NASA (Dec. 19, 2009–March 7, 2010) show is astronauts and rockets and so much more … a review of NASA ART by T.D. Mobley-Martinez of the Gazette. An excerpt:
“(T)here are plenty of great moments. Rockwell’s meticulous painting of astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young. William Wegman’s charming obsession of inserting his Weimeraners into every place, even the final frontier. Mitchell Jamieson’’s fractured, shimmering paintings of emblematic NASA images. The seemingly banal realism of Martin Hoffman’s “Sunrise Suit-up.”
And in a stroke of brilliance, museum director Blake Milteer has also mounted four special exhibitions with “NASA.” Each is standalone fascinating. Each investigates the work of four well-respect local artists: Springs painter Eric Bransby, Denver painters Vance Kirkland and Monica Petty Aiello and video artists Mike Laur and Rick Mazzola.
Add to that a line up of events and family programming — from Bemis classes to a sci-fi film series to a road trip to Denver to see an original play about space — and you have a show that is about art, sure, but also about culture, about American dreaming, about local talent and about community.
“That’s the kind of thinking that saves museums, that saves the arts and consequently, saves the world.”