February 16, 2024
By Tommy Gregory, Port Senior Art Program Manager
As the first airport in the country to have a public art program, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) has long been committed to providing access to museum-caliber contemporary works from local, national, and internationally renowned artists. And with more airport building projects and improvements underway with Upgrade SEA, this means more opportunities to expand the Port’s public art collection.
Here’s a peek at eight new artists adding new life to SEA’s collection this year.
Here now
Marita Dingus
Ticketing Level, Checkpoint 1
Marita Dingus’s work is in many regional museums and corporate collections. Dingus currently lives and works in the state of Washington and is represented by Traver Gallery in Seattle.
“I consider myself an African American Feminist and environmental artist. My approach to producing art is environmentally and politically infused: neither waste humanity nor the gifts of nature. I am primarily a mixed-media sculptor who uses discarded materials. My art draws upon relics from the African Diaspora. The discarded materials represent how people of African descent were used during the institution of slavery and colonialism and then discarded, but who found ways to repurpose themselves and thrive in a hostile world. I seek to use recovered materials, reconfiguring and incorporating them into pieces of art where possible and appropriate, and to mitigate waste and pollution in all my work. This is a creative challenge, but a commitment I incorporate into my professional and personal activities.” (Quote taken from Traver Gallery)
Barbara Earl Thomas
Ticketing Level, Checkpoint 1
Barbara Earl Thomas is a Seattle-based visual artist with numerous national exhibits to her credit and an active art-making career that spans more than 30 years. A skilled painter who now builds tension-filled narratives through papercuts and prints, placing silhouetted figures in social and political landscapes. She pulls from mythology and history to create a contemporary visual narrative that challenges the stories we tell as Americans about who we are. Thomas is also known for her large-scale installations that use light as the animating force and invite her viewers to step inside her world of illuminated scenography. (Adapted from artist’s website)
Coming soon
Elyse Pignolet
C16 Restroom
Elyse Pignolet is an American with Filipino heritage based in Los Angeles. Her work, "The History of Jazz in the United States" is pictured in the top photo. She creates primarily ceramics, inspired by numerous social issues and urban themes. They attempt to relate the traditions of ceramics and the permanence of the medium to the fleeting and transitory nature of the contemporary world. She has completed several public art projects including three large murals at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco and the Gaffey Street Public Swimming Pool in Los Angeles’ San Pedro neighborhood. (Adapted from artist’s website)
Jen Elek and Jeremy Bert
D1 Restroom
Jen Elek received her BFA from Alfred University in Metal and Hot Glass sculpture in 1994, after training as a welder in Allentown, PA. In addition to doing her own work, the Seattle-based Elek has assisted glass artists such as Dale Chihuly, Kiki Smith, Preston Singletary, Lino Tagliapietra, and others. A vibrant contemporary glass artist, Elek exhibits alongside artists of other media, breaking some of the barriers that have kept glass in the realm of craft and offering it as a worthy medium of contemporary art.
Jeremy Bert is a Pacific Northwest neon artist. Bert’s mixed media sculpture represents a strong commitment to reuse. By re-appropriating the refuse of the sign industry, Bert reclaims commercial waste and transforms it into something enriching for the community. In 1995 Jeremy moved to Seattle, where he has worked for over 20 years as a licensed sign electrician, certified welder, crane operator, and light projects designer. (Adapted from Traver Gallery and UrbanGlass.org)
De La Torre Brothers
D11 Restroom
Collaborating brothers, Einar and Jamex De La Torre, were born in Guadalajara, México, and moved to the United States in 1972. Currently, the brothers live and work on both sides of the border — the Guadalupe Valley in Baja California, México, and San Diego, California. The complexities of the immigrant experience and contradicting bicultural identities, as well as their current life and practice on both sides of the border, inform their narrative and aesthetics.
Over the years they have developed their signature style featuring mixed media work with blown glass sculpture and installation art. Their pieces represent a multifaceted view of life that reflects a complex and humorous aesthetic that could be seen as multi-layered baroque. Their approach is additive, constantly combining material and meaning. Influences range from religious iconography to German expressionism while also paying homage to Mexican vernacular arts and pre-Columbian art. (Adapted from artists’ website)
KT Hancock
Curbside Accessibility and Safety Project, August 2024
KT Hancock is a Seattle-based artist who graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Jewelry/Metalsmithing and Sculpture from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Hancock studies themes of adornment within her work through the creation of jewels and jewelry-like objects. Currently, Hancock is working as the toolmaker for Spiral Arts, an adjunct instructor at Pratt Fine Arts Center, and the founder of Velvet Nugget Studios.
Hancock’s work takes a utilitarian approach to objects and their value and focuses on the principles of object reconstruction and fabrication. Within this, the functional value of an object is completely removed. This kind of display of an object alters the perception of the viewer by removing any sort of original value and replaces it with a value of materials and charged sentimental recognition. (Adapted from artist statement).
Kyle Olson and Sandra Williams
Curbside Accessibility and Safety Project, August 2024
Kyle Olson and Sandra Williams are motivated by and engage their audience with joy and empathy. As a partnership, they are excited to continue exploring the possibilities of working in ways that allow us to make connections, contrasts, and juxtapositions that are greater as a whole than we are as parts. Their shared interest and working material is paper. Paper is such a versatile and accessible medium, and they are fascinated by the way it allows them to create a wide range of works that connect in special ways with a broad audience. Their imagery creates parallel and overlapping patterns and concerns that each viewer connects with but experiences in ways that are surprising to themselves and at times us as makers. Additionally, their respect for history, both distant and recent, informs their work as a way to respect the audience as they experience the radical shifts and rapid changes in the contemporary world. (Adapted from artist statement).
