Art by Concourse
Since the opening of the new Albany International Airport terminal in 1998, an Art & Culture Program has been instituted that is committed to showcasing the artistic and cultural resources of the Capital Region. A comprehensive exhibition program that features the work of regional artists, area museum collections as well as national traveling exhibitions, has enhanced the environment of the airport, raised the visibility of the area's cultural institutions and identified the program as a national model for public art.
The new terminal provides an expanse of dramatic vertical space that is ideal for the presentation of large-scale works. Twenty sites inside and outside of the terminal have been reserved for the temporary placement of contemporary artwork that rotates every other year.
For more information about the Art & Culture Program's sculpture installations, please call 518.242.2241 or email arts@albanyairport.com
Current Installations
First Floor, Ticket Area
Picture Postcards, Larry Kagan, 2005, Steel |
Picture Postcards, Detail |
Postcards remind us of places we've traveled, or sometimes offer vistas that we'd like to see. These images of landscapes, landmarks, monuments and memories can be posted to loved ones far away, or pasted in scrapbooks for future reflection. Larry Kagan, Professor of Art at Rensselaer, assembled this group of steel sculptures to recall such mementos of journeys near and abroad.
Second Floor, Concourse B
Alaska Airlines (Salmon-Thirty-Salmon) Boeing 737-400, Jeffrey Milstein, 2007 Digital Print |
Photographer, architect, and lifetime aviation enthusiast JEFFREY MILSTEIN brings his appreciation for structure, experience as a pilot and sensibility as a visual artist to these photographs of aircraft. Standing beneath the jets as they approach and depart, Milstein suspends their massive, powerful bodies in images that reveal the beauty and detail of their engineering – a rare vantage point. The aircrafts hover over white ground, removed from their habitation of sky and tarmac. As such they are presented as icons of modernity, speed and technological mastery. While their enormity and formidable capacity to transport us around the globe are familiar qualities, Milstein invites us to appreciate the design, color and symmetry of these remarkable machines. |
Lubber, DEAN SNYDER, 1994, Red cedar, steel rings |
DEAN SNYDER's large and looming piece, Lubber, a sphere of laminated cedar veneer punctuated with hand-wrought iron rings, sits as a sentinel to the concourse. Lubber's title refers to a person that is out of sync with his environment, commonly known in the nautical expression, "land-lubber", a person not acclimated to seafaring. |
Four Triangles Hanging, GEORGE RICKEY, 1974, Stainless steel |
Four Triangles Hanging was created by artist GEORGE RICKEY who was one of the world's foremost kinetic sculptors. His work consists of tenuously balanced geometric steel constructions which combine linear elements and geometric forms, moved by air currents and gravity. The artist's primary interest was in the fluctuating relationships of these forms in shaping the space around them, rather than in the shapes themselves. |
Past Installations
Observation Area, Third Floor
Millipede, BILL BOTZOW, 1995, Wood, polyester line |
BILL BOTZOW gathers twigs, brush, shoots, grasses and other types of plant materials and sorts them by length or thickness. His pieces are made to be interesting in whatever position they assume, and he often encourages the viewer to rearrange the work. Originally, Millipede hung from a branch of a large tree that extended over a river. Half the sculpture moved in the swift currents. |
First Floor, Ticket Area
Healing Wings, RICHARD LOVRICH, LILLIAN MULERO, 2002, Mixed media |
Healing Wings, Detail |
| The Healing Wings project was a sculptural installation conceived of by Richard Lovrich and designed by Lillian Mulero that consists of 3,000 paper origami doves decorated and embellished by children from area schools. For each dove created, $1 was donated to the Cantor Fitzgerald fund in support of the families affected by the events of September 11th. Healing Wings was a snapshot of children's hope for peace and healing. | |
First Floor, Ticket Area, April 20, 2000 - Feb. 11, 2002
Four at Forty-Five, ALEXANDER CALDER, 1966, Polychromed sheet metal From the Collection of the Empire State Plaza Art Collection |
Four at Forty-five was created by noted American sculptor ALEXANDER CALDER, recognized as the inventor of the mobile, and has been heralded for the "whimsical gaiety" that permeates his mobiles, sculpture, paintings, drawings and jewelry. |
Second Floor, Concourse B, May 1998 - June 2003
Burden of Flight, DIANE COX, 1998, Pigment on fiberglass |
A flock of giant painted birds, suspended by parachute straps, yearned longingly for the freedom of the runway. According to the artist, most people would choose to be a bird above all other animals. She believes this resounding desire for flight probably reveals a discontent with our earth-bound lives. |
Second Floor, Stairwell, October 1999 - August 2003
Femmes, BETSY BRANDT, 1999, Clay and wire |
Femmes is a whimsical piece that spiraled up the second floor stairwell to the third floor. The forms and colors of the individual clay pieces represent the physicality, spirit and roles of women. Collectively, they suggest the energy that emanates when women gather together. |
Second Floor, Near Pedestrian Bridge, April 2000 - August 2000
Queen Links, PAUL MAUREN, 1998, Steel, cement |
The physical process of making sculpture is important to PAUL MAUREN. He uses materials that are resistant and weighty. Queen Links, is a sculpture based on presenting sections of a chain in a configuration similar to what we would observe at the bow of the Queen Mary. |
First Floor, Ticket Area, June 1998 - June 1999
Flyer, EVAN REED, 1996, Wood and canvas |
Flyer represents a vehicle to transport our bodies. It is a symbol for moving, delivering and containing ourselves and can act as a surrogate for the condition we find ourselves in--mental or physical, past, present or future. |
Sharon Bates, Director
Art & Culture Program
Albany International Airport Gallery hours:
7:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m. daily.
For additional information phone: 518.242.2241 or email arts@albanyairport.com
Copyright © 2004 Albany International Airport. All Rights Reserved
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