Thousands of visitors to the Ontario Science Centre will get a better appreciation for bio-art when they see the work of about a dozen University of Windsor students who will have their work on display there until February.

“It’s interesting because its shows a lot of different approaches to bio-art,” said Peal van Geest, a master’s student in fine arts who helped coordinate BioART: Contemporary Art and the Life Sciences Exhibition, which is housed in the science centre’s !dea Gallery. “There are a lot of unique and singular visions there.”

For the uninitiated, bio-art is a form of contemporary art that relies on biological products as media. Artists use such materials as live tissues, bacteria and living organisms and often use scientific processes of biotechnology like genetic engineering, tissue culture, and cloning to create their works.

All of the exhibit’s works were created by students who have been through classes in the university’s Incubator lab, which was founded in 2009 by visual arts professor Jennifer Willet as a space for students to explore ideas and practices in the field of bio-art.

Willet, who co-curated the exhibit along with Ana Klasnja, said it’s a retrospective of the type of projects that have been coming out of the lab since it began. It forms a panoramic view of the lab as a background for the work of the students, which includes photography, sculpture, painting and drawing, as well as more unconventional art forms that are both challenging and thought provoking.

“We wanted it to be an impressive experience,” she said, adding that the centre is visited by about 100,000 people every month. “You feel like you’re walking in to the Incubator lab. It’s really convincing.”

Erika DuChene, a double major in psychology and visual art, submitted a piece called Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, which consists of real animal skulls with drawings etched on them that are mounted on large wooden boards with the text to children’s stories like Little Bo Peep and Red Riding Hood burned on to them.

“It’s a way to show extra respect for animals that are so nonchalantly disregarded in literary works and to encourage people to rethink how we approach literature with children,” she explained.

Fourth year biology student Tina Suntres, who submitted a piece called BIOman which consists of moss growing on a mannequin, hopes the exhibit exposes bio-art to those who typically draw clear distinctions between science and art.

Chelsea Greenwell, a double major in English and visual art, submitted a piece called Luteum Papilio Reverence, that includes butterflies sculpted out of clay. The pieces were left in Petri dishes where mold accumulated and then were vacuum sealed and painted. She said having her work in such a high-profile location as the science centre is inspiring.

“We all came back with the drive to make more art,” she said.

The exhibit, which was funded by the university’s Strategic Priority Fund, runs until Feb. 2.

Watch a video about the exhibit.

Check out a photo gallery of the exhibit.