2015–Present | Art, Science, and Santiago Ramón y Cajal
Since 2015, Dawn Hunter's artistic research has explored the intersection of art and science through the life, drawings, and legacy of Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal. In 2017, she received a Fulbright España Senior Research Fellowship to conduct research at the Instituto Cajal in Madrid, where she studied Cajal's original scientific drawings, photographs, sketchbooks, and archival materials. Her ongoing project, Aesthetic Instincts: the Intersection of Art and Science in the Life of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, brings together drawing, painting, portraiture, historical research, and visual interpretation to examine the relationship between Cajal's scientific achievements and his identity as an artist.
Hunter's Cajal research has been presented through exhibitions, lectures, publications, and interdisciplinary collaborations in the United States and Europe. Her artwork has been exhibited alongside original drawings by Cajal at the National Institutes of Health and has been presented through continuing collaborations with the Centro de Neurociencias Cajal and the Cajal Club. In 2025, her work was featured in a solo exhibition at the NIH Clinical Center, and her peer-reviewed article, “Art, Intuition, and Identity in Ramón y Cajal,” co-authored with Bevil C. Conway, Javier DeFelipe, and Arpan Mehta, was published in The Neuroscientist. Her research has also been featured by The Transmitter, the National Library of Medicine, and elDiario.es.
In 2026, Hunter expanded this intersection of art, neuroscience, and public engagement through a major permanent art commission for the University of South Carolina Brain Health Center. The project incorporates her Cajal-inspired artwork across architectural installations, including large-scale wall coverings, a perforated metal mural, and a series of panels based on drawings developed through her Fulbright research. Together, these projects extend her investigation of Cajal beyond the studio, positioning visual art as a means of connecting scientific history, contemporary neuroscience, and public experience.
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2005–2015 | Spectacle, Popular Culture, and Medical Illustration
From 2005 to 2015, Hunter's studio practice centered on Spectacle Spectacular, an evolving body of paintings and drawings examining popular culture, spectacle, identity, and the social environments of the contemporary art world. Work from the series was presented in solo exhibitions at academic and contemporary art institutions throughout the United States, including Brown University, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Whittier College, Ithaca College, and the Delaware Contemporary. Her painting Art Department was included in Day Job at The Drawing Center in New York, and her artwork was featured on the cover of Crazyhorse, the literary journal of the College of Charleston. A significant shift in Hunter's research developed through her work as a medical illustrator for James R. Augustine's Human Neuroanatomy, published by Wiley-Blackwell. Creating illustrations of the nervous system introduced her to the visual history of neuroscience and ultimately to the scientific drawings of Santiago Ramón y Cajal. What began as medical illustration became a new direction in her studio practice, establishing the foundation for the interdisciplinary art-and-science research that has defined much of her work since 2015.
Education and Professional Background
Dawn Hunter is a visual artist, Fulbright Scholar, and Associate Professor in the School of Visual Art and Design at the University of South Carolina. She earned her MFA from the University of California, Davis, where she was a Regents Fellow, and her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. She also studied at Parsons School of Design and the Yale Norfolk School of Art. Hunter's artwork has been presented nationally and internationally through exhibitions, residencies, publications, and interdisciplinary research collaborations. She was the first American woman selected as an Artist-in-Residence at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and has received fellowships and awards supporting her studio practice and research, including a Starr Foundation Fellowship and a Fulbright España Senior Research Fellowship. Her work encompasses drawing, painting, installation, public art, visual research, and projects connecting artistic practice with neuroscience, medical history, and education.
