Learn about Lia Halloran’s visual inspiration for the artwork featured in Janna Levin’s Black Hole Survival Guide, “which aims to visualize the inherently invisible.”

Recently interviewed by Ricky Amadour, Lia Halloran discusses her latest series and how her artwork intersects with science.

Sky & Telescope’s Dec. 2021 issue features Lia Halloran alongside Dava Sobel while exploring the life and legacy of early 20th-century astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt.

With the majestic radiance of stained glass windows, the cosmic imagery of planetarium ceiling murals, the fractal arabesques of primordial soup, and the precise geometrical armatures of ancient architectural motifs, a suite of four cyanotypes at monumental scale by Lia Halloran — actually two cyanotypes and their corresponding 1:1 scale hand-painted negatives — are made both by and about the power of the sun.

Article by Shana Nys Dambrot continues…

Now my friends, brace yourselves for a “sublime cosmic phenomenon” of the exhibition by maverick, Los Angeles artist, Lia Halloran (b. 1977) at Luis De Jesus Gallery. The exhibition title, The Sun Burns My Eyes Like Moons, refers to photographs Halloran took during the total solar eclipse in 2017. This body of work is her homage to the sun… Saturated with blues, black and pops of color, Halloran's painting “evokes the overwhelming grandeur and luminosity of the sun.”

Review by Edward Goldman continues…

“The prospect of travel into (but definitely not out of) black holes may be uncommon subject matter for artist commissions, but it makes sense in the world of Janna Levin. The author of a new book that counts as her second focused on black holes, Levin is also a professor of physics and astronomy at Columbia University as well as the founding director of the science studios at Pioneer Works, an interdisciplinary arts space in Brooklyn. It was there that she first worked closely with Lia Halloran, an artist whose painterly visions add levity and weight to a beguiling little volume titled Black Hole Survival Guide.”

As a C.O.L.A. Fellow, Halloran will be awarded a $10,000 grant to produce a new body of work that will be premiered by the City of Los Angeles in Spring 2021. The 2020/21 C.O.L.A. Master Artist Fellows in literary, performing, and visual arts are: Neel Agrawal, Noel Alumit, Edgar Arceneaux, Maura Brewer, Nao Bustamante, Jedediah, Caesar, Neha Choksi, Michael Datcher, Sarah Elgart, Lia Halloran, Phung Huynh, Farrah Karapetian, Ruben Ochoa, and Umar Rashid.

Black Hole Survival Guide, written by astrophysicist Janna Levin and illustrated by Lia Halloran (Associate Professor of Art in Wilkinson College), is a playful exploration into the structure and nature of black holes for everyone interested in learning a little more about the strange and powerful objects in our universe.

Check out the blog post in Chapman University’s The Voice of Wilkinson.

The Boston Globe’s Joseph Peschel reviews Janna Levin’s Black Hole Survival Guide, which features artwork by Lia Halloran.