The ideal coherence of science does not happen in each scientist nor in each period of science. Actually, this is just a limit where the human spirit longs to reach, while trying to recognize its way in the tangle of contradictions we live in. Every day we try, with our experimental results and our fragile and beautiful constructions. Every day we try to cover the unknown. But I think this is not the heart of science. I believe that the core of the scientific enterprise is instead, creativity. I explore the idea that only spontaneity, chaos and the tight link between hands, heart and mind works at the moment of creation of scientific ideas. Because is in this crossway, in these very seldom flashes of originality when science nurture its essence. It's in these moments when the magic happens. The rest is just hard work.

– Felipe Fredes

Felipe Fredes, b. 1977, Santiago, Chile

Felipe Fredes is an interdisciplinary visual artist and professional neuroscientist born and raised in northern Chile. His work explores the nexus between art and science, frequently using laboratory instruments and imagery in his art practice and subject matter. His abstract oil paintings and photocollages explore memory, formation of self-image, time, and the lived experience. He received his B.A. in Biology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in 2003, and his Ph.D. in Neurobiology and Cellular and Molecular Biology from the Universidad de Chile in 2009. His multidisciplinary perspective started developing when Fredes was doing scientific research in Saitama, Japan, and began exploring the region’s rich art in museums. Later, he received private art training from a prominent artist in Vienna, Austria. He has shown widely in solo and group exhibitions. Solo exhibitions include Brooklyn Art Cave, Brooklyn, New York; Gallery TESE, Aarhus, Denmark; Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; and Galerie Zwischendecke, Vienna, Austria. Group exhibitions include Chilean Conexión, Berlin, Germany; and Van Gogh Gallery, Madrid, Spain. He has received research fellowships by the Fulbright Foundation, three fellowships from the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research in Chile (CONICYT), awarded the Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST), and most recently, been appointed as an Assistant Professor at Aarhus University. He currently lives and works in Aarhus, Denmark.

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Felipe Fredes featured by Hyperallergic

"Felipe Fredes’s series of paintings were another standout, among them a fragmented face in three parts, a petal-like abstraction, and two hands — one fleshy and one bony. The latter looks like an Egon Schiele until you move closer and get the sense that Fredes is doing his own thing." - Elaine Velie, 2022

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