At first glance, Laura Olear's painting look simply like colorful abstract art. This one looks vaguely like raspberries, rendered larger-than-life in dark red and bluish-green. That one could be the inside of a walnut. Another looks like a beehive.

But a closer look at a description hanging next to a ghoulish mask reveals it to be a massively inflated rendering of Mononucleosis. Those raspberries are actually Herpes. The walnuts are HIV. The beehive is a virus related to E. Coli.

Olear's "Pathological Processes" is a series of digital prints, watercolors and large-scale oil paintings hanging in the Ebling Library. The art lines the hallways around the second floor of the Health Sciences Learning Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Like Olear's enigmatic paintings, the Ebling Library's art space is unexpected, even surprising. Located next to the UW Hospital near classes for doctors, nurses and other medical professions, students in white lab coats and scrubs frequently wander by the exhibit.

The Ebling's walls seem perfectly suited to Olear's subject matter. Olear is not a scientist, just an "interested bystander," she said. A Chicago-based artist, Olear started by painting body parts - teeth, a liver, an optical nerve. Her minor hypochondria made her curious about viruses, and soon she began searching for screen shots from microscopes.

She did studies in watercolor, painting Polio, Meningitis, Heptatis B, and the West Nile virus, 24 paintings in all. Each painting is evocative of something deeply personal - a bodily disease - as well as social and political.

Standing in front of a two-foot rendering in neon green of the Bubonic Plague is strangely chilling. It looks dangerous.

"Sometimes I feel like it would be better not to have the titles," Olear said. "The idea is that they work on a formal abstract level, as well as having the medical aspect of it as a source. So if you're not a scientist or physician, you can enjoy it just from a visual standpoint."

The Ebling Library is one of several campus art spaces tucked within other buildings. Shows about quilting, knitting and beadwork would probably be more popular if patrons knew how to reach the free Design Gallery in the School of Human Ecology.

"Our biggest challenge has always been our location," said Jody Clowes, director of the Design Gallery. "People have been so frustrated with us. The whole building's so inaccessible."

Clowes is looking forward to a major expansion and renovation of the 1914 building, a $53 million project with an expected 2012 completion.

In the meantime, Clowes has opened the gallery to student work until late November. Then design exhibits will be "nomadic," she said.

In February 2010, Clowes will curate an embroidery show at the James Watrous Gallery on the third floor of Overture Center. "Stitched Ground: Artists Embroider the Land" runs through April 2010. Then, anything goes.

"I'm going to spend the rest of this year creating opportunities for us around town," she said. "We may be using storefronts. We may be using booth space at a show. We may try collaborative things with other institutions, maybe in the hallways of Overture. We're not sure yet - maybe something at the airport?

"It will be a creative time for us."

IF YOU GO - Ebling Library

What: Pathological Processes: The art of Laura Olear

Where: Ebling Library, Health Sciences Learning Center, 750 Highland Ave.

When: Through Nov. 12

Info: lauraolear.com; ebling.library.wisc.edu/artatebling

IF YOU GO - Design Gallery

What: Movin' On Up and Design Studies: Student Work

Where: Design Gallery, School of Human Ecology, 1300 Linden Dr.

When: Through Nov. 20

Info: designgallery.wisc.edu

Login to post your comment. If you don't have an account, you may register for one.