Osman Khan: Art + Science Collaboration

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