Biography

Anna Dumitriu is an award winning, internationally renowned, British artist who works with BioArt, sculpture, installation, and digital media to explore our relationship to infectious diseases, synthetic biology and robotics. She has an extensive international exhibition profile including The Nobel Prize Museum, ZKMArs ElectronicaBOZARThe Picasso MuseumKunstlerhaus Vienna, MIT Museum, Liljevalchs, MOCA TaipeiKunsthal CharlottenborgHeK Basel, LABoral, Art Laboratory Berlin, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, the 6th Guangzhou Triennial, and The History of Science Museum Oxford. Her work is held in several major collections, including ZKM (recent acquisition), the Science Museum London and Eden Project. 

Dumitriu is a renowned speaker and has presented talks on her work at prestigious venues including TATE Modern, Princeton University, Imperial College LondonThe University of Oxford, La Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature, and UCLA. She was the 2018 President of the Science and the Arts section of the British Science Association.

Her work is featured in many books including Bio Art: Altered Realities published by Thames and Hudson and many other significant publications across contemporary art and science including FriezeArtforum International MagazineLeonardo JournalThe Art Newspaper, Art QuarterlyNature and The Lancet.

She holds visiting research fellowships at the University of Hertfordshire, and Waag, as well as artist-in-residence roles with the Modernising Medical Microbiology Project at the University of Oxford, and with the National Collection of Type Cultures at the UK Health Security Agency. 

Her current collaborations also include “The Mutability of Memories and Fates” with Institute of Epigenetics and Stem Cells at Helmholtz Zentrum München, “Unruly Objects” exploring conservation of antiquities and contemporary BioArt with the Department of Antiquities and Works of Art at University of West Attica, an exploration of the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare support systems with the EU CAPABLE Project, Collateral Effects which explores the hidden impacts of the pandemic from cultural and scientific perspectives, the EU Better Factory project in a project which explores how biomaterials and augmented reality can impact sustainability and the circular economy in wine production, and “Mysteries and Mycotoxins” with Cranfield University initially funded by a 2023 Massee Award from the British Mycological Society.

Recent projects include: “Biotechnology from the Blue Flower” with the EU H2020 CHIC Consortium exploring new plant breeding methods and CRISPR, “Fermenting Futures” focussed on yeast biotechnology in collaboration with the Institute of Microbial Biotechnology at BOKU in Vienna “Cyberspecies Proximity” with Schindler as part of an EU Vertigo S+T+ARTS residency exploring how we will share cities of the future with robots; “ArchaeaBot: A Post Singularity and Post-Climate Change Life-form” an underwater robot based on the most ancient forms of life on each, created through an EMAP residency with LABoral, “Precious Cells” with the Human Developmental Biology Initiative and the Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge, and “Entangled Health” via a 2021 Institute of Advanced Studies Fellowship at the University of Surrey.

Anna Dumitriu Portrait Courtesy of Wired Magazine

She has worked with the Liu Laboratory for Synthetic Evolution at The University of California in Irvine (USA) in 2015 to explore synthetic biology and the resulting artworks were featured in the ground-breaking exhibition “WETWARE” at the Beall Center for Art and Technology in Irvine (USA) curated by Jens Hauser and David Familian. Notably she also worked with the MRG-Grammar project in 2015-16 to create what the CRISPR Journal described as “perhaps the first application of CRISPR gene editing technology in BioArt” and collaborated with BeyondSeq at the University of Birmingham to explore the biochemistry of DNA and visually observe her CRISPR edit using super resolution laser microscopy.

Dumitriu is director of The Institute of Unnecessary Research (IUR), a global hub for artists and researchers working experimentally with curiosity-driven research which she founded in 2004. She was also lead artist on the Creative Europe supported project “Trust Me, I’m an Artist” which investigates the novel ethical problems that arise when artists create artwork in laboratory settings. Her book of the same name, co-authored with Professor Bobbie Farsides, was published in 2014.

In 2012 Dumitriu won the Society for Applied Microbiology Communication Award, and in 2020 she was awarded the Grand Prize: Best Art Overall in the Microbe Art 2020 Competition by the Federation of European Microbiology Societies (FEMS). She was a winner in the Science and Art Category for Falling Walls 2021 for “Fermenting Futures“, and has twice been nominated for the EU S+T+ARTS Prize in 2017 for Make Do and Mend and in 2022 for Susceptible. In 2024 Dumitriu became a winner of the art gallery of the 34th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, the annual meeting of ESCMID, the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

See also: List of Exhibitions, Talks and Workshops.

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Grateful thanks to The Infection Prevention Strategy for their ongoing support on Patreon.

Grateful thanks to The Cambridge Creation Lab for their ongoing support on Patreon.

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Anna Dumitriu setting up her installation “Shielding”
Commissioned by ART/DATA/HEALTH

Selected Supporters and Funders

Grateful thanks to Arts Council England, Creative Europe, EU Horizon 2020, The Leverhulme Trust, The Wellcome Trust, The Royal College of Pathologists, and The University of Oxford Seed Fund.

“Psychobiotics” as part of “Hypersymbiotics™” is kindly supported by GenScript. Genscript is a world leader in biotechnology reagent services, providing a diverse array of life sciences products and services to over 100 countries worldwide since being established in 2002. As part of its commitment to providing high quality and attentive service to its loyal clients, GenScript has expanded its scope to supporting the life sciences in more ways than one. With a portfolio that includes custom gene synthesis, therapeutic antibody development, CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing and more, GenScript is uniquely positioned to equip scientifically inquisitive minds with the tools and expertise they need to succeed. From providing scientific researchers with the reagents and optimized workflows they need to carry out their research, to supporting scientific educators and artists seeking to both broaden and heighten scientific knowledge around the world, GenScript continues to strive towards their vision of being the most reliable biotech company in the world, in service of a better and healthier future.

“Shielding” was commissioned as part of the AHRC funded ART/ DATA/HEALTH data as creative material for health and wellbeing, led by Dr Aristea Fotopoulou at the University of Brighton (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. AH/S004564/1 2019-2021). Anna Dumitriu’s project is inspired by the work of community domestic abuse and violence charity RISE. info@artdatahealth.org http://www.artdatahealth.org @artdatahealth1

The FEAT Residency Project – FEAT is funded by the EU backed programme FET (Future and Emerging Technologies) Open. It has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 686527 (H2020-‐FETOPEN-‐2015-‐CSA)

The Hunt for New Antimicrobials project – funded through the Artist in Residence Scheme 2016 of the Centre for Chronic Diseases and Disorders (C2D2) at the University of York. The scheme is supported by the Wellcome Trust [ref: 105624] and the University of York.