Indy Airport Exhibition Will Highlight Abstract and Animation Artists
Exhibition Available Through Winter 2017
INDIANAPOLIS (July 17, 2017) – Abstract art will be the featured genre on display this summer and fall at the Indianapolis International Airport (IND), featuring originally imagined pieces from artists that leverage architectural space, life experience, and scientific principles.
The Indianapolis Airport Authority and the Arts Council of Indianapolis have selected Marna Shopoff and Samuel Vázquez of Indianapolis, and Orie Shafer of Garrett, as the featured artists from July 16 through Nov. 12, 2017. The IAA and the Arts Council work collaboratively to review and select artwork reflective of the Indianapolis art community.
Since the opening of the midfield terminal in 2008, IND has displayed creations from select artists quarterly, intriguing visitors who fly in and out of North America’s best mid-sized airport.
“These exhibitions are part of our service to the community, and they’re a part of the Indy signature experience we want travelers to feel as they arrive in the city,” said Mario Rodriguez, executive director of the IAA. “It also gives us a chance to boast about the tremendous artistic talent Indiana has to offer.”
That talent includes Marna Shopoff, who experiences life through space, particularly architectural space, and her large-scale paintings explore human experience, place and memory through allusions to architectural elements and the metaphorical use of color. Looking at her body of work, Layered, is like walking through shining spaces shaped by walls, floors and ceilings.
The summer series will also feature the work of Samuel Vázquez, whose paintings are influenced by his youthful experiences in New York City as one of the early “style writers” of hip-hop culture. Vázquez investigates the resilience of humanity and its gift of rising beyond social constructs, all through the use of vibrant colors, uninhibited gestures, and relentless energy.
Orie Shafer’s abstract vision is leveraged through his expression of the beauty of scientific principles—mixed-media creations where math and science are expressed visually rather than rationally. Shafer, who describes himself as a poor science student as a child, uses his Lectures to Myself series to explore physics, astronomy, chemistry, and geometry using drawings, paintings, and collages. The altar form that these works frequently take is a deliberate allusion to the time periods when many scientific discoveries were made, which were also times of great leaps in religious thinking and artistic breakthroughs.
Shopoff’s and Vázquez’s work will be displayed in the Ticket Hall, and Shafer’s work can be viewed in the Concourse B exhibition case.
“We’ve shown work by both Marna and Samuel in the Arts Council’s Gallery 924 in the past year,” said Julia Moore, director of public art at the Arts Council of Indianapolis and organizer of the exhibitions. “I’m thrilled to be able to share their amazing paintings with airport guests, and also to highlight Orie’s work, which I’ve loved for over 20 years.”
In addition to the visual art exhibitions, visitors can also enjoy new video art on the screen above the main escalator/stairway to Baggage Claim.
Animator Jarrod Moschner has created a custom version of his award-winning short Penguins: The Magic Hat specifically for display at Indianapolis International Airport. In the adventure, a group of curious penguins encounter a magic hat that leads them on a journey through time and space. Moschner’s whimsical animation will be on view through December 31, appearing at unpredictable intervals as penguins often do.
To learn more about these artists and their work, visit www.ind.com/community/arts-program.