Biological Domains: Installation Overview
Installation view
Hunter Cole / Artist profile
Where art, science, and the living world illuminate one another.
Hunter Cole is an artist and geneticist. She creates living bioluminescent art, oil paintings and pen drawings.
The artist
Hunter Cole
Science serves as a vehicle for Hunter Cole’s creativity and artistry; art motivates her interpretation of the living world.
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New Installation
MOON GLOW: An Illuminated Living Art Experience
Held for one day only on Oct. 22, 2026, MOON GLOW will be located at 503 Studio, 503 E Washington St., from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. This event marks the second of its kind Cole has done in the U.S.
MOON GLOW, inspired by the night sky, will offer an immersive experience featuring a glittering display of the moon's phases and stars. Held in a spacious warehouse-like gallery, soaring ceilings create the sense of looking up into an expanse of luminous night sky, unencumbered. Visitors to MOON GLOW can view constellations, travel through galaxies and engage with interactive displays on a journey through time and space.
MOON GLOW will be created using living drawings made with bioluminescent bacteria that glow blue-green in darkness and naturally fade over time. Cole paints liquid cultures onto Petri dishes to form images that shine brightly during peak growth, then gradually dim and vanish as nutrients run out.
Creating this installation requires a variety of scientific supplies and equipment, which are very expensive. Funds raised will help purchase Petri dishes, chemicals to make liquid media and agar, test tubes, glue, tape, and costumes for dancers. Visitors will have the chance to learn about bioluminescence—light created by many organisms on earth—and discover the exciting intersection of art and science. Your contribution would make living light possible for everyone to experience, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Support MOON GLOW on GoFundMeSelected works
Recent work
Featured video
Hunter Cole: Living Drawings
Hunter Cole creates Living Drawings with bioluminescent bacteria. These Living Drawings depict the cycle of life and death, calling attention to our own mortality.
Hunter Cole creates controlled line drawings using bioluminescent bacteria. The bacteria then grow on Petri dishes. Bacteria become collaborators in the art as it grows and dies. First appearing with bright light, bacteria in the drawing are photographed as it uses up available nutrients, gradually dying off over a two-week period. This series is part of Living Light: Photographs by the Light of Bioluminescent Bacteria.
Practice
“My work brings art and science together through oil paintings, drawings, and living images made with bioluminescent bacteria.”Read the artist statement
Selected exhibitions
On view & recent
2026
MOON GLOW — An Illuminated Living Art Experience
Studio 503, Greensboro, NC
2020
Living Light: Photographs by the Light of Bioluminescent Bacteria
Pass Christian Library, Pass Christian, MS
2019
GLOW — an Illuminated Living Art Experience
Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center, Arabi, LA
2018
Living Light: Photographs by the Light of Bioluminescent Bacteria
ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL
Professional inquiries
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For curatorial correspondence, speaking invitations, image requests, and project proposals, please contact the studio.
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