Art

New sculpture lands at Denver International Airport

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Denver International Airport (DEN) is well known for its public art collection. And one of the most notable pieces is the 32-foot fiberglass blue ‘Mustang’ sculpture by Luis Jiménez that’s on the Peña Boulevard approach to the airport.

Now there’s a new hard-to-miss sculpture welcoming people to the airport: Luminous Wind.

The 27-foot-tall ‘Luminous Wind’ sculpture is at the 61st and Peña Light Rail Station, which is the stop right before the airport station.

Created by artists Laura Haddad and Thomas Drugan, Luminous Wind includes 952 prismatic clear acrylic rods.

The rods are inspired by the grasses of the plains landscape and radiate out from a stainless steel sphere that sits on a giant tripod.

During the day sunlight reflects off the rods.

At night the dandelion-looking sculpture offers passersby a different light show each evening, thanks to programmable LED nodes that light up the rods.

As a bonus, the scupture’s light patterns are tied to a wind sensor. That turns the sculpture and its nightly shows into a barometer that visualizes wind patterns.

New art at Miami and Minneapolis-St. Paul Int’l Airports

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Courtesy MIA Airport

Do not lick the art at MIA

A colorful new installation that looks like swirls of frosting is now on view near Gate D31 at Miami International Airport (MIA).

“Touch from Above,” by Miami artist Gianna D, is made up of 11 thickly layered, labor-intensive, abstract paintings. Each of these paintings is filled with vibrant swirls of color.

The swirls look like dollops of ‘frosting,’ and the artist says each dollop represents an act of kindness.

Giant sculpture in progress at MSP

Courtesy MSP Airport

The Aurora is a two-story interactive artwork by Jen Lewin in progress at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP).

The project reached a milestone last week with the installation of the 29-foot-high, 740-pound glass and metal part of the sculpture.

Courtesy MSP Airport

The twisting, aerial wave has more than 23,000 aluminum rings and it is now suspended through an oval opening between the ticketing and baggage claim levels in Terminal 1.

The next step is for the artist Jen Lewin to add 2,600 hand-blown glass bulbs, each with a set of LEDs within.

Courtesy Jen Lewin Studio

The 8000 LEDs will be then be programmed to use live weather data to alter the sculpture’s color palettes to reflect Minnesota’s seasons and weather conditions.

Courtesy Jen Lewin Studio

Below the Aurora, embedded in the floor on the baggage claim level, there will be another part of the sculpture. This will be an interactive cluster of reflective glass platforms representing area lakes.

When people walk, dance, or move on the interactive “lakes,” they will influence the light show in the sculpture above.

Look for the completed Aurora in early 2021.

Courtesy MSP Airport

Free recipes, a flower class & audio-visual art from DEN, DAL and SAN Airports

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We may not be flying much, or at all, right now but airports are still doing their thing with music, art, and tasty food and drink.

We appreciate that. And we’re paying attention.

Denver International Airport (DEN) has launched the Taste of DEN series offering recipes from the chefs at popular restaurants at the airport.

In the first episode, Tom’s Urban Kitchen & Brewery Chef Robert Garton cookes up a Prime Rib Dip Sandwich. A video from DEN’s Root Down Kitchen is promised next.

To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, Hortencia and Rachel from the art and programming team at Dallas Love Field (DAL) Airport were kind enough to put together a video showing us how to make traditional paper flowers.

And the San Diego International Airport (SAN) Arts Program has a new artist in residence for Fall 2020.

Throughout her Performing Arts Residency at SAN Margaret Noble is offering a series of downloadable audio-visual works as part of her [Sky][Muse] collection.

The first set is called ‘Compass’ and includes two ‘experiences:’

One has interactive visual music; the other a ‘silent graphical score.’

LEGO masterpiece lands at PDX Airport

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A new creation by Portland LEGO artist Erik Mattson is on display at Oregon’s Portland International Airport (PDX).

Mattson’s scale replica of Portland’s St. John’s Bridge is made with about 120,000 LEGO pieces and is 4-feet-tall, 2-feet-wide, and 32-feet-long. It is built to scale with one LEGO “Stud” equaling 1 foot.

The only part that isn’t made of LEGO pieces is the bridge suspension, which is made of fishing line.

Mattson’s LEGO version of the Portland’s St. Johns Bridge is in the Concourse DE display case through July 2020 as part of the PDX Rotating Art Program, which shared these images.

Here’s what the real St. John’s bridge looks like. The steel suspension bridge is the tallest bridge in Portland and spans the Willamette River in Portland.

Credit: Cacophony, via Wikimedia.

This isn’t the first LEGO creation Erik Mattson has shared with travelers passing through Portland International Airport. His 80,000-piece LEGO sculpture of Oregon’s iconic Multnomah Falls was on display in 2018.

Something is fishy at Miami International Airport (MIA)

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Health concerns due to the pandemic may be keeping stress-busting therapy dogs out of most airports right now.

So Miami International Airport (MIA) is helping travelers relax with videos of fish.

Through September, Coral City Camera @MIA is offering travelers a virtual dive into the urban reefs in Miami-Dade County.

The airport has partnered with Coral Morphologic, whose Coral City Camera (CCC) streams live from the east end of PortMiami. 

A selection of the camera’s very best views was chosen for the videos showing near Gate J7 at MIA.

Those not flying out of MIA any time soon can tune in to the very popular live Coral City Camera feed anytime to see what’s swimming by.