Current projects
Superflat puzzle art: David and the Great Wave, 2026
New book: Immersion
I am currently writing a general audience book coming out 2027-28. This book is an immersive, hopefully entertaining tour of visual culture through the lens of geometry. The images and videos we see on screens, museum walls, magazines, movies and videogames are designed to be seen in a particular way. With a more geometrically nuanced view, we can shed light on mysteries in art, better understand how our perceptions are being manipulated, and learn how the aesthetic values of different cultures can deeply shape depictions of environments. To be published by Princeton University Press.
Math playground
Together with artist Jiabao Li and executive and artistic director Ron Berry of Fusebox Austin, we are collaborating to build a math playground, supported by a generous grant through the Simons Foundation Triangle Program. This idea came about after a period of exploration and brainstorming of a variety of different ideas, including 4D Baby which Jiabao debuted at the Fusebox Festival, supported by the Simons Foundation Open Interval Program. Math Playground: Play with Math is an interactive, outdoor installation designed to transform abstract mathematical models and math thinking into engaging, larger-than-human playground equipment. Form follows function. The structure and the way people interact with it reveal the underlying math.
Jiabao Li’s Math playground website
New Cohort of Triangle Program Awardees Will Explore Symmetry Through Art, 2026
New Open Interval Cohort Will Explore Symmetry Through Art and Science, 2025
mathematical art manifesto
I am currently organizing a group to write a mathematical art manifesto. It grew out of the workshop, Writing a Mathematical Art Manifesto, at Bridges Eindhoven, Netherlands in 2025. An eclectic group interested in math, art, dance, poetry, theatre, music, education and philosophy from the U.S. and Europe gather once a month to discuss issues surrounding mathematical art as contemporary art. If you’re interested in joining us, please send me an email.
other projects
textbook
A textbook co-authored with Annalisa Crannell and Marc Frantz combining perspective drawing and projective geometry
minicourses & workshops
MAA Minicourses co-taught with Annalisa Crannell and Marc Frantz and other math/art workshops for the public
writing & research
Articles that won awards and other writing that you might find somewhat interesting
EQUIP program
A program co-founded with Larkin Tom, Alison Marr and Emily Niemeyer designed to build a community for underrepresented first-year students in STEM
Brown symposium 2025
A symposium co-organized with Laura Hobgood with speakers and exhibits on the topic of visualizing abstract concepts from mathematics to climate change
artwork
My artwork: paintings, charcoal drawings, crochet, sculptures, character bentos, drawings on planes, etc.
View the full lesson here.
math/art exhibits
The Smith Library has graciously hosted several math/art exhibits of artwork created by my Explorations in Math students and of hyperbolic crochet.
Judy chicago and Donald Woodman’s A multimedia project of discovery 2006
A semester during math graduate school when I took art classes and created eight 3x6 ft oil paintings of myself as other people’s preconceptions