Miami International Airport in Florida has unveiled its newest art installation, by renowned local painter Magnus Sodamin.
Located in Concourse E, Sodamin’s hand-painted mural, Reflections of Florida Wild, is a portrayal of the diverse wildlife and lush landscape of Southern Florida, and a testament to the importance of preserving these wild spaces for the future.
Sodamin said, “Every time I’m on a flight, I get a window seat peering out over places I’ve visited in the glades. The first thing I would like travelers to see, whether entering the city or leaving, is a reflection of the environment that’s here, and to gain a perspective of what they are viewing from the plane. Through these works, I hope to evoke their memory and memorialize Florida’s magnificent and unique wilderness.”
The artist’s nature-inspired paintings are said to explore changing global narratives through spiritual inquiry and spontaneous creativity. Using an expanded painting practice that is both hallucinatory and precise, Sodamin employs various techniques to blur the frontier between abstraction and landscape painting. His singular installations often begin with painting the walls and floors of an exhibition space with vibrant splashes of color and then installing the space with similarly emotive yet complementary canvas or panel compositions.
Sodamin received his bachelor of fine arts degree in painting with a minor in art history from the New World School of the Arts in Miami. He spent a year developing his painting practice at the Nansenskolen (The Nansen Academy) in Lillehammer, Norway, a humanitarian institute that focuses on cross-cultural exchange. He lives and works in Miami, where his next scheduled solo show Wild Alter will be at Dot Fiftyone Gallery, from September 18 to November 13.
