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Check out the new LaGuardia Airport's spectacular public art installations

Four internationally acclaimed artists have created projects for the airport's new Terminal B complex.

Written by
Howard Halle
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Former Vice President (and now Democratic candidate for President) Joe Biden once described LaGuardia's 56-year-old Central Terminal as "third-world," and, well, he wasn't wrong. With the possible exception of Penn Station, or maybe the Port Authority Bus Terminal, LaGuardia is undoubtedly the ugliest transportation hub in NYC. But no more! On Saturday, its shiny, new replacement, the $4 billion Terminal B, will have its grand opening. It won't be just a place for coming and going, either, but also a spectacular, light-filled showcase for public art.

As part of its slate of new exhibits, the Public Art Fund, in collaboration with LaGuardia Gateway Partners, commissioned four internationally acclaimed artists—Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens and Sarah Sze—to create site-specific works for the building. So, the next time you fly in or out of LaGuardia, here's what you can expect:

Jeppe Hein, All Your Wishes

The Danish artist is distributing 70 colorful "party balloons" throughout the Terminal B concourse. Made of reflective stainless steel, each balloons bumps against the ceiling as if a child had lost it. The artist describes them as a "fairytale breadcrumb trail," inviting viewers to "look skyward and embrace their sense of wonder." Completing the piece are three bright-red benches on the floor that fancifully curve, loop and twist, serving as a whimsical respite for weary travelers.

LaGuardia Airport, Terminal B, Public Art Fund, Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens, Sarah Sze
Photograph: Nicholas Knight, courtesy the artist, LaGuardia Gateway Partners, Public Art Fund, NY, 303 Gallery, NY, König Galerie, Berlin and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen
LaGuardia Airport, Terminal B, Public Art Fund, Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens, Sarah Sze
Photograph: Nicholas Knight, courtesy the artist, LaGuardia Gateway Partners, Public Art Fund, NY, 303 Gallery, NY, König Galerie, Berlin and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen
LaGuardia Airport, Terminal B, Public Art Fund, Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens, Sarah Sze
Photograph: Nicholas Knight, courtesy the artist, LaGuardia Gateway Partners, Public Art Fund, NY, 303 Gallery, NY, König Galerie, Berlin and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen

Sabine Hornig, La Guardia Vistas

Hornig has created a kind of cathedral window effect in the form of huge transparent photo-collages filling an expansive glass façade. The Berlin artist's composition merges over 1100 photographs of New York City into a kaleidoscopic wash of color, image and texts featuring quotes by and about airport namesake and former NYC Mayor, Fiorello La Guardia.

LaGuardia Airport, Terminal B, Public Art Fund, Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens, Sarah Sze
Photograph: Photo: Nicholas Knight, courtesy the artist, LaGuardia Gateway Partners, Public Art Fund and NY, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles, ©Sabine Hornig and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn Germany
LaGuardia Airport, Terminal B, Public Art Fund, Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens, Sarah Sze
Photograph: Photo: Nicholas Knight, courtesy the artist, LaGuardia Gateway Partners, Public Art Fund and NY, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles, ©Sabine Hornig and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn Germany
LaGuardia Airport, Terminal B, Public Art Fund, Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens, Sarah Sze
Photograph: Photo: Nicholas Knight, courtesy the artist, LaGuardia Gateway Partners, Public Art Fund and NY, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York/Los Angeles, ©Sabine Hornig and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn Germany

Laura Owens, I [Pizza] NY

The title of Owens's colossal mosaic mural for Terminal B's largest wall is actually a pizza emoji separating the letters I and NY, which pretty much sums up the quirky tone of the Los Angeles painter's love letter to NYC. Using handmade glazed ceramic tiles for the first time, Owens has situated referential shout-outs to the Five Boroughs—among them, the Cyclone at Coney Island, the Apollo theater sign in Harlem, an ice-cream truck, the Chrysler Building and the aforementioned slice to go—against a blue sky filled with puffy white clouds.

LaGuardia Airport, Terminal B, Public Art Fund, Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens, Sarah Sze
Photograph: Tom Powel Imaging, courtesy the artist, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York/Rome, Sadie Coles HQ, London and Galerie Gisela Capitan, Cologne
LaGuardia Airport, Terminal B, Public Art Fund, Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens, Sarah Sze
Photograph: Tom Powel Imaging, courtesy the artist, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York/Rome, Sadie Coles HQ, London and Galerie Gisela Capitan, Cologne
LaGuardia Airport, Terminal B, Public Art Fund, Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens, Sarah Sze
Photograph: Tom Powel Imaging, courtesy the artist, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York/Rome, Sadie Coles HQ, London and Galerie Gisela Capitan, Cologne

Sarah Sze, Shorter than the Day

Known for ethereal assemblages made from found materials, Sze offers a monumental spherical sculpture that's part exploded diagram, part globe. Made of steel and aluminum, the piece, which takes its name from a poem by Emily Dickinson, is essentially a skeletal armature on which Sze has clipped hundreds of photographs of the sky above New York City taken over a single day. Appearing to swirl in mid-air, the photos create a dizzying constellation of images that, much like Dickson's work, meditates on permanence and transience.

LaGuardia Airport, Terminal B, Public Art Fund, Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens, Sarah Sze
Photograph: Nicholas Knight, courtesy the artist, LaGuardia Gateway Partners and Public Art Fund, NY, © Sarah Sze
LaGuardia Airport, Terminal B, Public Art Fund, Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens, Sarah Sze
Photograph: Nicholas Knight, courtesy the artist, LaGuardia Gateway Partners and Public Art Fund, NY, © Sarah Sze
LaGuardia Airport, Terminal B, Public Art Fund, Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens, Sarah Sze
Photograph: Nicholas Knight, courtesy the artist, LaGuardia Gateway Partners and Public Art Fund, NY, © Sarah Sze

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