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Osman Khan: Art + Science Collaboration

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Photo: Michael H. Hodges / The Detroit News 

The result of Stamps Associate Professor Osman Khan’s recent collaboration with a U‑M dermatologist will be auctioned to raise funds for medical research tonight at MOCAD

The project, organized by U‑M’s A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute, paired 19 clinician-scientists with artists in the belief that collaboration would stimulate the creativity of each — and yield interesting works of art.

The resulting artworks will be auctioned Thursday at the Taubman Institute’s third-annual gala fundraiser, An Evening of Art + Science,” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Proceeds will benefit the Institute’s Emerging Scholars Program.

Osman Khan, an artist and professor at the U‑M Stamps School of Art & Design, worked with Dr. Johann Gudjonsson, who studies psoriasis and other skin diseases.

Psoriasis is caused when the natural production of new skin goes nutso,” as Khan puts it. This put him in mind of other sorts of skins, in this case an orange and a Jamaican ugli fruit, which he peeled and turned into a surprisingly elegant photograph.

Doctors, artists collaborate to fund medical research | The Detroit News

An Evening of Art + Science
Thursday, 5:30 p.m.: VIP pre-party; 6:30 p.m.: dinner
Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, 4454 Woodward, Detroit