Katy Dickinson

Denver Airport Art

I love airport art. Some airports are simply functional, like busy small town bus stations (Bangalore and Frankfurt come to mind). Others are like big expensive shopping malls (Barcelona and Heathrow/London). My favorite airports offer restaurants and shops (especially bookstores!) but also good art. Vancouver (YVR) and San Francisco (SFO) are good examples; last week I found another: Denver (DEN), Colorado. I have passed through Denver many times but rarely with enough time to notice much. Last week, on my way to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Keystone, Colorado, I had more time.

I flew Frontier Airlines from San Francisco to Denver. Frontier has delightful animals pictured on their tails with each flight hosted by the pictured animal. I flew a pelican there and a baby lynx coming home. The first thing I saw in Denver coming off the plane was a huge swooping railway sculpture. (I was sorry I could not find any indication of who created it.) This was followed by "paper" airplanes floating above the escalators, then two bronze gargoyles sitting in suitcases. My funniest DEN experience was subtle: steam railroad engine sounds played over the loudspeakers when the intra-airport shuttle train pulled up to the glass doors. Someone had a good time designing that!

On the way back home, we arrived at the Denver airport just at dawn. This was an excellent time to view DEN's newest major sculputure - the bright blue rearing "Mustang" with red lit eyes by Luiz Jimenez. The artist died while working on this 32-foot cast-fiberglass sculpture but it was finished and installed to honor him. We drove by too fast for me to take a picture but "Mustang" is impressive.

I hope to visit DEN again soon so that I can see the rest of the collection.

SFO: Stutz Kore

Fontier Pelican Tail

DEN: Railroad Sculpture

DEN: Rail Sculpture

DEN: Airplanes

Terry Allen's Notre Denver Gargoyle

Allen's Denver Gargoyle

DEN: "Notre Denver" Gargoyle

DEN: "Notre Denver" Gargoyle

SFO: Deborah Butterfield's "Pohina"

Images Copyright 2008 by Katy Dickinson

Posted at 04:54PM Oct 10, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews  |  Comments[2]