Linda Alterwitz

Linda Alterwitz, Untitled #16, photograph from the project "While I Am Still," 24" x 24", 2010. Linda Alterwitz (born 1960) is an American visual artist whose work Integrates art, science and technology, investigating the inner workings of the human body and its connection to the natural world and cosmos. Her practice includes photographic and collaged works, immersive installations and participatory methods, and employs alternative imaging devices ranging from low-tech plastic cameras to advanced medical diagnostic machines. Her complex images frequently superimpose medical visualizations (x-rays, MRI scans, thermographic images) onto abstracted portraits and landscapes, blurring distinctions between the outer body, its underlying systems and organs, and the external environment.

Alterwitz has exhibited at institutions including the New Mexico Museum of Art, Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH), Mayo Clinic Florida, Barrick Museum of Art, and Lilley Museum of Art. Her work belongs to the public art collections of the Center for Creative Photography, Nevada Museum of Art, and Hilliard Art Museum, among others.

Early life and career Alterwitz was born in Gary, Indiana in 1960, and at age 13, moved with her family to Las Vegas. Subsequent solo and two-person exhibitions were held at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art (2011, 2014), the Aberystwyth Arts Centre (2016), Hilliard Art Museum (2021–22) In 2015, her mid-career retrospective, "While I Am Still," was presented at The Studio at Sahara West Library in Las Vegas, coinciding with a limited-edition publication. She appeared in the Getty Initiative/PST ART exhibition, "Desert Forest: Life With Joshua Trees" at MOAH (2024)

In addition to her art practice, Alterwitz has facilitated educational programming at art and medical institutions and written the Art + Science column in Lenscratch magazine, a feature that she established in 2015.

Linda Alterwitz, Just Breathe, unique installation for the exhibition "Breath Taking," New Mexico Museum of Art, 2020. Work and reception Alterwitz's work has been influenced by her training in painting, the experimental practices of early 20th-century photographers such as Man Ray and Laszlo Maholy-Nagy, and the social-documentary work of contemporary photographers like David Maisel and Sally Mann. Lilley Museum director Stephanie Gibson wrote, "Alterwitz's images ask us to contemplate this inevitable finitude, reminding us that our bodies are imperfect vessels. She does so poetically, however, challenging the viewer to reflect on what we are made of—our thoughts and experiences or our veins, bones, and internal cavities." The subjects appear as surreal, black-and-white figures mottled with dark blotches indicating heat and inflammation that Rosie Hillier wrote, "unlock a previously unseen view of the physiological effects of the COVID-19 vaccine on the human body."

Recognition Alterwitz's work belongs to the public collections of the Barrick Museum of Art, Center for Creative Photography, Hilliard Art Museum, Lilley Museum of Art, Missoula Art Museum, and Nevada Museum of Art, among others.