Image credit: NASA/David C. Bowman
Staffers at Peninsula Fine Arts Center in Newport News, Virginia, on Wednesday morning carefully placed a framed silkscreen by pop artist Andy Warhol against a wall where it was to be hung. The bright, iconic image will be part of “Soaring: Works from NASA’s Art Collection,” a new exhibit that touches on subjects of science, imagination, exploration and discovery.
“Pretty amazing,” said exhibitions volunteer Eric Mathews soon after unpacking the Warhol. “It’s far brighter than I thought it would be. It looks like it was just made. Those colors are incredibly vibrant.”
Organized in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, the new exhibit includes pieces by other well-known artists including Robert Rauschenberg, William Wegman, Annie Leibovitz and Norman Rockwell. The exhibit will open to the public with a free community day 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 8, and will remain on display through June 25.
Peninsula Fine Arts Center Curator Diana Blanchard Gross said the exhibit combines the works of famous artists with those who work in very specific genres and are not as well known. “It’s a nice juxtaposition of both,” she said. The exhibit was created through a cooperative effort with NASA Langley. “It’s been a great collaboration and maybe it will inspire the next great space artist,” the curator said.
In addition to free admission to the gallery, Saturday’s community day will offer exhibits and outdoor activities including tours of NASA Langley’s new traveling centennial trailer.
Created in 1962, the NASA Art Program produced more than 3,000 works of art. This exhibition features more than 20 of them, including paintings, photographs, drawings and mixed-media works dating from the early 1960s to 21st century.
Established July 17, 1917, by NASA’s precursor — the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics— the center today known as NASA’s Langley Research Center was the agency’s original field center and the nation’s first civilian aeronautical laboratory.
- Learn more about NASA Langley’s Centennial celebration.
Sam McDonald
NASA Langley Research Center