Image: Donald R. Pettit, Ghost Panel, star trails with city lights, earth horizon, and solar panel, 2012, composite photograph, 30 min. exposure, dimensions variable. Photo: courtesy of Donald Pettit and NASA.
The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin is preparing 'Stargazing: Space Exploration, Science Fiction, and the Artistic Imagination', a major exhibition scheduled for 26 September 2027 to 2 January 2028. Organized by Florencia Bazzano, the Blanton's assistant curator of Latin American art, the show starts from two open questions: what humanity's place in the cosmos might be, and whether life could exist elsewhere.
Drawing on the Blanton's own collection, the exhibition gathers modern and contemporary artists from the Americas and Europe who have turned to the Moon, the planets and the stars. Some of the works respond to scientific discoveries in astronomy and to the history of space travel; others imagine extraterrestrial worlds through the lens of science fiction. Running through both strands, according to the museum, is a broader reflection on humanity's position within a vast universe.
The museum's holdings will be joined by loans from several University of Texas at Austin collections and departments, namely the Harry Ransom Center, the Briscoe Center of American History, the Perry Castañeda Library, the Benson Latin American Collection and the Department of Astronomy/McDonald Observatory, as well as from NASA's Johnson Space Center. Together, these loans are intended to trace parallel histories of space exploration and science fiction.
Works reproduced on the exhibition page span more than six decades and a range of media. They include Gyula Kosice's 'Maqueta D – Hábitat. Ciudad Hidroespacial' (1950), a plexiglass and metal model for his hydrospatial city; Raquel Forner's painting 'Astronauta y testigos, televisados' (1971); an untitled 1973 screenprint by Lee Bontecou from The New York Collection for Stockholm; Anselm Kiefer's large mixed-media canvas 'Sternenfall' (1998); Donald R. Pettit's 'Ghost Panel' (2012), a composite photograph made from a 30-minute exposure that records star trails, city lights, the Earth's horizon and a solar panel; and Lalo Alcaraz's digital print 'Darth Chuco' (2015).
The Blanton describes the project as a first-ever exhibition, and its 2026–27 Annual Fund is being directed towards bringing it to the public.
