Space Renaissance
Artist(s)
Anica Huck, Sock Redding, Daniel Rosero
Format
1cm x 1cm artworks in orbital gallery
Data
Satellite Imagery
Source
ESA; modified Copernicus Sentinel data, processed by ESA; USGS; NASA; Airbus Defence and SpaceAirbus Defence and Space; modified Copernicus Sentinel data processed by ESA; JAXA; NASA and USGS
ArtEO was a key contributor to the Space Renaissance for All Gallery – an extraordinary project that saw a payload of scientific, cultural, and artistic artefacts sent to space onboard the Exploration Company’s Nyx cargo capsule in June 2025.
The mission was a test flight to determine the feasibility of various technologies and materials in space. And this provided a wonderful opportunity to showcase the commercial and technical possibility of an orbital gallery of artworks. As Bernard Foing said: "The Space Renaissance for All mission plants the seeds for broader access to space, be it for art or science; a new era of access to space has begun—an era open to anyone, from traditional space faring nations to nascent start-ups."
The artworks featured in the Space Renaissance for All Gallery are not what you might expect. Each artwork is extremely small – designed to be no larger than 1 cubic centimeter – about the size of the end of your little finger! The collection is arranged in an 8x8 grid, with each work fitting into its own tiny cell. It’s an exhibition that you can hold in your hand.
ArtEO artist Eva Petric with Bernard Foing, who initiated the Space Renaissance 4 All Gallery.
While the purpose of this small scale was to demonstrate the feasibility of sending a gallery to space, the challenge to artists was to think technically and poetically about this restriction. What can you say at such a micro-scale? Which materials and messages would you choose to send to such an extraordinary place? How does the nature of “low orbit” shift our very expectations about sculpture and weight?
A run down of the three ArtEO projects:
In Pareidolic Earth: Fading Species, by Daniel Rosero, the artist chose to make a tiny pictorial version of his ArtEO-supported artwork of the same name.
Sock Redding shared "Estranged Bodies" which they describe as "a texture made from EO data".
For Liquifying the Sun, by Anica Huck, the artist chose to fill the tiny 1 cubic centimetre space with pure gold, because “the [1cm cubic] volume corresponds precisely to 1g of gold.” Neat. Huck also considered how the long journey into orbit might be reflected in Gold’s material qualities: gold is immensely “ductile” - meaning a tiny fragment can be stretched out without breaking. In fact this gold lump could be drawn into a wire which is, astonishingly, 3km long, or 300,000 times its original length. Just to put that into perspective: if a human were to stretch out 300,000 times their original length they’d easily be able to touch the international space station.
Huck mused on the poetic enormities at play: “the trajectory of the space travel of the object creates a second imaginary line, which intertwines two physical realities of inherent extension capacities of the material and its actual position on a calculated orbital line.”
To prepare her artwork, Huck used a Mercury-gold amalgam, which has been used through the centuries to gild pieces of art due to the material capacity to spread easily – the “dutility” mentioned above. Heating the pieces helps the gold form into a single, unified globule of 1cm cubic volume.
Each of the artworks were featured in ArtEO’s curated capsule area within the gallery (just 3cm long!), with their works housed in a 3D-printed container. ArtEO artist Eva Petric also contributed to the project elsewhere in the payload, with her work EARTHLINGtattooSEAL. Petric said: "The EARTHLING Tattoo SEAL is a 3D embodiment of my artwork Stem Cell Potential - a form translated into a lace-like structure that visualizes the deep interconnectedness within and between us. It serves as a symbolic blueprint of our emotional Earthling existence."
The coordinator/co-curator of this project was Fransisca Tan supported by ArtEO director Ravi Kapur.
These artworks appeared alongside science samples from NASA Ames and Universities (astrobiology, soils and rocks from Earth, meteorites from Moon, Mars, asteroids); other art-science pieces from ArtMoonMars, MoonGallery, MoonMars Museum, SRI; a Digital library of documents, images and music; a Tribute to 40 partners of Space SDG18 and LUNEX.
Supporting over 110 institutions, the mission champions inclusivity and global collaboration, making space accessible and inspiring for all. ArtEO’s involvement highlights the vital role of artistic innovation in the new era of space exploration and space data.
