You Never Know Who\'ll Sit Beside You on the Train. Right, Jay-Z?

Ellen Grossman/Recession Art “Elucidation: Anything That Can Go Wrong” (2010). Metallic gel pen on Chromatica paper.

O.K., so Ellen Grossman didn't recognize Jay-Z when she sat next to him on the subway the other week, as touchingly demonstrated in the video below that's been making the rounds. (“Are you famous?” Ms. Grossman asks her seatmate as the cameras roll? “Not very famous,” he replies. “You don't know me. But I'll get there someday.”)

But then Jay-Z didn't seem to recognize Ellen Grossman, either. Ms. Grossman, 67, is a fellow New York-based artist whose mathematical-but-organic-looking drawings and sculptures riff off “topographic maps, satellite photos, scanning electron microscope images, astronomy and the unfolding of intertwined relationships,” according to her Web site.

Perhaps it is time for Jay-Z, who chose a Warhol that hangs over his fireplace for the cover of his memoir, “Decoded,” to add a Grossman or two to his collection. Here are a couple from a show she had at Recession Art on the Lower East Side last month.

Ellen Grossman/Recession Art “Proliferation of Voices” (2008). Metallic gel pen on Chromatica paper.

Ms. Grossman also spoke to our colleague Tanzina Vega at Media Decoder, who has known her for years.