By Lisa Kennedy
The Denver Post
On a chilly afternoon recently, David Choe put down a spray-paint can and walked away from the 36-foot portion of a mural he was at work on at City Hall Events Venue on Broadway. His comrades in paint, Joe To and DVS-1 , kept on in mauves and lavenders and then some on a piece that will measure 100 feet long and 8 feet tall.
Plying their talents on similarly large-scale panels nearby in the warehouse-sized space with the retractable roof were urban artists Sam Flores from San Francisco and Highraff (Rafael Pierri) of São Paulo, Brazil.
Choe, Flores and Highraff are the internationally lauded stars of Terminal Kings, a 10-day art happening at City Hall, 1144 Broadway, running through Jan. 21. The event features the artists at work, as well as music, panels, performances and films (including the winkingly smart street-art-versus-the-art-biz doc “Exit Through the Gift Shop.”)
When the artists put away their spray cans, brushes and protective masks; when the many DJs unplug their turntables and amps; when international spinner DJ Z-Trip closes the final party, the Terminal Kings project won’t be over.
It’ll just be getting started, just beginning to earn its slick moniker. Because the DU-sponsored art extravaganza was conceived as a richly experiential way to announce the arrival of the murals to Denver International Airport.
The three murals are part of the airport’s Art & Culture program.
Is DIA getting hip?
“I hesitate to say that it is our intention to appeal to a hip crowd with this project,” said Matt Chasansky, DIA’s public art administrator and head of the Art & Culture Program.
“One increasingly finds these artworks in the collections of even the stodgiest museums.
This art is no longer fringe or counterculture, but a part of our common cultural language. The three artists are all living in this curious in-between world that street art now occupies — one foot in ‘hip’ and one foot in the art history books.”
The airport has capital-improvement projects as well as other construction, and the murals will be installed as barricades around various airport projects over the course of the next five years. It’s a mobile, functional feast for the eyes.
“This project has a sort of practical appeal to our needs at the airport,” said Chasansky via e-mail. “Street art was born out of the desire to improve blighted environments. What’s more, this tradition is comfortable with artwork appearing overnight and having a limited life. This ephemeral quality is perfect to address our our needs.”
Meanwhile, Highraff, Choe and Flores have been painting their passion for all to see daily at the downtown club.
Sitting on a sofa in the bar above the dance floor housing the murals, Choe explains why after saying “no” to so many projects, he signed up for Terminal Kings. It’s a twofold reason.
“My art has gotten to the point I can’t buy my own paintings,” he said. “I spend a year on a painting. I have a huge gallery show. I sell my work for hundreds of thousands of dollars and it goes into some rich person’s house. I’m not complaining. It’s nice to make a living this way. I’m out of the starving artist zone. But no one gets to enjoy it. It makes you re-evaluate why you do art in the first place.”
To do something cheaper and more accessible appealed. Plus, Choe knows airports intimately.
“I travel nonstop,” the Los Angeles native said. “There’s that Tom Hanks movie (‘The Terminal’). I feel like that’s my life. I figure if I do something at the airport a lot more people can see it. It’s a nice way for people to see my art.”
ENTER TO WIN TWO TICKETS TO THE TERMINAL KINGS CLOSING NIGHT PARTY WITH DJ Z-TRIP:
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Lisa Kennedy is the Denver Post film critic.
