New exhibition by artist and PhD researcher explores hidden life of cells through art and neuroscience
A new exhibition by Leeds-based artist and PhD researcher Kelly Cumberland is bringing together art and neuroscience to make visible the often-unseen processes that shape cellular life.
Assembloids: Drawn a Life, now open at Space@Design in the School of Design, presents the culmination of three years of practice-based PhD research developed in close collaboration with neuroscientists at St James’s Hospital, Leeds. The free exhibition runs from 24 November to 23 December 2025 and is open to all.
Developed through collaboration with Dr Heiko Wurdak (School of Medicine) and Dr Sabrina Samuel from the Stem Cell and Brain Tumour Group, the exhibition explores how cellular life is continuously formed and reformed through experimental approaches to drawing, light and material exploration.
Installation view featuring Typis [murus] charta SD (2025), digital print on hand-cut paper, ODV, and Helix Silicium [9] (2025). Credit: Kelly Cumberland.
Kelly Cumberland said: “This research positions expanded drawing as an active research method, creating new ways to observe and reimagine invisible cellular processes, and enabling knowledge to emerge through collaboration, material exploration, and shared curiosity.”
Rather than presenting scientific imagery as finished or fixed, Assembloids: Drawn a Life uses light tables, etched silicone rubber, projection, paper, glass and digital print to reimagine laboratory processes and imaging techniques. Visitors encounter layered, illuminated installations that echo cell cultures, neural networks and microscopic structures, inviting reflection on how knowledge is generated in both art and science.
The works exhibited draw directly on Cumberland’s sustained period of laboratory immersion, during which she observed cell monitoring, segmentation and fragmentation processes. These observations were reimagined as drawings, sculptural forms and moving image works, which in turn informed ongoing dialogue with the scientific collaborators.
“Working with an artist has changed how we consider our own data,” says Dr Heiko Wurdak. “Kelly’s drawings and installations open up questions and discussions we might not otherwise have. They help us see patterns and possibilities in our images that are not always visible through standard analysis.”
Installation view of Helix Opt [SDb] (2025), Neobond, digital print, mirror, motor, ODV. Credit: Kelly Cumberland.
The exhibition is open to visitors with no artistic or scientific background and invites close looking, curiosity and reflection on how the body is continuously forming and reforming at a microscopic level.
“Ultimately, this work is about exploring the complexities of biological science along with the possibilities of nontraditional drawing and open to conversation,” Cumberland adds. “The drawings don’t tell you what to think – they invite you to look closely, to wonder, and to imagine how your own body might be constantly forming and reforming at a microscopic level.”
Main image: Installation view featuring Helix Silicium [9] (2025), etched silicone rubber, motors, wire, ODV; Mensa Lux [SD] (2025), light table with acrylic laser etchings; and Neobond – cut – wall [sdv.1] (2025), Neobond, ODV. Credit: Kelly Cumberland.
