Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

The San Antonio International Airport has joined the national trend of welcoming art and artists in its terminals, garages and outdoor spaces.  There’s art just about everywhere; you just have to look. The program is a project of the City of San Antonio Aviation Department.

Some of the art is permanently on display, such as the “Star of Texas” red sculpture by Mexican sculptor Sebastian that greets folks as they arrive at the airport, and the 16-foot “Suitcase Wheel” by the Art Guys, in the Terminal B ticketing area. The latter is an imposing, can’t-miss ring made out of 75 old Samsonite suitcases. Another impressive permanent installation consists of a series of murals depicting the history and cultures that made San Antonio what it is today. Titled “Adelante,” it is seldom seen by San Antonians as it is placed in the rental car area.

But the airport also has an exhibit program that brings new shows to the terminals on a regular basis and showcases mostly San Antonio artists. Six of those have recently been installed. Like the rest of the airport art, they all aim to “create a sense of place” but also give exposure to the artists. The six are briefly described below.

Perspectives from the Sky consists of aerial photos of San Antonio landmarks taken by a drone. The seven large photos are the work of computer scientist Gabe Zeckua, who bought his first drone in 2013 to experiment with drone photography. Featured are places such as the River Walk, the Alamodome, the San Fernando Cathedral, and other landmarks. One of the most creative “perspectives” is his composite take that includes all those landmarks in a circular photo rendition from above. The photo panels are somewhat awkwardly placed on the wall just past the security check point in Termina A, where passengers on their way to catch their planes, are not likely to pay them much attention.

Zeckua is establishing himself nationally in the field of drone photography. In 2017, one of his aerial images was included in Dronescapes: The New Aerial Photography from Dronestagram, the world’s first book of aerial photography with drones, according to the press release. In 2018, one of his pictures was displayed at the Salon de la Photo in Paris, and the following year he collaborated with Forbes magazine on aerial images of Mexico – his homeland.

“In the last six years that I have been taking pictures with a drone, my greatest inspiration has been to show images of ordinary elements from a different perspective, taking advantage of the freedom to raise the camera to unimaginable heights and place it at extraordinary angles,” explains Zeckua in his artist statement.

An exhibit that will resonate with many San Antonians with military ties is CreatiVets:  From War to Words – A Visual Voices Portraits Series by photographer Jason Myers. The mission of CreatiVets is to promote healing of wounded veterans through art and music. According to the press release, the organization has already helped 850 vets from 48 states. Myers, who is Nashville-based, took photos of veterans included in the program. But there’s more to it. Adjacent to their photos are lyrics of the songs they wrote while in the program, as well as a QR code that allows visitors to actually listen to the songs. Myers is quoted as describing his work with the wounded warriors as “the most important and impactful.”  That from a man who has photographed presidents and celebrities throughout his career. The exhibit is located in Terminal B’s security check line area, and in the post-security area in Terminal A.

In Terminal B’s baggage claim downstairs, try not to miss the five paintings by San Antonio artist Giovanna DiZurita.  At first glance, they look like photos or drawings because they are basically executed in black-and-white but they are paintings – and mixed media – with a lot of interesting and imaginative details, referring and alluding to flying. One work shows a captivating “portrait” of a female pilot whose expression hints at all the things she knows and has been through. Stand there for a while and she’ll communicate with you. Another image, “Time to Depart” is another enigmatic woman with a determined expression on her face and tiny airplanes painted on her dark glasses. She, too, tells stories.

In addition to painting, DiZurita also has her own brand of merchandise called DiZurita, which sells apparel, accessories and home décor.

There’s also a small exhibit of art by Aviation employees and relatives, to celebrate “those who have persevered through unprecedented times,” the first ever employee exhibit, titled Essential Expressions. The Aviation Department’s PR rep, Tonya Hope, has two “broken heart” works in the show. We are labeling them “broken heart” as they are beautiful constructions of jagged glass fragments contained in a heart shape. The meaning is clear. (TA Baggage claim)

Another photo exhibit is The March, featuring documentary photography by Allee Wallace who has been photographing San Antonio’s MLK marches for a decade. San Antonio has the largest march in the U.S., with some 300,000 people of all races participating. The tradition started with the “March for Justice” organized by the late Rev. Dr. Raymond Callies, Sr. 53 years ago. Something San Antonio is proud of. (In the waiting room of Terminal A)

On the ground level of Terminal A, just as you enter the building from the garage and turn left, you’ll find a fairly large exhibit, Mission to Mars that highlights the talents and visions of young artists. In 2020, the Dee Howard Foundation and UTSA teamed up to create an art contest for PreK-12 students focusing on aviation and aerospace. For this contest, students depicted their interpretations of a human mission to Mars. Hundreds of young artists entered the contest. The collection of work shown is often intriguing and fairly sophisticated. A new contest has been launched in October of this year with the theme “The Future of Flight.” That sounds like a wide-open invitation to exercise the young artists’ imagination.

The Dee Howard Company was an industry leader in engineering and production of performance improvement & quality products for the business and commercial jet aircraft market. It was based in San Antonio, and a street near the airport is named after Howard.

The man in charge of managing art exhibitions at the San Antonio Airport, including the six described above is Matt Evans, manager of Arts and Culture, and art lover, who is happy that his galleries are active again, alive with contemporary art, and hopefully making travel and waiting time at SAT more bearable, maybe even enjoyable. It was awfully quiet during 2020 when he had trouble booking artists due to a huge drop in air travel, resulting in empty airports. Much as he loves his job, he would like to create a committee to help him navigate the art program.

“At present, I am the gateway by which all art gets to the airport,” he said during a recent interview.  “I would like to open the process to the community and have others here at SAT be part of the decision process, including vendors, airline partners, aviation employees, who will adjudicate the submissions, “I like to get people who have an artistic mind and eye but we also have to include other folks and see how they respond to the art. How would you feel if you encountered this art? We need to ask these questions. The galleries based at the airport are governed by a very different “theology” than the galleries, say, at Blue Star. It’s a different space and it has a different audience with different sensibilities.

So, do travelers respond to the art?

“Absolutely!! One of the most exciting experiences for this program is installation day, when we are installing and there’s action in the terminals. To capture all feedback, we would have to stand by the artworks all the time, which is not feasible. But when we are there for the installations, we become aware how many people engage with the art. Most recently we installed the aerial drone photography and the artist was here with me installing his works. He got a lot of questions from passengers. The engagement was incredible. Airport art is still something that folks do not necessarily expect, though the practice is growing in popularity.

“That’s why it is important where you place the art. Locations are chosen with the idea of capturing a specific audience. There are exhibitions in the TSA line (security lines). If there’s no line, you just blow right through. But if there’s a line, you can enjoy some of the art that’s around you. Some of the other places include baggage claim areas where people just stand around and wait for their luggage to arrive on the carousel, so they are a captive audience. There’s art also in “hold rooms” (waiting rooms) that are often full (outside of the secured areas).”

The airport has over 400 linear feet of gallery space, though it’s not necessarily contiguous space. So, an exhibit may be shown in segments, “20 feet here, 40 feet there.”

“We utilize those exhibits to enhance our “sense of place initiative,” said Evans.