Beyond the Beyond
by David A. Aguilar
September 26th – October 21st, 2007
BEYOND THE BEYOND is an exhibition of digital astronomical illustrations by the multi-talented author and space artist, David A. Aguilar. Aguilar is the Director of Public Affairs and Educational Programs at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The exhibition is from September 21st to October 19th, 2007, in our gallery at 91 Charles Street, Boston, Massachusetts. This exhibition coincides with the publication of his new book by National Geographic,Planets, Stars and Galaxies.
The exhibition will present thirty-two illustrations of a new form of space art. Aguilar’s work combines astronomical data with the power of computer graphics to take us to fantastical worlds, catastrophic cosmic events and future scenarios yet to occur. Combining model making, airbrush painting and pixel manipulations, his work introduces us to a whole new dimension of our universe by bringing the unseen into this world. In a sense – he is giving us a first hand look at the future.
Aguilar began his illustrative artwork career as a biological illustrator in college using watercolor, pen and ink to illustrate tide pool and deep-sea creatures for university textbooks. In later years, writing and producing planetarium shows and educational videos, his talents as a model maker emerged as well as a fine artist. However, his move into digital astronomical imagery came with his relocation to Cambridge, MA at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. There he discovered a need for a new type of scientific illustrator. Monumental astronomical discoveries made without any beautiful “Hubble like” photographs to accompany them were not receiving the amount of media coverage they should have. Realizing this – he quickly began a self-taught journey that led him to create artwork of objects in the universe no human being would ever be able to see with any telescope but still existed just the same. He created what he called his “Gods Eye View” or what these objects would look like if you could see them up close and personal.
His work appears in the new 2007 BBC television series UNIVERSE, and has been published in Time magazine, US News & World Report, ABC Nightly News, CNN, NY Times, USA Today, National Geographic, Sky & Telescope magazine, Astronomy magazine, and Scientific American.
BEYOND THE BEYOND is Gurari Collections’ first exhibition of David A . Aguilar’s work. This show is a perfect follow-up to our June, 2007 exhibition entitled Celestial Bodies, which explored the transposition of antique celestial charts to the deep space photographs by the Hubble Telescope.