December 4 - 20, 2014

Nostalgia for the Future

British veteran astronomical artist David A. Hardy, American planetary scientist and artist William K. Hartman, and American photographer Bill Finger team up for an exhibition which looks back at looking forward. Nostalgia for the Future features paintings, prints, books, and magazines of the 1950 and 1960s which exude the unbridled optimism of the era. Moon colonies, commercial space travel, human exploration of the cosmos - how much of of this vision still resonates with us today? How have our perceptions of the future changed? Bill Finger's contemporary photographs establish a poetic counterpoint to the futuristic visions of the last century.

David A. Hardy is the British master of space art. One of its longest practitioners, he has been illustrating space scenes since the 50s.
He has done work for stage, screen and film in both Europe and the U.S. He has contributed art for many pictorial books with British astronomer Patrick Moore, as well as written and illustrated his own books like Visions of Space and The Fires Within. His science fiction work is frequently on the cover of Analog magazine.
His work is owned and praised by Arthur C. Clarke, and was a favorite of the late Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan. He currently serves a Vice President of the IAAA, the space artists guild.

Dr. William K. Hartmann is known internationally as a scientist, writer, and painter. His research involves origin and evolution of planets and planetary surfaces, and the small bodies of the solar system.
Specific research topics have included studies of cratering on the moon and Mars, leading the development of the currently most-accepted model for origin of the moon, telescopic observations of asteroids and satellites, participation in the Mariner 9 and Mars Global Surveyor Mars missions.
Hartmann holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy and M.S. in Geology, both from the University of Arizona, and a B.S. in Physics from Pennsylvania State University.