RESIDENCY EXHIBITION SERIES
JULY 17 – AUG 30, 2026
Karen Ingram
Biogenetic Blooms
“Biogenetic Blooms” features new artworks created with genetically modified yeasts by Artist-in-Residence Karen Ingram. This ongoing series of artworks includes floral inspired sculptures, prints, and drawings created with genetically modified yeast and bacteria. The exhibition also includes video documentation or her unique process that repurposes biotech robots as painting machines.
“…I explore partnerships between human, machine, and microbe, interrogating questions of agency and autonomy in multi-entity investigations…”
— Karen Ingram
Karen Ingram is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher whose work traverses bioart, biodesign, and biotechnology. Her artworks and installations have been exhibited at BioBAT Art Space, London Design Week, Times Square, and Plexus Projects. Her work has been covered in Nature Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, and Art Spiel. She was an Emerging Tech fellow at Stanford's d.school, where she developed synthetic biology teaching tools, and was an instructor at Genspace, Brooklyn's community biotech lab. Ingram is a NYFA Queens New Work Grant recipient and BioBAT Art Space studio resident. She has spoken widely at venues including at the SXSW, Biodesign Challenge Symposium, MIT, Pratt Institute, and Maryland Institute College of Art.
Karen Ingram will in residence at Plexus Projects Aug 1-30.
Visit her in the studio by appointment or at the Open Studio event.
“Blue Rose, 1, 2, 3 (C. glutamicum, E.coli)”, 2026, Giclee prints on Fine Art Baryta paper, 9” x 9” each
“Red Violet, 1, 2, 3 (Saccharomyces Cerevisiae)”, 2026, Giclee prints on Fine Art Baryta paper, 9” x 9” each
process video documentation
About the Work
“Biogenetic Blooms” is a series of floral paintings created with genetically modified yeast and bacteria. The project investigates how biotechnological systems shape—and are shaped by—cultural assumptions about authorship, and the natural world. Painted by hand and by repurposing COVID testing robots, I explore partnerships between human, machine, and microbe, interrogating questions of agency and autonomy in multi-entity investigations.
Flowers represent often overlooked artifacts of human control and manipulation of nature, which is often triggered by aesthetics. From the history of “Tulip Mania” in the Netherlands, to the elusive quest to create a blue rose, the color, form, and mimicry (as with orchids) inspire my choice to depict flowers in this form.
The images were cultured on agar formulations specific to those gene-edited microbes–whether they be E.coli, S. cerevisiae, or C. glutamicum–with the presence or absence of antibiotic constraints specified in their design. The first microbial paintings were created by Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin, from Penecillium, a soil bacteria. Thought of as an amateur watercolorist, he made figurative paintings in agar. In a return to nature, Biogenetic Blooms is a way of re-examining our relationship with microbes, framing the way we look at the microbial world: through an artistic lens. The work situates the artifacts of the laboratory in a space that fluctuates between science and art.
Biogenetic Blooms explores where art ends and science and technology begins, revealing the entangled narratives we create. These works invite viewers to reconsider who or what holds authorship when living organisms become both medium and maker.
– Karen Ingram