ABOUT THE ARTIST
OCEANA RAIN STUART is an American contemporary figurative bronze sculpture artist and poet. Stuart attended California College of the Arts on a full scholarship for fashion design and fine art with a minor in Writing and Literature, as well as Ecological Practices. She is one of today's leading realistic sculpture artists, known for emotionally evocative subject matter often involving symbolism.
On February 22, 2024, Intuitive Machines' IM-1 lunar lander, Odysseus, successfully touched down on the Moon's south polar region via the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Carrying twelve payloads—six from NASA and six commercial—it represents the first U.S. lunar landing since 1972 and the inaugural commercial lunar landing. Among the commercial payloads is the *Codex Nova collection, featuring images of creatives worldwide from the Lunar Codex Museum of Art, including the bronze sculpture "Reminiscence" by Oceana Rain Stuart. It marks the first artwork by female artists on the Moon. This historic mission, encompassing Odysseus and all payloads, is now officially recognized as a de facto Artemis Accords Heritage Site. All art, writings, music, and film stored on Codex Nova are now part of humanity's designated heritage, preserved for posterity. The Nova Codex Museum of Art includes 22 of Stuart's works, with several future missions planned in 2024.
Lunar Codex Museum of Art and The Lunar Codex were founded and curated by Dr. Samuel Peralta. It encompasses 35,000 contemporary artists, writings, music, and films, representing 233 countries, territories, and indigenous nations, launched to the Moon and beyond. Within this expansive collection, twenty-two works by Oceana Rain Stuart are featured in the Codex Nova, Serenity, and Polaris missions.
*The Codex Nova mission contains a selection of works from the Codex Nova and Codex Polaris collections, representing only a small fraction of the total works archived by the Lunar Codex. Stuart's work Reminiscence is an inclusion in this collection.
LifeShip founded by Ben Haldeman ,is Earth's genetic record on the Moon, a DNA biobank consisting of several missions to the Moon and future missions venturing into the stars. Stuart's contributions as a LifeShip artist include twenty-three images of Stuart's work, making her one of only a few artists within the collection. The first mission featuring her work is in 2024, with multiple future voyages planned.
Stuart’s work has been exhibited in accredited museums and galleries worldwide, such as the Leonardo Da Vinci Society, Natural History, Haggin, Butler, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, National Sculpture Society, Portrait Society of America, Salmagundi Art Club, National Arts Club, and the Louvre. Stuart is a former board member of the Board of American Artists Professional League and American Women Artists. She is also an elected member of the National Sculpture Society, American Artists Professional League, and Allied Artists of America. Her work has been published in multiple art books and magazines, including Fine Art Connoisseur, Leonardo, Museum of Modern Art Barcelona, Poets Artists, Southwest, Beautiful Bizarre, Guide Artists, and Masters of Contemporary Art Volume 3.
She has served on the jury for multiple international exhibitions and was the Juror of Awards for a nationwide 2022 American Artists Professional League exhibition, as well as on the 2022 jury for the International Boynes Emerging Artist Award.
Some of Stuart's awards include: The 2022 International ICON award by the Los Angeles Beverly Awards (LABA); 2022 finalist of the Self-Portrait competition from the National Portrait Society; 2022 Allied Artists of America Ranieri Sculpture casting Award of the Gold Medal Exhibition, 2021 Allied Artists of America Award for Sculpture of the Gold Medal Exhibition; 2021 Board of Directors Award for Sculpture from the American Artists Professional League Gold Medal Exhibition; 2021 Art Lover’s Choice from the 110th Annual Gold Medal Exhibition of the California Art Club; 2020 and 2021 finalist for the 14th, 15th, and 16th annual Art Renewal Center (ARC) Salon; 2018 and 2021 finalist for the Non-Commissioned Portrait category by the Portrait Society of America; 2019 Alizarin Award by the Representational Figurative Art Conference; 2017 Figurative Artist of the Year by Art Comes Alive and 2017, 2021, and 2023 Pre-Selected Artist by the “Figurativas” competition of the Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona (MEAM).
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Catania, Sicily (MACS), The Haegeumgang Museum, Geoje, South Korea, and notable Hollywood collections. Twenty-two digital non-office images of her work are in the Lunar Codex Museum, located on the lunar surface of the Moon as part of a historical museum featuring figurative art from Earth, where she will be among the first women artists to display art on the Moon. Stuart’s work is also featured in the LifeShip missions to the Moon and galaxy. This is a seed bank that provides a backup of important plants and is a DNA biobank of biodiversity, including over 500 plants and animal species, creating a blueprint of Earth.
Sculptress Oceana Rain Stuart and her bronze sculpture Reminiscence-Woman from the Moon
"As a figurative bronze sculpture artist and poet, my purpose is to find empathy in the work I create, and to explore tension and complexity of the subject matter. I’m fascinated by subtle physical gestures, like the movement of a hand, the gaze of the eyes, as well as contradictions that are enclosed in body language and how each face shares a lifetime of stories, and to me this is true beauty. My passion is in expressing this through my work.
Something powerful happens when we let our guard down - we become vulnerable, instinctively primitive, and essentially raw. It is an honor to witness moments in life like these, that lure the viewer in, if only for a moment, it is an experience and an opportunity, so naturally expressed by life that it is inspiring artistic material for me. And in these moments the human condition gives me endless ideas for my practice. I am particularly interested in emotionally evocative subject matter, expressive of humanity and often use symbolism in my work. My molding techniques and surface treatments often blend qualities of realism and surrealism."
