Working with physicists at Imperial College London has given Karen Tompkins the knowledge and inspiration for her new series, Quantum: Making the Invisible Visible. As she endeavored to better understand the world of quantum physics, her engagement with the research and technology at Imperial provided the conceptual basis for Quantum.

When she met PhD Student, Rahil Haria, she was introduced to his research involving atomic-scale characterization of complex materials. His work with electron microscopes enabled Tompkins to see atoms for the first time, a lifelong dream and a mind boggling experience for the artist.

This powerful experience led Tompkins to study matter at an even smaller scale, the quantum level, with researcher Luca Mateo Phillips, a materials physicist at Imperial. His knowledge of sub-atomic particles, Quarks, Leptons and Bosons, gave Tompkins a solid knowledge base to compose images of these invisible particles and make them visible. Using acrylic paint, gesso and gold leaf on canvas to render individual paintings of each of the 17 particles has become a powerful evocation of the fundamental particles that create all of life and the entire cosmos.