Patricia Lay
Patricia 'Pat' Lay's work explores the relationship between humanity and technology through hybrid forms that combine fired clay, found computer components and digital imagery. The collage Untitled in The Women's Art Collection is part of a body of work in which scanned circuit boards are transformed into intricate abstract compositions, recalling the symmetrical structures of Buddhist mandalas. By reconfiguring the visual language of technology, Lay invites viewers to consider how digital innovation is reshaping human experience.
Across her practice, including the ongoing Soul Bots and Nested Bots series, Lay combines organic materials with electronic components to imagine speculative future life forms that blur the boundaries between the natural and the technological. Working across both two- and three-dimensional media, she asks how technological advances are changing what it means to be human.
An artist for more than five decades, Lay studied at Pratt Institute and Rochester Institute of Technology and was Professor of Art at Montclair State University. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in numerous public collections, including the Montclair Art Museum, the New Jersey State Museum, Rutgers University and the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Oslo.
