Arthur Woods Artist

 

Arthur R. Woods - AstroArtist - TerraArtist

I am an early practitioner of the astronautical arts or spacearts and most noted for my two art-in-space art interventions on the Mir space station. In a parallel art career, I have created an extensive oeuvre of highly naturalistic paintings of the Swiss countryside created in a pointillistic technique inspired by particle physics research. 

I was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, USA in 1948. From 1959 -1970 I lived near Cape Canaveral, Florida and the Kennedy Space Center where I held summer jobs at the space center in 1967 & 1968 during the Apollo program. I obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mercer University, Macon Georgia (1970). I moved to Switzerland in 1973 where I currently live and work and I hold dual Swiss-American citizenship.

AstroArtist

In the mid-1980’s I introduced a number of art-in-space projects including the two that were realized in outer space. Work from this period include a proposal called the Orbiting Unification Ring Satellite to celebrate the new millennium by placing “a circle in the sky” visible to the entire planet and the OUR – Space Peace Sculpture designed to commemorate the 1992 International Space Year which was constructed by the U.S.S.R. space agency NPO Energia in 1990 and was close to realization but postponed due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

My Cosmic Dancer sculpture, an investigation of the art of sculpture in weightlessness, was sent to the Russian Mir space station on May 22, 1993. It was the first three-dimensional artwork specifically designed for a space habitat to be officially sent into space. In 1995, working together with the European Space Agency (ESA), my OURS Foundation organized the first art exhibition in Earth orbit called Ars Ad Astra in the framework of the ESA’s Euromir’95 mission which sent 20 artworks from different artists to the Mir station from October 10, 1995 and returned to Earth on February 29, 1996.

I am planning to realize Cosmic Dancer 2.0 - a 3D printed sculpture using the AMF on the International Space Station in 2018 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the spaceflight of the original Cosmic Dancer.

From 1990-2003 I was founder and president of the OURS Foundation,  a cultural and astronautical organization dedicated to introducing, nurturing and expanding a cultural dimension to humanity’s astronautical endeavors. The OURS Foundation organized the 1st European Space Art Workshop held in Montreux, Switzerland in 1992 and was co-organizer, along with Leonardo/OLATS and the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) of 9 space art workshops (1997-2005) held in Paris and other locations.

In 2016, I initiated Greater.Earth: a new perception of our planet and an art intervention near Earth where I am developing additional art interventions designed for realization in the space environment and where I have complied a comprehensive chronological history of the astronautical arts called “Art to the Stars”.

My work has been exhibited in a number of international space and art exhibitions including the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) (1995, 1997, 1998),  Art Basel in (1987, 1988, 1989) All Design - Leben im schwerelosen Raum, Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich (2002), Abenteuer Raumfahrt. Aufbruch ins Weltall, Landes Baden-Württemberg im Landesmuseum für Technik und Arbeit in Mannheim (2006) Falling Without Fear, The Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, New Mexico (2012-13), Free Enterprise: The Art of Citizen Space Exploration, California Museum of Photography, UCR-University of California Riverside (2013), The Universe and Art,  ArtScience Museum,  Singapore (2017), and Personal Structures exhibition organized and curated by the Global Art Affairs Foundation in the context of the  2017 Venice Art Biennale.

Together with Dr. Marco C. Bernasconi I am co-author of a socio-philosophical concept called the “Space Option” which proposes to utilize the resources of outer space to meet the needs of humanity on Earth.

I am a full member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

AstroArt Websites

TerraArtist

My work has been an long evolution of artistic exploration reflecting my personal experiences and insights into nature and the cosmos. My current painting consists mostly of paintings about nature as I am focused on the portraying the wonder and the complexity of my immediate surroundings. Mostly, I try to create convincing illusions of scenes of the Swiss countryside where the viewer is invited to enter into my painted landscapes. My focus is on the trees, grasses, meadows, streams and rivers. As a TerraArtist, my intent has been to explore the interconnectedness and interdependence of life on Earth.  As such, I consider all of my art to have a "cosmic dimension" - a dimension which spans both the microcosmic to the macrocosmic realms. Not only is this an intellectual position that I have adopted since the early 70s, but also this aspect should be evident in the painting technique that I have developed and refined over the years.

TerraArt Website
http://www.arthurwoods.ch