Irene Kopelman and Pablo Vargas Lugo are both artists in residence at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama.

Vargas Lugo's research project, entitled Bat Imagination, is focused on understanding and applying the deductive tools, techniques and methodologies that scientists use to penetrate the physical and perceptual world of some of the hundreds of bat species that use echolocation.

Continuing her long collaboration with scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama, Irene Kopelman is currently in a tropical forest Arcadia—Barro Colorado Island—drawing the forest canopy as light levels are rapidly fading after sunset, and again as they rapidly increase before the dawn.

She is working in collaboration with William Wcislo from STRI, who is studying dim-light vision in nocturnal bees. She also is working with Erin Spear from STRI, on how microbes hasten death and decay.

Irene’s project was initiated by MAC Panamá | Museo de Arte Contemporáneo. These works, and prior drawings from Panama, will be seen in a solo exhibition at MAC scheduled for September 2024.