When Artspace released a limited edition with him a few years back, we remember Rashid Johnson telling us about his first interraction with art - people breakdancing on Carl Andre’s Magnesium Square at MoCA Chicago.
It was the very public nature of the experience that affected the fledgling artist. Rashid told us how the reaction to the artwork was “almost as good as the art itself.”
Commenting on the notion that you never know how and when art will affect someone, he said, “I think that any space that can give you the opportunity to fall in love is worth investing in.”
Johnson’s close relationship with public art is well known, and most boldly illustrated by the mosaic iterations of his iconic Anxious Men series (the subject of one of two sold out Artspace editions by the artist) that grace public spaces at LaGuardia airport.
“I love that it is just part of the landscape, that it’s integrated into the world,” he told Artspace in an edition launch interview.
Now, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and JFK Millennium Partners have commissioned 18 more artists to create installations for JFK airport’s new terminal 6 and, once again, many of them are artists with whom Artspace has closely collaborated with to create limited editions.
Uman photographed by Joe Perez
Photography Garrett Carroll
The airport terminal is not due to open to 2026, and is currently a building site, but the 18 artists chosen – among them Uman and Felipe Baeza - are already at work on the commissions.
“We applaud the creative vision of these talented artists and look forward to seeing their creative works transform the terminal,” said Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole.
"Art takes a starring role at the new Terminal 6,” added Nicholas Baume, artistic & executive director of Public Art Fund. “Walls, floors, ceilings and volumes will all be enriched with architecturally integrated, site-specific commissions by some of the most extraordinary artists of our time.”
Felipe Baeza creating his Artspace edition Desviación, 2023 - photographed by Brica Wilcox
The art program is led by Public Art Fund, the independent non-profit organization dedicated to art in public spaces and whose senior curator, Melanie Kress, contributed to the forthcoming Phaidon book Great Women Sculptors. The featured artists, including 10 from New York City, will capture the spirit of New York with a diverse range of artworks. Sculptures, suspended installations, wall works, and glass mosaic floor medallions will create a unique New York sense of place in the highly anticipated $4.2 billion Terminal 6.
FELIPE BAEZA - Desviación, 2023
Many of the artists included in the commission are also the subjects of, or included in, current or forthcoming Phaidon books. Teresita Fernández and Haegue Yang are in Great Women Sculptors. Melanie Kress, senior curator at Public Art Fund, is a contributing author to that book. Hague Yang is prominently featured in both Korean Art from 1953 and forthcoming book Korean Feminist Artists. Meanwhile, Charles Gaines contributed to Phaidon’s Kerry James Marshall monograph and The Kitchen Studio.
Click the links to read interviews with and buy limited edition artworks by JFK-commissioned artists: Uman, Felipe Baeza, Charline von Heyl, Shara Hughes, Candida Alvarez, Kerstin Bratsch, Teresita Fernandez, Laure Prouvost, Barbara Kruger, Eddie Martinez, and Haegue Yang.
Charline von Heyl signing copes of Villa Curonia, 2023 photograph courtesy of Universal Limited Art Editions and the Artist
CHARLINE VON HEYL - Old Words, 2023
