Laura Splan, a New York City-based mixed media artist, will present “Reflexive” at 7 p.m. in Blount Auditorium. Free and open to the public, the lecture is sponsored by The Lillian and Morrie Moss Endowment for the Visual Arts, in conjunction with Medicine Factory, an independent arts organization in Memphis that presents exhibitions of installation-based work.

Botox parties, health epidemics, reality makeover shows, bio-terrorism, anti-microbial products, and pharmaceutical advertising all serve as inspiration for Splan’s work. Her interest in medicine is evident in her art that often employs unsettling anatomical and medical imagery.

She also employs domestic images—crafts, embroidery, wallpaper, scarves, pillows—“to lend a sort of relief” to images such as viruses, blood, and x-rays of bones,” she writes. “This juxtaposition creates a response that fluctuates between seduction and repulsion, comfort and alienation.”

Splan currently is an artist in residence at the Medicine Factory, and her work also is on view in “Pricked: Extreme Embroidery” at the Museum for Arts and Design in New York. She has had one-person shows at various venues including the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago and The New York Hall of Science. Splan holds an M.F.A. in Sculpture from Mills College (Oakland, CA) and a B.F.A. from the University of California, Irvine where she originally studied biological sciences.

Those with specific inquiries about the lecture can contact the Department of Art at 901-843-3833.