Native Phoenician and mixed media artist Bill Dambrova finally found the perfect gallery space to showcase his work: the Phoenix Airport Museum.

Public airports and contemporary art aren’t often mentioned in the same conversation. Yet, the airport is the best destination to view art, says Dambrova, whose large-scale imagery appears throughout Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

“It helps educate visitors about the area and to take your art seriously,” he says of the airport’s ability to cast an accessible, artistic net. “[As an artist] you get an audience from all walks of life and different opinions about what art is. It’s on the level of showing your work at a major museum.”

Sky Harbor has long been a resource to visually and artistically welcome the masses to the city, says museum director Gary Martelli. While the museum officially launched in 1988, the airport’s interest in art dates back to the 1960s, when the former Terminal 2 became home to the iconic “The Phoenix,” a 75-foot-wide, 16-foot-high triptych designed by Paul Coze. Believed to be the first piece of public art commissioned by the city and chosen by public vote, the mural remained there until 2020 when it was relocated to the airport’s Rental Car Center.

Today, the museum curates and manages the airport’s vast art collection and exhibits located in all Sky Harbor terminals, the Phoenix Sky Train platforms, the Phoenix Airport Rental Car Center, and Phoenix-Deer Valley and Phoenix-Goodyear airports. Its mission is to enhance the airport visitor’s experience by creating a memorable environment that promotes Arizona’s unique artistic and cultural heritage through rotating exhibits, pop-up shows, a permanent art collection and aviation history collection.

Martelli says these efforts are an essential part of the travel atmosphere and the art helps convey the city’s and state’s stories in interesting ways. “It represents contemporary artists doing relevant artwork on every topic,” he says.

As the second largest airport art collection in the country, visitors are introduced to diverse art forms and styles represented in paintings, photography, sculptures, murals, textiles, historical references and integrated design—from inside to outside, ceiling to floor and everywhere in between. “It’s more than sunsets and Kokopellis,” says Martelli.

Most of the art at Sky Harbor is created by emerging and established Arizona artists and is acquired through donations, purchases funded by the City of Phoenix’s Percent for Art program, and vetted from call for entries for specific exhibits. Rotating exhibits can last from six months to a year, and span a range of storytelling that includes contemporary art and objects that connect visitors to the city, as well as cultural time and place, from vintage flight attendant uniforms to abstract expressionism. 

Currently, there are 12 themed exhibits that cover 40 spaces around the airport. For example, Terminal 3’s ongoing exhibit, “People Watching at the Airport” is a collection of sculptures that depict the human condition during travel. In Terminal 4, 60 artists from 16 Arizona cities interpret the dark through a variety of natural and dreamy mediums in “Night Vision” (on display through May 2024).

With more than 43 million visitors traveling through Sky Harbor annually, Martelli says the airport is the ultimate art space unlike any other in the world. “It’s deeper than a picture on the wall, but it’s not intimidating. We are capturing people in a public space who don’t necessarily visit art galleries,” he says.

Plus, you don’t need a boarding pass or admission ticket to experience the art; the majority of it is displayed in pre-screened areas.

Dambrova’s painting “You Have a Great Body May I Use It?” is part of the airport’s permanent art collection and is featured in the current exhibit “Diversity in the Desert” located in terminals 3 and 4. His art also is underfoot at the Rental Car Center where the terrazzo flooring on the adjacent Sky Train platform is imprinted with his vibrant biological designs.

“It’s art in the wild,” says Dambrova, who is a museum exhibition designer, too. And despite the frenetic energy of an airport, it’s a natural spot where people can take a moment and appreciate art, without the pretense. “More public art helps people give pause, and an airport is one of the best places to do that.”