Space Arts, Space Collecting, Space participation

Space art update – April 2026

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It’s been quite a while since I posted anything on space inspired art. Here are miscellaneous art items I’ve collected over the past few years.

Art In Space

** SRIC4 #16: “Gallery Space: Art and spaceflight” with Barbara Brownie | Space Renaissance

This video provides a nice overview of art “in space” given by Dr Barbara Brownie, Associate Dean (Education) at the Royal College of Art.

This is the preliminary webinar #16 of the IV SRI World Congress (SRIC4)
Abstract:
The expansion of the commercial spaceflight sector and democratization of space is creating new opportunities for artists to engage directly with the environment of space. For a new generation of space artists, space presents new physical and philosophic questions. This webinar explores how space artists are redefining their practice through direct engagement with space, using case-studies of work that has been deployed on board the ISS, sub-orbital flights, and zeroG flights. Through these, the webinar will explore how artists are revising traditional art methods and materials through interactions with microgravity; the relationships between artists, astronauts and audiences; and the disciplinary and hierarchy challenges faced by artists operating in the space sector.

An essential Bio:
Dr Barbara Brownie is an Associate Dean (Education) at the Royal College of Art. Barbara’s research explores space as a site for art and design, with a particular focus on effects of weightlessness. Her book, Spacewear: Weightlessness and the Final Frontier of Fashion (Bloomsbury, 2019), considers the challenges and opportunities that the commercial space age presents to fashion designers, and how weightlessness necessitates new approaches to clothing and the dressed body. Her most recent book, Art in Orbit (Bloomsbury 2025), explores the relationship between the arts and space sectors, and the spaceworks that demonstrate art’s value in space exploration. In 2026 and 2027 she will be sending writing and artworks to space on three separate flights: one sub-orbital, one orbital, and one lunar. She co-leads the _Space research group at the RCA, a group of artists and researchers operating at the intersection of art and aerospace.

** A finger-tip painting travels aboard a space telescope

Artist Lisa Pettibone led a project that attached a work of art to ESA’s Euclid space telescope, launched in 2023:  Touching space | The Space Review – Apr.1.2024

Mounted on its hull is the Fingertip Galaxy plaque with the finger marks of over 250 mission scientists and engineers, its goal to convey the spirit of the mission: a dedicated, and often personal, desire to unravel the structure of the universe through capturing images of billions of galaxies that point to the presence of dark matter. An international effort led by ESA, the initiative involves more than 1,700 people (including NASA astrophysicists) sharing their skills and determination to better understand the forces threading through space to almost three quarters back in time to the Big Bang.

The artwork comprises a handmade galaxy painting, surrounded by poetry related to its making, reduced and laser etched on to an aluminium A5-size plate and glued to the craft. Many of the scientists who worked with myself and Tom Kitching, the Euclid science lead, to achieve this effort were excited by the prospect of their marks going into space.

The Fingertip Galaxy: Reflecting Euclid in art | European Space Agency, ESA

“After Euclid’s lifetime, it will just be floating in space. What if future beings found Euclid? How would they know anything about the humanity of the people?” – Tom Kitching, lead scientist of Euclid’s VIS instrument.

The team behind ESA’s Euclid mission has come together to create something special – a personal and collective galaxy-shaped fingerprint painting that has been attached to the spacecraft ready to launch into space. The collaborative nature of the artwork reflects the collaborative nature of the Euclid project overall; in both cases, people have come together to build something unique.

The Fingertip Galaxy was created by visual artist Lisa Pettibone and Euclid instrument scientist Tom Kitching. Since the very first fingerprint was pressed down in 2019, over 250 scientists and engineers have contributed to the piece of art.

So why a galaxy? Euclid is a galaxy-imaging machine that will observe billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years to make a 3D map of the Universe. The mission’s ultimate aim is to explore dark matter and dark energy.

“Although Euclid has always been beautiful in concept and materials, it didn’t really say anything about the people involved and humanity as a whole. We asked ourselves whether we could do something artistic that would speak to people,” says Lisa.

Scientists and engineers involved in Euclid were invited to dip their fingertips in paint and make their mark on a large piece of paper.

“We wanted something authentic, not perfect, and not shaped too much,” continues Lisa. “The result is a piece of art with a wonderful energy to it that captures all the energy of the people involved.”

The artwork was photographed and engraved onto a plaque using lasers at Mullard Space Science Laboratory – the same lasers that are used to etch parts for satellites. The plaque was fixed to Euclid and revealed at a ‘Goodbye Euclid’ event on 1 July 2022, when Euclid left Thales Alenia Space in Turin to head to Cannes for final testing as a complete system.

Euclid’s project scientist René Laureijs suggested adding text to the plaque to explain the thoughts behind it. Continuing the artistic nature of the project, poet Simon Barraclough wrote a dedicated poem, from which a short extract was chosen to be etched on to the plaque in a typewriter font that swirls around the galaxy of fingerprints. This video ends with Simon reading part of Since his poem. Lisa summarises the Fingertip Galaxy:

“It is adding an element of humanity to a dark, vast space, where as far as we can see there is no other intelligent life.”

See also

NASA Art

** NASA revitalized its space art program starting in 2024: NASA’s Art Program is Back | NASA – Sept.2024

The first projects included

two new space-themed murals in New York’s Hudson Square neighborhood in Manhattan. The vision of the reimagined NASA Art Program is to inspire and engage the Artemis Generation with community murals and other art projects for the benefit of humanity.  

Two murals created by artist Joel Kowsky for NASA. Credits: NASA

Find more about the murals in NASA Relaunches Art Program with Space-Themed Murals | NASA – Sept.24.2024.

NASA and Art gives the history of the agency’s art program, which started in 1962. See also

Art Contests

** NASA space art contests:

— The NASA Art Contest of 2025 had the theme “Our Wonder Changes the World”. The grand prize winning entry was “My Wonders with You”  by high school student  Dahyun Jung:

Dahyun Jung’s “My Wonders with You” won the grand prize in the 2025 NASA Art Contest. Credits: NASA & Dahyun Jung

More about the winning entry: Washington State Student Wins 2025 NASA Art Contest | NASA – Aug.25.2025

Click here for a complete list of the winners organized by grade level.  And click here to view all the entries.

— NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) sponsored an art contest as well: Winners Named in NASA Space Tech Art Challenge | NASA – May.31.2026

[The] program studies innovative, technically credible, advanced projects that could one day “change the possible” in aerospace. To help people understand what these innovations might look like, NIAC has turned to artists and graphic designers in a global contest to create posters to visualize future technologies under development.

— NASA challenge contest for artistic renderings of future space habitation architectures: Art Inspired by Exploration: NASA Unveils Architecture Art Challenge Winners | NASA – Feb.11.2025

The challenge, hosted by contractor yet2 through NASA’s Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program, was open to artists from around the globe. Guidelines asked artists to consider NASA’s Moon to Mars Architecture development effort, which uses engineering processes to distil NASA’s Moon to Mars Objectives into the systems needed to accomplish them. NASA received 313 submissions from 22 U.S. states and 47 countries.

Here’s a NASA collage of the top entrants:

Collage from NASA displaying the winning entries in the Moon to Mars Architecture Art Challenge. Clockwise, the entries from Jimmy Catanzaro, Jean-Luc Sabourin, Irene Magi, Pavlo Kandyba, Antonella Di Cristofaro, Francesco Simone, Mia Nickell, Lux Bodell, Olivia De Grande, Sophie Duan. Credits: NASA

** Other space art contests: 

— The International Space Art & Poetry Contest of 2024 included multiple age groups. Their excellent artwork and poetry can be viewed on the SpaceArtContest website.

— Mars Society Poster Contest 

The Mars Society has sponsored poster contests to promote the organization’s annual conventions. Here are reports about the most recent two contests:

Tasia Cobbs created the winning entry in the 2025 Mars Society Poster Contest. Credits: Mars Society

— National Space Society (NSS) art contest – NSS has sponsored many art contests over the years. NSS was a co-sponsor of a recent art contest as part of the  Goddard100 celebration of the 100th anniversary (March 16, 2026) of the first liquid-fueled rocket flight by Robert H. Goddard.  See winning entrants at the Goddard 100 Contests Art Gallery.

For a view of the art in other NSS contests, check out the Art Galleries from NSS Contests.

Space Artists and Projects

** The SETI Institute hosts the Artists In Residence (AIR) Program.

The AIR program expands upon the SETI Institute’s mission to explore, understand, and explain the origin, nature, and prevalence of life in the universe. The artworks, performances, and public projects resulting from the AIR collaborations are at the cutting edge of artistic and scientific practice. Our program encompasses various artistic disciplines, including visual arts, literature and spoken word, music, film, dance, and theatre.

Our curatorial direction emphasizes projects that consider the evolution of intelligence, ponder the beginnings of life, and critically reflect on our anthropocentric world view.

Our projects

Our community of artists in residence is at the core of the SETI AIR program. We actively support the development, creation, and exhibition of their projects. We are also actively engaged in project-based collaborations with arts organizations and artist groups. These dynamic partnerships include the SETI x AI residency with Ars Electronica and the Making Contact exhibition at the New Museum in Los Gatos. The Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art houses the SETI AIR archive, which allows us to share the AIR program’s creative outcomes with international researchers, artists, and academics.

Some recent SETI AIR news:

Here is an AIR video about Exoplanetary Poetry: AI, Chemistry, and Alien Communication

Our Cosmic Consciousness residency artists daniela brill estrada, Bart Kuipers, and Julie-Michèle Morin, discuss an art-science collaboration that imagines how language might emerge from alien worlds. Hosts: Bettina Forget and Cosmic Consciousness residency advisor Gregory Betts.

Join SETI AIR program Director Bettina Forget for a conversation with Cosmic Consciousness artists in residence daniela brill estrada, Bart Kuipers, and Julie-Michèle Morin, joined by residency advisor Gregory Betts. Together, they will discuss Exoplanetary Poetry, an art-science collaboration that imagines how language might emerge from alien worlds.

Using atmospheric data from real exoplanets, the team trains an artificial intelligence to write poems alongside human collaborators. The resulting texts are translated back into chemistry, forming multisensory installations where reactions generate visual forms, textures, and scent. How can molecules become metaphors? What does it mean to co-author with a nonhuman intelligence shaped by planetary science? And can poetry help us think differently about life beyond Earth?

** Kazunori Toshinai’s SPACE PROJECT converts “rocket manufacturing leftovers” into “unusually shaped furniture pieces“: “Upcycling” Space Rocket Scraps to Futuristic Furniture | Leonard David – Sept.1.2025

** Agnieszka Pilat spoke on The Space Show  (Feb.5.2024) about

her space art with SpaceX and more regarding technology as the cathedral of today. Our guest is an award-winning artist with current work ‘exploring the philosophical underpinnings of modern technology and has involved series at SpaceX, Boston Dynamics, and Waymo’.“

Examples of Pilat’s artwork can be found on her Instagram account.

** AAA 7 MOONS ART Video – full length, with the Moons Symphony by Amanda Lee Falkenberg 

Astronomical and Space Artists of the International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA) contributed new and legacy art for the 7 MOONS ART Video. This video compiles a series of short 7 moon videos, and brings an artistic perspective to the inspired music of ’The Moons Symphony’ by composer Amanda Lee Falkenberg.

7 MOONS ART Video holds together stories of astronomical art history, show science as the basis of astronomical art, and places several of our longest standing and esteemed astronomical artists in the same show as some of our newest members from around the world.

The extraordinary 7 MOONS described in art and music include; three moons of the planet Jupiter – Io, Europa and Ganymede; two moons of planet Saturn – Titan and Enceladus; one moon of the planet Uranus – Miranda; and of course, our own Earth Moon. Individual short 7 Moons Art videos are also available for viewing.

Sampling of Galleries & Exhibitions

** Some of the famous in-space colony artwork of Don Davis was included in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New Your City in 2023-24: Don Davis at MOMA This Month | Space Studies Institute – Sept.1.2023.

And on a MOMA book: Emerging Ecologies: Architecture and the Rise of Environmentalism – MoMA Design Store.

**  The Al Thuraya Planetarium in Qatar held an exhibition of 21 artists in 2024 at: 21 artists capture wonders of space at Katara exhibition | The Peninsula

** Moon Gallery aims to create the “first permanent museum on the Moon“. The nonprofit Dutch based cultural organization was  founded in 2020 by Anna Sitnikova, Elizaveta Glukhova, Bernard Foing, and Charlotte ten Holder. The primary goal is to create an art gallery on the Moon as part of the establishment of the first lunar outpost. This will start with one hundred artworks integrated into a 10 x 10 x 1 grid tray. A preliminary grid went to the ISS in 2022:

The Moon Gallery is an international, collaborative art installation housing the seeds of a future, shared interplanetary culture. In collaboration with Nanoracks, powered by Voyager Space , the test payload of 64 artifacts, each no bigger than one cubic centimeter, is targeting launch aboard the NG-17 Cygnus resupply mission on February 19, 2022. The gallery is represented by artists from Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Africa.

The Moon Gallery ISS Payload is an 8×8 grid displaying 64 art works. It was taken to the Int. Space Station in 2022. Credits: Moon Gallery

What can a book the size of a finger-tip tell us about the Moon and humanity?

Moon Bound, a 1 cm³ miniature book being sent to the Moon this year as part of a science rover, will be presented in Plovdiv, inviting visitors to explore relationships among art, science, and the Moon. The exhibition centers on a single question: How does the Moon see the Earth? Alongside the book, the exhibition features artworks in multiple formats that create an immersive experience blending scientific research with artistic imagination.

**Online Galleries:

Space art tips

Create space art of your own. Here are tips on making simple space artworks:

** An easy method for drawing space and planets | Art Room

** Beginner Space Spray Paint Art Class! | Amethyst Vazquez

** Solar System Drawing with Oil Pastel – Step by Step for beginners | Art Diarium

 

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