Award-winning art in a petri dish
Award-winning art in a petri dish

Balaram Khamari, 26, is an agar artist.

He grows microorganisms in petri dishes so as to form artistic patterns, with the help of agar — a jelly-like substance made from seaweed.

A postdoctoral fellow in medical microbiology at the Sri Sathya Sai deemed university in Andhra Pradesh, Khamari has been “painting” with microbes for just over a year.

In December, one of his art works — Microbial Peacock — won second prize at the American Society for Microbiology’s annual agar art contest.

Take a look at how he creates these works.