If you touch down at John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2026, you will be welcomed by large-scale glass mosaic floor artworks, or, alternatively, a dangling sculpture fixed to the ceiling. Terminal 6, a new $4.2 billion wing of JFK Airport, is slated to open in two years, and on display alongside a new sleek arrivals plaza and 1.2-million-square-foot terminal will be the works of 18 contemporary artists, including Charles Gaines, Kambui Olujimi, and Nina Chanel Abney.
Behind the new terminal is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the entity responsible for managing and running large New York area airports; and JFK Millennium Partners, a private developing company comprising of Vantage Group, American Triple I, RXR Realty, and JetBlue.
Corgan designed the exterior and interiors of the terminal and Stantec is working alongside the firm on the interiors. Corgan cited dance as one of the building’s key inspirations. At the entrance will extend an “ethereal oculus,” the result of parametric modeling, while the cantilevered roof is described as a “grand crescendo.”
Terminal 6 will be distinguished not only by its imaginative architecture but by plentiful art pieces. The terminal will house the largest number of major works of any New York airport. JFK is not alone in prioritizing public art within its terminals. In 2022, both LaGuardia and Newark installed a significant slew of artworks as part of modernization projects, the result of Port Authority’s larger, art-focused vision.
“Public art that is inspiring and evocative of our region is an essential part of the Port Authority’s strategy to create world-class airports that are becoming destinations in their own right,” Port Authority’s executive director Rick Cotton said in a statement.
New York–based nonprofit Public Art Fund, the group responsible for the installations at Newark and La Guardia’s Terminal B, has commissioned several pillars of American contemporary art to enliven the airport, among these—painter and drawer, Candida Alvarez; Charles Gaines, renowned for his colorful, tree-inspired artworks; and Teresita Fernandez, known to use unconventional materials like graphite, gold, charcoal and iron ore.
Artist Barbara Kruger’s bold, typography-focused works will also be displayed at the terminal, in addition to the movement-heavy, bold paintings of Eddie Martinez. Native American artists include filmmaker Sky Hopinka, member of the Ho-Chunk Nation; and Dyani White Hawk, who holds Lakota, German, and Welsh ancestry.
A number of international talents will also be involved: South Koreans GaHee Park and Haegue Yang; Berlin-based, Turkish artist Nevin Aladag; Felipe Baeza from Mexico, Somali-born Uman, French sculptor Laure Prouvost; and Charline von Heyl and Kerstin Brätsch from Germany.
Information on all the 18 artists can be found on the Port Authority for New York and New Jersey’s website.
