New York revamps airport terminal with art, LEGO takes to Van Gogh, and a rare Chinese vase fetches nearly £1.5 million

A SUMMARY OF THE MOST EXCITING ART NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

While we focus on Indian art, we can’t obviously function in a vacuum. It’s a small world and everything is connected, especially on the web. So, let’s train our spotlight across the world map to see what’s going on — from art trends to socio-political issues to everything that affects the great aesthetic global consciousness. Or, let’s just travel the world and have some fun! 

New York’s LaGuardia Airport opens a terminal with large-scale installations

New York has opened a new, state-of-the-art terminal at Queens’s formerly decrepit LaGuardia Airport—and it’s once again filled with large-scale art installations by leading artists. The baggage claim area is home to Ghani’s The Worlds We Speak that celebrates linguistic diversity. In the arrivals and departures halls, gem-shaped lamps by Overton hang at different heights from the ceiling. On one wall, Quevedo has Pacha Cosmopolitanism Overtime, a full-scale wooden gym floor he built from scratch. Johnson’s contribution is a three-story mosaic, 45 feet tall and 15 feet wide, of 60 cartoonish faces he’s nicknamed “Broken Men.” The $12 million in art is the work of artists Mariam Ghani, Rashid Johnson, Aliza Nisenbaum, Virginia Overton, Ronny Quevedo, and Fred Wilson and is part of a collaborative effort by the Queens Museum, Delta Air Lines, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. For more, go to the Artnet magazine. 

Now, recreate ‘The Starry Night’ in 2,316 little LEGO bricks 

Van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’ has transitioned from being a singular work of art to a mass representation of pure joy brought on by the vibrant piece of work. It has become a pop culture symbol that has inspired merchandise across the worlds, featuring on magnets and mugs and more! Now LEGO has joined the bandwagon and has come up with a 2,316-brick set priced at $169.99. It has been designed by Truman Cheng, a 25-year old from Hong Kong, through a submission on the LEGO Ideas platform, which takes designs dreamed up by fans, puts them to a public vote and turns them into reality. Read more on CNN. 

Rare vase fetches nearly £1.5 million in auction

 A rare gilded blue vase that lay rather inconspicuously in the kitchen for years, turned out to be a priceless treasure, fetching nearly £1.5 million ($1.8 million) at auction. It was initially valued at £150,000 ($186,000), according to Dreweatts, the English auction house that handled the sale. The vase, bought by a surgeon in the 1980s for a few hundred pounds, was handed over to his son. The latter had no idea of its significance till it was spotted by an expert. It was made for the court of the Qianlong Emperor — the sixth emperor of the Qing dynasty — and would have been crafted using innovative heating techniques to achieve its blue, gold and silver coloring. Measuring two feet in height, the porcelain vase is embellished with a six-character seal mark characteristic of the Qianlong era (1736-1795) along its base. CNN has more details.