, Art & Anatomy: Drawings, a journal article, “Cutting Deep: The Transformative Power of Art in the Anatomy Lab,” and a short film, “How To Draw A Human Heart.” Her plenary keynote presentation for the American Society for Bioethics + Humanities is viewable on LitMed. She recently talked about “The Art of Medicine” on the Doctors Who Create podcast (episode #16). Laura is Art Editor of the widely read and respected Literature, Arts and Medicine Database and its related LitMed Magazine.
Writing has always been part of her process, putting words and images together to tell the story of her body’s life and its transformation into art. Her words-and-pictures piece, “Floating on inner seas,” was published in Interalia Magazine in September 2018), and will be part of a book, The Consciousness of the Body, about her art and the process of making it, currently in progress.
Selected exhibitions (*solo)
Submerged, SciArt Center, New York
Art & Anatomy: Drawings, MSB Gallery, New York (curator)
Humans Being II, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago IL
Wynn Newhouse Awards Exhibition, 2012, Palitz Gallery, New York
Pulse: Art and Medicine, Strathmore Gallery, Bethesda MD
* X-ray Visions, MSB Gallery, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY
Seeing Ourselves, MuseCPMI (Center for Photography and the Moving Image), NYC
Beyond the X-ray, Museum of Science, Boston MA
Delineate: Drawing, McMaster Gallery, Columbia SC
* The Visible Skeleton Series, National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington DC, and other venues
Humans Being, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago IL
Paper Invitational, Woodward Gallery, NYC
Transparent/Opaque, Abecedarian Gallery, Denver CO
eMotion Pictures: An Exhibition of Orthopaedics in Art, The United Nations, NYC, and other venues
* The Consciousness of the Body, Dance Theater Workshop Gallery, NYC
* Drawing the Red-Cloaked Figure, Noho Gallery, NYC
Bodyworks, Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia PA
The Anthrpomorphic Book, Center for Book Arts, NYC
Artist Residency and Teaching
Artist in Residence and Art & Anatomy teaching artist, Master Scholars Program in Humanistic Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, 2008-20
Drawing the Moving Body, Inside and Out, with Irene Dowd: anatomy and life drawing to visualize the inner body, for dancers and movement practitioners, New York NY, 2011, 2015-16
Awards
Wynn Newhouse Award, Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, New York, 2012
Selected Public Presentations and Drawing Workshops
Drawing My Body, VIBE Symposium on Deaf and disability art making, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, 2018
Cadaver Portraits: Learning To See, Yale Program for Humanities in Medicine, Yale University, New Haven CT, 2016
Drawing the Brain, Neuroscience Institute, NYU School of Medicine, New York NY, 2015, 2017, 2019
Visiting artist, Sasha Welsh Experiential Anatomy class, The New School, NYC, 2017
Drawing the Human Heart, American Society for Bioethics + Humanities plenary keynote presenter, Houston TX, 2015
Medical Humanities and the Visual Arts, University of Puerto Rico, NEH visiting artist, 2013
Look Again: Strategic Arts-Based Education in Medical Schools, Berman Museum of Art, Ursinus College, Collegeville, PA, 2011
Drawing and Dissection: Ways of Understanding the Human Body, The Humanities Initiative at NYU, New York NY, 2010
Visiting artist, Bettyann Kevles’ History of Medical Imaging, Yale University, New Haven CT, 2009
Body Language, Society for Disability Studies, Baruch College, NYC, 2008
Imagining and Imaging the Disabled Self, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago IL, 2006
Images of the Less-Than-Perfect Body, National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington DC, 2004
Notions of the Norm: Modeling and Remodeling the Self, College Art Association, NYC, 2000
Bodyworks, Nexus Foundation for Today’s Art, Philadelphia PA, 1994
Public and Corporate Collections
National Library of Medicine, Washington, DC
National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, DC
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Rosemont, IL
New York University Langone Medical Center, Ehrman Medical Library, New York, NY
VSA arts Collection, Washington, DC
Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital, Schenectady, NY
Museum of Modern Spinal Surgery, Medtronic Sofamor Danek, Memphis, TN
Zimmer, Inc., Warsaw, IN
Education and Study
NYU Langone Medical Center/NYU Grossman School of Medicine, 2008-ongoing: anatomy and neuroanatomy drawing; work with digital radiology images on Vitrea and OsiriX platforms in 3D Lab
Weill Medical College of Cornell University, 2000-04: Anatomy Lab drawing
Irene Dowd Studio, New York, 1991-present: anatomy study, neuromuscular training, drawing from the skeleton
Parsons School of Design, New York, 1976-78: illustration and design
School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, 1975-76: graphic design
Brandeis University, Waltham MA, 1967-69: BA 1969
Brown University, Providence RI: 1965-67
Selected Articles (View more: Articles | Interviews | Media)
Laura Ferguson, “Floating on inner seas” Interalia Magazine, 2018
Katie Grogan and Laura Ferguson, "Cutting Deep: The Transformative Power of Art in the Anatomy Lab" Journal of Medical Humanities, 2018
Catherine Monahon and Elizabeth Jameson, “Intimate Visions: Representations of the Imperfect Body in the Age of Digital Medicine” Leonardo (upcoming, June 2020)
Darian Goldin Stahl, “Touching Viscera: Marilène Oliver and Laura Ferguson” Espace Art Actuel, 2019
Silvia di Marco, “Bodies of Knowledge – Anatomy and Transparency in Contemporary Art” Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts, 2015
Alice Domurat Dreger, PhD, ed., "The Visible Skeleton Series: the art of Laura Ferguson" Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 2004
Laura Ferguson, “Toward a New Aesthetic of the Body” LitMed Magazine, 2007
Felice Aull, "Laura Ferguson: The Visible Skeleton Series" Literature, Arts & Medicine Database, 2004
View resume [PDF]