About Arthur Woods
Biographical Information
I was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, USA in 1948. In 1959 my family moved to Merritt Island, Florida where I lived until 1970. As Merritt Island is where the Kennedy Space Center is located and just across from Cape Canaveral, I personally witnessed the beginnings of the U.S. space effort. Members of my family worked at the space center and while I was a university student, I held jobs at the space center during the Apollo program in the summers of 1967 and 1968.
I studied psychology, art and literature at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. After graduation in 1970 and completing U.S. military service in 1972, I began my art career in California before moving to Switzerland in 1974 where I now live and work. I am married to Heidi and have two children, Louis and Alexander.
The early personal experience with space exploration was a powerful motivation for me to maintain an active interest in the latest scientific and technological developments associated with space development and to eventually integrate these experiences into my art. Europe provided a deep cultural context for my later artistic development.
Since the early 1990's my art has focused on my immediate surroundings. I consider my current painting to be a form of contemporary realism.
Personal Data |
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| 1948 | Born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, USA |
| 1966 - 1970 | Mercer University, Macon, Georgia, USA – Bachelor of Arts Degree |
| 1972 - 1973 | Lived and worked in Santa Barbara, California |
| 1973-1975 | Lived and worked in Lausanne and Lutry, Switzerland |
| 1974 | Married to Heidi Müller. 2 sons: Louis Aldous (1978), Alex Marcel (1981) |
| 1975 - 1979 | Lived and worked in in Zürich, Switzerland |
| 1979-1980 | Lived and worked in in Monterey, Massachusetts, USA |
| 1981-2005 | Lived and worked in in Embrach, Switzerland |
| since1994 | Swiss citizenship (Dual citizen US & CH) |
| 2004-2014 | arthurwoods galerie, Stein am Rhein, Switzerland |
| 2005-2010 | Lived and worked in Stein am Rhein, Switzerland |
| since 2010 | Lives and works in Kaltenbach, Switzerland |
Activities
In the mid 1980's I initiated the OURS project to celebrate the new millennium with "a circle in the sky" with a large sculpture to be deployed in Earth orbit. 1990 I founded the OURS Foundation (1990-2003) - a cultural and astronautical organization dedicated to introducing, nurturing and expanding a cultural dimension to humanity's astronautical endeavors. In addition to being a vehicle for the development of my space art projects, 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 the 9 space art workshops (1997-2005) held first in Paris and then later in other venues. www.ours.ch.
The OURS Foundation also organized or co-organized international exhibitions of space art held at the International Astronautical Congresses (IAC) in Oslo, 1995, Turin, 1997 and Melbourne in 1998.
I served as co-chair of the IAA sub-committee on the arts and literature and from 1996 – 2003, I was involved in the planning of the IAA sessions related to the arts and humanities held at the annual IAC congresses.
I have co-organized several ESA and IAA studies including the design and maintenance of the related websites:
- ESA study – “ITSF: Innovative Technologies in Science Fiction for Space Applications”: which has also conducted two international competitions for Science Fiction short stories.
www.itsf.org
- IAA study - “The Impact of Space Activities on Society”: where world leaders were invited to comment on the importance of space activities.
www.spaceandsociety.org
- IAA study - “Space Expectations: How the Public Views Space Activities”: a multilingual survey in 7 languages of the public’s expectations about space. The preliminary results will be presented at the current IAC in Glasgow and please take the survey. (Website now closed)
I also completed a website dedicated to the memory and work of space art pioneer Ludek Pesek who died in 1999. www.ludekpesek.ch
Together with Dr. Marco C. Bernasconi, I have been actively promoting the concept of "The Space Option" an evolutionary plan to meet the basic and anticipated needs of humanity through the utilization of near Earth resources - not for the in-situ support of science or exploration - but rather to apply these resources and/or their products for use on Earth at a conspicuous level. Most significantly, the harnessing of energy from space would replace humanity's dependence on the continued use of finite fossil fuels which are environmentally negative and likewise, on the widespread use of nuclear fuels which have grave environmental and political aspects. The concept was developed as an answer to the persistent question of: "Why Space Art?" which led to the question: "Why Space?". The Space Option website - www.thespaceoption.com
In 2016 I initiated the Greater Earth website. Greater Earth is a new perception of our planet based on its true cosmic dimensions as defined by the laws of physics and how this new perception of our planet may catalyze an optimistic path to a sustainable and prosperous future. It is also an alternative space program and video blog where I reside as the Resident Artist.
Greater Earth website: http://greater.earth
My terrestrial activities include the development and management of swissart - an arts portal that has been providing information and web services for the contemporary arts in Switzerland since 1996. www.swissart.ch
My work has been exhibited in a number of international space and art exhibitions including at 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), Personal Structures exhibition organized by the Global Art Affairs Foundation in the context of the 2017 Venice Art Biennale, and, ‘Fly me to the Moon. The Moon Landing: 50 Years On’, Kunsthaus Zürich (2019).
A complete list of exhibitions can be found here.
