La Guardia’s New Delta Terminal Defined by New York Artists

Delta Air Lines’ rebuilt Terminal C, slated to open this spring as one of the final big points in La Guardia Airport’s $8 billion transformation, will be identified by six new site-specific large-scale permanent artworks.

“We wanted public art to be a big part of the appeal, inspiration and feel,” said Rick Cotton, chief executive officer of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the airport. about a position at a large new civilian establishment.

The Port Authority, along with Governor Kathy Hochul and Delta Air Lines, has partnered with the Queens Museum to implement Mariam Ghani, Rashid Johnson, Aliza Nisenbaum, Virginia Overton, Ronny Quevedo and Fred Wilson – all New York-based artists – to create installations throughout the arrival and departure corridors and associated lounges. The overall budget for Terminal C’s arts program is $12 million.

“Delta really wanted us to think about Queens, the most diverse county in the United States, and find a way to reflect that,” said Tall Sally, the president of the Queens Museum, a close neighbor of the airport. Tallant’s team guided the selection of six artists, selected from an initial group of several dozen.

Two monumental sculptures will hang in the station’s skylight and be visible from the side of the road, including an installation of starlight globes by Bronx-born MacArthur award-winning MacArthur and a the constellation of the atrium architecture of Overton, a New Yorker graft from Tennessee. Ghani, an Afghan-American born in Brooklyn, is referencing more than 80 languages ​​spoken in the trefoil in his tiled wall installation, and Nisenbaum, a Mexican-American, is drawing characters. Delta members in a group portrait, to be translated into mosaics. Johnson, a Chicago native, is also working in mosaics, creating the largest face grid in his “Anxious Men” series to date. Ecuador-born Quevedo is reconfiguring and transforming its arena floor and vibrant game lines onto one wall.

Art in Terminal C joins a growing gallery of public works at La Guardia, including the 1942 mural “Flight” by artist Project Progress Manager James Brooks in the Maritime Aviation Terminal, and, debut in the new Terminal B in 2020, four times installed by Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens and Sarah Sze. Later this year, Richard Lippold’s sculpture “Orpheus and Apollo,” which hung for more than 50 years at Lincoln Center, will be moved to La Guardia’s Central Hall, which is currently under construction.

“It would be interesting at LaGuardia to have an art destination,” says Tallant. “It speaks to the idea of ​​building a contemporary public space that celebrates the culture and artists that have made the city successful.”