Art in McCarran’s new Terminal 3 depicts airplanes, the desert and showgirls

By Richard N. Velotta

Wednesday, June 27, 2012 | 2 a.m.

Four international flights arrive today at McCarran International Airport’s new Terminal 3. Passengers will be the first to walk through the 1.9 million-square-foot, $2.4 billion terminal.

Besides gleaming gates, shiny carrousels and brand-new amenities, a dozen art pieces will greet the guests.

Eight artists, including four from Southern Nevada, created pieces for T3. Each depicts an image of flight or the Southwestern desert landscape, and all are focused on a “dynamic” theme of movement.

Ten artists submitted proposals for five locations when architect PGAL & Associates sought the public art pieces in 2006. Airport officials said they selected works that depict a “sense of place.” That’s also why they included a replica of the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign in the collection.

The county budgeted $5 million for the art. Here’s a look at what they chose:

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  Rays

  Portland, Ore., artist Ed Carpenter’s piece “Rays” is a 70-by-52-foot window piece and 33-by-32-foot skylight that uses dichroic glass, anodized aluminum and stainless-steel cables. “Rays” refers to colors and forms from weather patterns and the horizon. The light that streams through the building, and artificial light at night, produce different moods and colors.

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  Leila Navidi

  Cloud 9

  Las Vegas artists Barbara and Larry Domsky of Domsky Glass installed two 90-by-19-foot pieces made from dichroic fused glass and metal. “Cloud 9” is the artists’ interpretation of gathering clouds forming and reflecting in the Las Vegas sky.

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  Sunset Mirage

  “Sunset Mirage,” also by the Domskys, is a brightly colored contemporary wall structure depicting the city’s sunsets.

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  Sam Morris

  Desert Sunrise

  Bellefonte, Pa., sculptor Talley Fisher, daughter of the late sculptor Rob Fisher, created three suspended pieces for the terminal, including “Desert Sunrise,” a 75-by-45-foot installation that uses laser-cut aluminum and powder in shades of gold, red, purple and orange. It hangs on T3’s second level.

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  Waterfall

  Talley Fisher’s “Waterfall” spills from Level 2 to Level 0 along a window wall. The piece has nine curtains of beads falling through an opening in the floor to the lower level.

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  Blue Arroyo

  At the east end of Level 0 sits Talley Fisher’s “Blue Arroyo,” a sculpture of blue panels that weave around columns to create a flowing virtual river.

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  Almighty

  Australian photographer Peter Lik, a Las Vegas resident with galleries in several local resorts, has three of his landscape images from the Southwest in various locations at the airport. “Almighty” depicts Red Rock Canyon, west of Las Vegas.

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  Sacred Sunrise

  “Sacred Sunrise” was photographed by Lik in Canyonlands National Park in southern Utah.

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  Blaze of Beauty

  It’s no accident that “Blaze of Beauty,” a Lik photograph of Grand Canyon National Park, was placed in T3’s international terminal. Officials hope the thousands of foreign travelers that will move through the terminal every year will take air tours over the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas.

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  Leila Navidi

  Folies in Flight

  Las Vegas artist Terry Ritter captures the energy of a Strip show with “Folies in Flight,” a 50-by-8-foot acrylic on canvas that features showgirls seemingly leaping off the wall. It hangs in the international arrivals hall.

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  Mirare

  Stu Schechter’s “Mirare” blends the flight of butterflies with the flight of aircraft. The piece is a collection of 3,000 small butterfly sculptures suspended in the pattern of two airplanes. The butterflies dangle from 2,400 fine stainless-steel wires. The lead airplane includes butterflies that are native to Nevada while the trailing airplane displays the tail colors of planes that have landed at McCarran.

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  Children’s Art Program Photomosaic

  Robert Silvers, who invented the photomosaic, kept alive McCarran’s tradition of displaying children’s art at the airport. Silvers chose 10 pieces from nearly 33,000 submitted by Clark County elementary, middle and high school students for re-creation in a giant photomosaic. The winning images were placed on 8-by-16-foot glass panels and backlit. The “Children’s Art Program Photomosaic” hangs at the tram station that connects T3 with the D Concourse.