Since its redevelopment kicked off in 2016, LaGuardia Airport has gone from eyesore to aviation art hub. Travelers passing through LGA encounter several large-scale art installations, including a massive floating installation by Sarah Sze, Jeppe Heine’s mesmerizing balloons, and large wall mosaics by Rashid Johnson. Now, New York City’s other airport is getting a similar facelift with $22 million in art commissions for John F. Kennedy International Airport’s new Terminal 6 (nearly double what was spent on each terminal at LaGuardia).
The list of eighteen artists commissioned for the project is diverse across mediums, cultural provenance and sensibilities. Some of the artists working on pieces for the terminal are established names, such as Teresita Fernandez, Nina Chanel Abney, Eddie Martinez, Kerstin Brätsch, Charles Gaines, Barbara Kruger, and Laure Prouvost and Haegue Yang, who will make suspended sculptures hanging from the ceilings. There are also some rising art world stars, like Felipe Baeza, GaHee Park, Kambui Olujimi, Dyani White Hawk, Nevin Aladağ, Shara Hughes, Sky Hopinka, and Uman b.
“Like Terminal 6 and New York itself, the reach of the art program is global, featuring artists from near and far, from groundbreaking, emerging voices to senior, celebrated figures,” Nicholas Baume, artistic and executive director of Public Art Fund, said in a statement. The organization is once again working with the Port Authority as part of the highly anticipated $4.6 billion project, which is scheduled to be completed by 2026 and is being overseen by JFK Millennium Partners (JMP), the company selected to build and operate the new terminal.
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“Public art that is inspiring and evocative of our region is an essential part of the Port Authority’s strategy to create world-class airports that are becoming destinations in their own right,” said Port Authority executive director Rick Cotton in a statement. “Just as we have done at LaGuardia and at Newark-Liberty’s Terminal A, the public art at J.F.K.’s new Terminal 6 will dazzle travelers and help create a sense of place unique to New York.”
Contemporary art is increasingly being installed in airports in the United States and around the world, with the justification being that art complements architecture and can offer a glimpse into the local culture and a destination’s relationship with the wider world. Additionally, airports, with their vaulted ceilings and wide-open terminals, can support impressive large-scale installations that might not otherwise find homes outside of institutional settings.
O’Hare International Airport (ORD) in Chicago is another aviation hub that recently invested in some ambitious art installations by artists like Yvette Mayorga, Luftwerk, Bob Faust and Edra Soto as part of a terminal expansion and modernization project that allocated $3.5 million to acquire works by Chicago-area artists. LAX Airport in Los Angeles also has a dynamic art program, with a great mix of local and international artists showing in temporary exhibitions plus permanent art installations and scheduled cultural performances. Major contemporary names at LAX include Mark Bradford, Pae White and Tony Delap, and the airport has even hosted its own arts festival, Influx: Art at LAX.
Art, and particularly contemporary art, is now frequently an integral element of development for new aviation hubs, such as the Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar, which opened in 2014. That airport boasts a series of monumental installations such as the iconic towering sculpture of a wooden boy by KAWS, Small Lie; the hilarious giant yellow teddy bear with its head stuck inside a lamp, Lamp Bear by Urs Fischer; and the fascinating Cosmos by Jean-Michel Othoniel made of a constellation of intricate spheres of yellow stainless steel and glass.
Airports elsewhere opt instead to feature selections of work from the local museums’ collections. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) has a dedicated space in which it presents a rotation of artworks from the Rijksmuseum, including works from the Dutch Golden Age by Flemish masters such as Rembrandt and Vermeer. Similarly, Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport in London often hosts exhibitions curated by Tate Modern and other British institutions, usually featuring famous British artists like Damien Hirst and Anish Kapoor.
These collaborations between airports and museums provide travelers with unique cultural experiences, making airports more than just transit hubs but also gateways to art and history, while offering a permanent and public space for larger and more ambitious artworks that reflect contemporary times.
