David A. Aguilar

Award-Winning Astronomer, Author, Space Artist, Speaker

David A. Aguilar is a naturalist, astronomer, author and space artist. His expertise lies in presenting the fascinating connections between the universe and ourselves.

He is the award-winning author and illustrator of seven National Geographic books including "ALIEN WORLDS";  "13 PLANETS";  and "SPACE ENCYCLOPEDIA". His next book, "COSMIC CATASTROPHES" will be published by Random House in June 2016. 


LOVE OUTER SPACE?

ASPEN SKIES LLC holds copyright to all SPACE ART seen here. We license these images for use in a range of media for TV/film, exhibitions, print publications. Many pieces are also available as giclee prints. Use INQUIRY FORM BELOW to contact us for artwork licensing, giclee print purchase or to commission new space artwork.

Every school kid sitting in class today will know in their lifetime whether or not there’s life in the universe and where it is outside of our solar system. Within the next decade, two at the most, we will discover life in the universe. That’s why I wrote this book.
— speaking to Robin Young on NPR’s Here and Now: Space Artist Brings “Alien Worlds” to Life

 

INQUIRY FORM - SPACE ART LICENSING, SALES, ARTWORK COMMISSIONS

David’s art represents a rare combination of fine art, modeling, digital art expertise and his own wonderment of science. His work has been commissioned and featured in National Geographic, NASA and nasa.gov’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, Smithsonian Magazine and the Smithsonian Channel, Harvard Magazine, Harvard CfA, the History Channel, PBS programming, Astronomy magazine and regularly at space.com.  He has illustrated all 8 of his books for National Geographic, and 3 books for Penguin Random House/Smithsonian Books. He has been featured alongside his “Alien Worlds” space art on the History Channel series “The Universe”; the BBC World Service; Weather Channel’s Space features, and PBS. Says the artist:

“I build 3-D models, digitize them, and drop the images into the computer art. I found an old rusted oil tank at an observatory in Hawaii – months later it appeared in my artwork as the hull of a space ship. The computer allows infinite layering to enhance and create fine details. It’s a vehicle for integrating digital images, which is why Hollywood’s special effects are becoming so realistic. There’s so much more latitude to explore as you create, and this is accomplished using paint pixels and paint molecules.”

Solo exhibitions include:

Gurari Collections, Boston

Macalester College, St. Paul

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge

Sudekum Planetarium, Nashville

LIVASPENART Gallery, Aspen

The Aspen Institute, Aspen

 

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