Faculty News:

April 4, 5:30PM at Ringel Gallery, Purdue University, Indiana.

Associate Professor Michael Oatman is a featured artist in “Return to Entry,” an exhibition commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 Moon Landing. In conjunction with the Barron A. Hilton Flight Archive at Purdue, Oatman is the first artist invited to work in response to Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong’s personal library. Oatman has produced a series of new works including items from his own archive related to space exploration, NASA and his family’s history. A new, site-specific installation, “Studiolo (Packing Up the Moon)” is the primary work, as well as a material culture timeline, “My Father, Neil Armstrong, My Mother, The Moon.” Several works in the show were produced with the assistance of SoA alum and shop technician Tom Roland, along with his partner in Goose Goods, Beck Bruno, herself an SoA alum. A panel discussion at 5:30 PM includes Oatman, NASA space suit designer Amy Ross, and the other “Return to Entry” artists, Jen Scheuer and Frances Gallardo. A reception for the exhibition follows at 6:30 in the gallery.

Featured Image: Exhibition view, Michael Oatman, “Studiolo (Packing Up the Moon),” 2019. Site-specific installation in gallery supply closet, 125″ x 60″ x 100.” Digitally etched mirrored aluminum; paint; furniture from Purdue Surplus, sound dampening foam, a selection of the artist’s books related to space travel, exploration and Scouting; 1930’s-era toys; rock collection; fighter jet model boxes; NASA souvenirs; moon globe; clock radio and farmhouse clock; reproductions of paper ephemera from Neil Armstrong’s personal library.

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