Use the Allure of Painting, Sculpture and Mixed Media to Ward off Traveler’s Stress

If you are flying through the United States anytime soon and have time to kill – most especially with time between connections – browsing thru beautiful, right-there-in-front-of-you art exhibits can be a great distraction. Since airports are often full of stress and anxiety and sometimes humdrum, wasted hours, visually stimulating artwork can be a welcome way to help nerves unwind.

Exhibits continue to pop up throughout airports all over the world, with both permanent and rotating work, providing culture, education, and entertainment in an otherwise boring, time-consuming limbo between point A and B. As Leah Douglas, Director of Exhibitions at Philadelphia International Airport, notes, “The artwork humanizes the airport environment and makes people feel welcomed; it allows passengers an extra alternative while waiting for their flight, in addition to shopping and restaurants.”

Following are some of the best airport exhibits offering an aesthetically refreshing diversion for your travel-weary brain:

Michele Oka Doner: A Walk on the Beach.

1. Miami International Airport (MIA) – MIA is enriched with an abundance of artwork that encapsulates the culture and diverse environments surrounding Miami.   It hosts four categories of art: Children’s Gallery, Community Projects, and MIA Galleries; the fourth, Art in Public Places, is part of the Miami-Dade Art in Public Places project that was established over forty years ago as one of the first public art programs in the U.S.MIA hosts over sixteen artists in five different public areas of the airport: North and South Terminals, the Northside of the Airport on NW 36th Street, the MIA Mover Station, and the Central Collection Plaza.A variety of acclaimed artists have contributed to the installations here:  Michele Oka Doner, a native Floridian and internationally renowned artist, has large, interesting, permanent art pieces in Terminal D made from bronze and mother of pearl, encompassing both the natural world and marine life of Florida.Other works can be found in four airport galleries spanning across MIA, with rotating exhibits curated by Dr. Yolanda Sanchez:

• • • In the Central Terminal, contemporary art can be viewed, as well as The Children’s Gallery, displaying artwork created by Miami-Dade public school students in grades K-12.
    • The South Terminal features worldwide handmade crafts and folk art, in addition to the current community art project, Journey of Giants, a photographic exhibition of humpback whales in the Pacific Ocean.
    • The North Terminal at Gates D22-D25 presently has a photographic body of work by Alex Heria titled “Unfair,” referencing county and state fairs.
    • MIA also presents Random Acts of Culture, which hosts surprise performances throughout the airport.

Whether travelers are walking swiftly to catch a flight or on a long layover, the bounty of art throughout MIA will catch their attention and likely relieve a bit of travel tension.

“Farmer’s Palette” by Evan Anderman

2. Denver International Airport (DIA) – DIA is home to another one of the first art-integrated installations in the U.S., full of sculptures, murals, and installations, resulting in “one of the most extensive airport art programs in the world.” Along with its permanent art collection, DIA rotates exhibits throughout the year, keeping the creative energy fresh, and ensuring that there is something new to see each time passengers fly through.

One of the temporary exhibits running through December 2014 is Colorado on Tap: The State of Brew Culture, located in Ansbacher Hall (the walkway from Jeppesen Terminal to the security checkpoint of A Gate). Various Colorado craft brewery items are displayed, along with educational information; the exhibit coincides with both Oktoberfest and the Great American Beer Festival at the Colorado Convention Center.Another temporary exhibit can be seen at the Airport Office Building Lobby (near the security checkpoint of A Gate) thru March of 2015. Imposition is a photography exhibit by local artist Evan Anderman showcasing pictures of Colorado’s Eastern Plains from high above in his airplane. Trained as a geologist, Anderman is now a full-time artist who explores the land and its layers, observing how it’s been modified by natural and manmade processes.

Delainey Barclay: Into the Fold,

3. Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) – In 1998, Dennis Bouey established the Exhibitions Program at PHL, after working at San Francisco International Airport, which had housed the longest-running rotating exhibits program in the U.S.  PHL has now collected a robust range of rotating exhibits to enrich travelers with a temporary creative sanctuary; exhibits are often scheduled a year in advance, with each remaining on view for six months.

Along with Percent for Art, PHL has twelve large, site-specific, permanent installations throughout the airport:

• • • Mei-Ling Horn’s, Clouds, are beautiful, hanging wire sculptures in the Terminal E Rotunda, so be sure to look up when walking through there!
    • Also,  PHL and Percent for Art have launched competitions for commissions during the airport’s renovation project, with one of the results, from 2011, Ben Volta’s Tectonic Quilt, now located in Terminal B. It is an ink-on-paper piece that included nearly 100 students assisting with its creation.
    • Another current exhibit to look out for: Delainey Barclay’s Into the Fold, located in Terminal E, a sculptural installation consisting of 108 books with folded pages, creating three-dimensional geometric forms mounted on the wall.
    • Deirdre Murphy’s Sky Paintings, between Terminals C and D, a series of four large paintings depicting nature, blue skies, birds, and kite elements with bold colors and energizing motion – a notion that travelers can no doubt relate to during their trip.

Since there are no closed doors in the art-occupied spaces at PHL, you may even come across an exhibit in the process of being installed.  Douglas tells us, “It is certainly a different environment when installing exhibits, because we are in the midst of the passengers and not behind closed doors —  but it is beneficial, because passengers get to experience an art installation and see the professionalism and the patience required to install the artwork properly.” An added bonus: sometimes the artists are on site to assist in installation, meet passers-by, and receive feedback.

PHL stands out from other airport arts because of their highly trained, professional staff, quality of the artwork chosen, and the presentation in each exhibit. With nearly twenty current, rotating exhibits and many permanent pieces, passengers will definitely find compelling art pieces to occupy and relax their minds during a layover at PHL.

Photo Courtesy of AUS

4. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) – This artistic city would be incomplete without visual expression lining the airport both inside and out.

At AUS, there are both permanent and changing exhibits with four galleries located throughout the ticketed concourse, and as a smaller airport, it’s easy to see a lot from any vantage point.  Austin, with its love of music, has large, decorated guitar sculptures throughout the city limits, so the airport wouldn’t be complete without eight of them welcoming you to baggage claim. Also on display:

• • • Through December 2014, local Del Valle High School students have their artwork exhibited near Gate 11, capturing their personal experiences of this city.
    • Near Gate 10, until November 18, 2014 the traveling exhibit of caricaturist Miguel Covarrubias is on display. Until his death in 1957, this artist’s caricatures were famous on covers such as Vanity Fair, Fortune, and The New Yorker magazine in the 1920’s and 30’s.
    • Austin calligraphers have come together to show the art and skill of penmanship, which can be viewed near Gate 8 through January 13, 2015. The work features styles inspired by 15th-century lettering all the way up through contemporary mixed media design.

Traveling Light: Leslie Birleson.

5. Sacramento International Airport (SMF) – Although this is a mid-sized airport, the public art is a must-see, with its extensive collection of internationally renowned artists. SMF’s goal is for “every traveler to experience artistic inspiration up close in a variety of media.” This airport doesn’t feature rotating exhibits, but does have over a dozen large installations throughout the terminals:

• • • The building’s centerpiece, and perhaps most iconic sculpture is Lawrence Argent’s red rabbit, called Leap: at 56 feet long, and 19 foot tall, it is made of aluminum and glass.
    • You will also find interactive art installations: a large, silver horn is located past security in the walkway  — so it’s hard to miss. It was created by Living Lenses (the team of Po Shu Wang and Louise Bertelson) as an interactive sound installation where passersby can type a message into a keypad and it will come out in a warped sound.
    • Other interactive installations include a hand-blown glass house sculpture by Mildred Howard that can be walked through, varying in appearance depending on the time of day, and Camille Utterback and Michelle Higa’s video installation of fourteen LCD screens mounted on three stories of a glass elevator tower. The rise and fall of the elevator depicts changing animations of varied ecosystems.
      Whether you are traveling or picking up a traveler, art at international airports is all around and readily viewable. If you are a passenger, already past the hubbub and hassle of security, the artwork can provide a calm (or stimulating) breather – so remember to keep your eyes open and enjoy the cultural amenities that these airports offer.As Douglas notes, “The art is a unique amenity that passengers greatly appreciate: it improves the airport aesthetically, it provides the airport with a unique identity, and it is a service to the community at large.”