Art

Fresh art at LAX

Art

Los Angeles International Airport has two new site-specific murals. Look for them in Terminal 7 and the connection between Terminals 7 and 8.

Renée Fox’s mural in collaboration with WriteGirl, “Songs of Freedom: Renée Fox + WriteGirl.” Photo by Panic Studio LA, courtesy LAWA + City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

Displayed in the corridor connecting Terminals 7 and 8, Renée Fox’s 200-foot-long intricate mural, titled “Songs of Freedom: Renée Fox + WriteGirl,” mixes delicate graphite drawings of different species of local and regional birds with poetry by young writers mentored by the nonprofit organization, WriteGirl.

This mural collaboration was curated by Elizabeta Betinski and is on view for ticketed guests through early February 2020. WriteGirl is a creative writing and mentoring association that promotes creativity and self-expression to empower girls. 

Tofer Chin’s mural “Intentions.” Photo: Panic Studio LA. courtesy LAWA  
and City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

In Terminal 7, Tofer Chin’s new mural, “Intentions,” greets departing airport guests at the United Airlines ticketing lobby. This mural will be there through September 2019.

Here’s some more background on Chin’s mural:

It features an abstract urban landscape of bold shapes and a spare paint palette of white, black and bright apricot. The shapes emulate shadows of buildings, and the glow of the apricot color is reminiscent of Los Angeles’ vivid sunsets. For Chin, who was born and raised in this city, the spirit of Los Angeles shifts at sunset as the metropolis’ iconic atmospheric light changes and becomes filled with deep oranges and pinks.

Travel Tidbits from an airport near you

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Hope you had a restful holiday weekend. Here are some travel tidbits from airports you may be visiting soon. Or may want to.

First: check out this nice assortment of souvenir snow globes I spotted over the weekend at the Budapest Airport. Quality-wise, these are nicer than the snow globes we come across in many airports, and these had a nice assortment of local buildings to boot!

Will you be passing through St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL) before November, 2019?

Courtesy STL Airport

If so, be sure to look for the exhibit sent over by the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) that highlights the special connection between plants and people through history. Plants and People: The Collections of the Missouri Botanical Garden is on display through November 10, 2019 in the Lambert Gallery near the C Concourse exit in Terminal 1 .

Here are some more snaps from the exhibit:

Courtesy STL Airport
Courtesy STL Airport

And, at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), the SFO Museum has a new exhibition all about… Victorian pedestals.

Sounds like an odd topic, but we trust the SFO Museum to bring us exhibits that not only look intriguing but teach us something as well.

Here’s the pitch on the pedestals:

“Victorian pedestals, meant to showcase sculpture, are fascinating decorative art objects to behold. The most ornate pedestals were made in the United States during the Gilded Age—a time following the Civil War until the turn of the twentieth century, when the country experienced rapid economic growth. From the mid-1860s through the 1880s, in particular, collecting and displaying sculpture led to an increased demand for pedestals. Wealthy Victorians preferred elaborate furniture on a grand scale and richly ornamented rooms. Several pedestals displaying artistic objects might adorn the drawing room or parlor. Victorians selected pedestals that suited their tastes and living interiors. Pedestals, as a result, offer an intriguing look at the design styles popular at the time.“

Courtesy SFO Museum

The Style of Display: Victorian Pedestals is located pre-security in the International Terminal Main Hall Departures Lobby at San Francisco International Airport through January 12, 2020.

Welcome back: cool(est) art at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

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Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) starting buying and commissioning art back in 1972.

The collection is now worth millions of dollars and includes work by many noted artists, including Frank Stella, Louis Nevelson, Robert Rauschenberg and many local and regional artists.

One of the more fun and fantastical works is by the MacArthur genius award-winning artist Trimpin.

And it is one of my favorites.

“On: Matter, Monkeys and the King,” is a colorful, 80-foot-long, Rube Goldberg-style kinetic musical contraption that can – once again – be found in Concourse A at Sea-Tac airport.


According to the airport art tour, Trimpin’s airport installation is a metaphor for the movement of travelers throughout the airport.

The mulimedia and kinetic piece is intended to depict “what sound looks like.” Two interactive mobile “contraptions,” as Trimpin calls them, are constructed from found objects. The work is witty and charming, embodying both sound and rhythm. The colorful shapes you see on the roof modulate in different ways the sound originating from within the glass case.

Here’ a short video of Trimpin describing the piece – and the work in action.

The work is charming. It is witty. And it is very complicated. And, sadly, it stopped working a while back.

For months the piece stood still. Then parts start disappearing. Then the 80-foot long glass case was empty. And I was pretty sure it wasn’t coming back.

But it did! Trimpin returned to the airport a few weeks back and fixed it.

Thank-you!

(All photos courtesy Port of Seattle/Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and Trimpin)

Art museum inside an airport lounge

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Corutesy Turkish Airlines

Here at StuckatTheAirport.com, we’re big fans of art in airports.

And art in airline lounges is a nice bonus for those who have access.

A new addition to the list of airline lounges with great art is the Turkish Airlines Lounge at the new Instanbul Airport.

Turkish Airlines is working with the Instanbul Museum of Modern Art to display artwork from the museum’s collection in the Turkish Airlines Busines Class Lounge at Instanbul Airport.

Turkish Airlines says the 1,400 square-foot exhibition titled, “A Selection from the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art Collection” will change three times each year at year and include artworks ranging from the early 20th century landscape painting tradition to the abstract paintings of artists looking for a synthesis between eastern and western arts during the 1950s.

If you take a moment – and have access – you’ll find great artwork in airline lounges elswhere. Some of my favorite pieces are in the Delta Air Lines Sky Club at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

This work, by Rebecca Coles, not only look great, if you look closely you’ll see that it is made entirely of recycle postage stamps.

Spotted some great art in an airline lounge? Tell us about in the comments section below.

Fresh art, cool sounds from Miami Int’l & other airports

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Heading to or through Miami International Airport between now and October 2019?

If so, look for the exhibition Destination Deco, by Gate D29, which is filled with cool Art Deco objects from the Wolfsonian-FIU museum’s current exhibition, Deco: Luxury to Mass Market.

Here are some notes about what’s on view:

Before traveling to the United States and becoming a mainstay of Miami Beach’s world-famous architecture, Art Deco was celebrated at the 1925 Paris International Exposition and then spread throughout Europe.

Designers in the United States turned to affordable materials and used aerodynamic forms and horizontal bands to convey speed.

From exquisite handcraft to streamlined product design, this installation reveals the multi-faceted character of the iconic style. 

The Wolfsonian museum sits just two blocks from the beach in the heart of Miami Beach’s Art Deco district and explores what it means to be modern through a great collection of art, design and everyday objects.

Listen to that airport

Radio Prague has gathered a series of videos comparing the look and sound of Prague’s Vaclav Havel International Airport (PRG) to others, including Zurich Airport (ZRH) in Switzerland, Montreal’s  Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL), and Bucharest’s Henri Coanda International Airport (OTP), named for the aeronautical engineer that Romania’s Space Agency, and others, claim invented the jet engine, although others give that credit to Frank Whittle.

Videos below: