Art

Raven Visits SFO.

The Stuck at the Airport team is a big fan of both the work of Seattle-based glass artist Preston Singletary and the impressive exhibits at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) that the SFO Museum puts together.

So we’re delighted that the newest SFO Museum exhibition at SFO is Preston Singletary: Raven Visits SFO.

The Tlingit and other native Northwest peoples, revere the Raven character as not only a creator of the world but also a trickster and a transformer.

Singletary’s Tlingit heritage and culture is reflected in his modern studio glass sculptures. For this exhibit, he’s collaborated with Garth Stein, a New York Times bestselling author who is also of Tlingit ancestry, and both the sculptures and the narrative text explore what Raven might be up to these days.

Preston Singletary: Raven Visits SFO is on view pre-security International Departures Hall of the San Francisco International Airport from June 21, 2025­ ­– October 18, 2026.

(All images courtesy of SFO Museum)

Airport amenity of the week? MIA memory lane

A temporary art mural at Miami International Airport (MIA) offers a trip through time.

The mural is a collection of images and video content spanning from the 1920s to the present and includes home movies, travelogues, promotional films and news footage documenting growth and events that changed South Florida.

Images include photographs of the original Miami Daily News building (now Freedom Tower) and Flagler Railroad construction to more recent images of the Miami Marlins’ first World Series run and the Miami Grand Prix.

Local influential figures, historical personalities, and key events that have shaped Miami-Dade County and the state over the last century are also featured.

The images and videos are from the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives, a collection of film and video related to Florida, with a particular emphasis on television news and home movies from the twentieth century.

The exhibition, Wolfson Archives: Celebrating 40 Years of Collecting, Preserving, and Sharing South Florida’s Visual History is on view at Miami International Airport until September 2025 at the Concourse E arrivals level near Door 11, pre-security. 

All Images Courtesy of The Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives & Miami International Airport.

Museum Monday: Chinese baskets at SFO Airport

A new exhibition from the SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) celebrates the artistry of Chinese basketry and containers, many of which feature hand-painted motifs and auspicious symbols.

Portland Craft: Chinese Woven Baskets and Containers is on view post-security in SFO’s Harvey Milk Terminal 1 from April 19, 2025­, to June 7, 2026.

Here are some notes about the craft of Chinese basketry from the exhibit curators.

Baskets range in size, form, and usage—from sewing baskets and hat containers to food-carrying baskets and storage containers for grain, clothing, and other domestic items.

Betrothal or gift baskets, some of the most ornate Chinese baskets, are filled with food and gifts and given to the bride-to-be by the groom and his family.

Still made today in several southeasteHrn provinces, many of these specimens are now intended for the tourist or international market.

However, the SFO Museum exhibition features baskets from the 19th to early 20th century. Included are some baskets that not woven at all but are crafted from wood and laquered to mimic the form of a basket.

Here’s a sampling. All images courtesy SFO Museum.

Turn travel into poetry at San Diego Int’l Airport

 

Passengers traveling through San Diego International Airport (SAN) may have their travel tales turned into poetry.

Now through April 29, the airport’s Spring 2025 Performing Arts Resident, Poets Underground, will be onsite in the terminals at their luggage-inspired stage called The Great Poetic Baggage Exchange.

The artists will be inviting and enticing travelers to engage in conversations and mural paintings around five travel-inspired themes: Adventure, Baggage, Connection, Checkpoint and Rise.

The stories and images gathered at SAN will help the arts residents create poems and other artworks that will be then be featured in three airport performances on May 2, 6, and 8.

Could be fun!

Fresh art at San Diego Int’l Airport

(Artist: Guillermo Arias)

Mirror, Mirror exhibition at San Diego Int’l Airport

Mirror Mirror, the newest temporary exhibition on display at San Diego International Airport (SAN), features more than 100 works by 16 contemporary artists from the region, all exploring the fascinating interplay between light, color, and space. 

(Artist: Sophia Allison)

SAN’s Mirror, Mirror exhibition draws on the legacy of the California artists who were part of the 1960s Southern California Light and Space movement.

According to exhibition notes, artists were inspired by the unique quality of Southern California’s light “revolutionized minimalism” by using then-new light-interactive materials such as resin, plastics and neon.

The light-interactive materials were handy, thanks to the local aerospace manufacturing and industrial design industries.

Look for the Mirror, Mirror exhibit at San Diego International Airport in both the pre- and post-security areas of Terminal 2 throughout 2025.

(Artist – May-ling Martinez)

(Artist: Wendell Kling)