Thomas Evans knows the power of public art. The Denver muralist, who works under the name Detour, has received dozens of commissions for color-splashed paintings and building-sized murals around the country.
He’s taken over streets and galleries with tributes depicting George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Elijah McClain, who were all killed by police; covered walls in Five Points, along Interstate 70 and on Colfax Avenue; and has done portraits for David Letterman’s Netflix series, “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.” His work is instantly recognizable, with vibrant, impressionistic swirls of purple, orange, green and red.
Few projects, however, will match the size and scope of his latest work, which will begin to take shape on Monday above the entrance to Concourse B at Denver International Airport, where there are dozens of gates and millions of passengers each year. It will take a team of 12 to 15 people to carefully hang it from the ceiling over the next seven days.
“Even with the largest of my 2-D works, I’m able to create them myself,” Evans explained. “But for this one, I have a fabrication team and I have to make sure I adhere to all the airport requirements, permits, general contractors — all these different stakeholders. I’m not a welder or an architect.”
Evans’ new work has been generating buzz ever since he started documenting its creation on Instagram in 2022. He’s met with diverse city groups and reached out to regular people — including 150 folks who donated luggage to the project after being invited online — to “give them a bigger stake in its completion,” he said.
In videos, he jokes from the back of speeding carts about DIA conspiracy theories like “the Illuminati” while navigating real underground tunnels at the airport. He spray-paints luggage with Technicolor hues but also delves into the elaborate planning and approvals required for such a project, from submitting his original bid to transporting the piece.
Once it is complete on Jan. 19, the sculpture, titled “It’s Not What You Take, It’s What You Bring Back,” will be a rainbow-colored figure-eight made out of the donated luggage. At 30 feet long, 20 feet wide and 10 feet high, it will instantly become one of the most striking works at DIA.
The installation comes after the biggest reshuffling of the airport’s art collection in its history. In 2018, DIA removed and stored many of its 34 on-display pieces, including some that were well-known, in order to make way for massive construction projects. Now, airport officials and artists are laboring to slowly reinstall those pieces, and have said that all of them will eventually return.
A “wayfinder” for people
Funding for Evans’ piece, budgeted for $450,000, comes from the city’s 1% for Public Art Ordinance, which has supported Denver’s iconic public art, including Lawrence Argent’s “I See What You Mean” (a.k.a., The Big Blue Bear, at the Colorado Convention Center).
The airport collection alone includes 230 pieces, many of them the subject of intense public fascination. Notable pieces include the oversized horse known as “Blue Mustang” (unofficially: Blucifer), Leo Tanguma’s sprawling “Children of the World Dream of Peace” mural, and dozens other diverse works that range from metallic paper airplanes to delicate ceramic balustrades, bronze gargoyles, and audio art in the form of the late Jim Green’s train announcements.
“I want to make something that people can’t mistake for anything else,” Evans said about his art piece. “It’s not something that’s super conceptual that’s going to hang over people’s heads. I want to address not only 4- and 5-year-olds but also people who are 80, who all have something in common at the airport. It adds volume, and it stands out, and it can be a new wayfinder for people.”
DIA’s original art commissions, and certainly much of their creation, predates the airport’s 1995 opening, so some of it is now celebrating 30th birthdays, even if many of the “legacy pieces,” as they’re called, are in storage pending construction timelines.
Art that was put into storage in 2018 to make room for the Great Hall renovation can only return as individual areas are finished, said Samantha Weston, DIA’s public art program manager. That poses serious challenges that were unforeseen during their original installation.
For instance, artist Betty Woodman’s four-part “Balustrade,” made up of 28 hand-thrown ceramic vases “that form a colorful frame for the Great Hall below,” is only slowly returning to the sky bridges in the main terminal, Weston said.
Each group of seven vases is connected by a railing that conceals rebar and a heavy mortar-and-cement mixture. To bring the first one back in October 2023, a custom metal trussing box was spider-craned from level 6 during the installation of new flooring and security glass.
“It took us about a week to even get it back into the building,” Weston said as she regarded the piece on a recent weekday. It was never intended to be moved from its original location, she said, adding that only a quarter of the original is now back.
Bad news, great art
The airport expansion, which began in 2018, was originally budgeted for up to $770 million over a five-year timeline. But as of this month, the cost estimate has ballooned to $2.1 billion with completion now delayed until 2027.
On Wednesday, Denver auditor Tim O’Brien said he’s planning a fresh review of a large portion of the expansion after a follow-up of a 2023 audit found persistent oversight problems.
Reintroducing the art seems like a small project in comparison, but it’s not as easy as throwing a box of paintings at a wall, Weston said.
Terry Allen’s “Notre Denver,” a two-piece work that depicts gargoyles emerging from Samsonite luggage (their factory closed in Montbello in 2001) used to sit on pedestals, but have been elevated anew on steel columns that overlook the baggage carousels.
“Terry wanted it to be playful and fun, so while (gargoyles are) placed on buildings to provide protection, they’re also here to ensure safe arrival of your bags,” she added.
Weston also pointed to the continuing reinstallation of “Experimental Aviation,” a group of 140 metal sculptures from artist Patty Ortiz that are shaped like paper airplanes and suspended from the ceiling around the Jeppesen Terminal. During their time out of public view, Ortiz flew them back to her Texas studio so she could repaint and hand-clean each of them before their staggered reintroduction in Denver.
Preserving art for the future
Not all of DIA’s artwork has lasted. A fountain called “Mountain Mirage” was decommissioned in 2010 because of leaks, for example, while Michael Singer’s jungle-like “Interior Garden” above the train on Concourse C was the subject of a dispute between the artist and the airport over its proposed removal in 2017.
It’s something Weston said will inform the installation of future artworks. And there will definitely be more. DIA plans to recruit more artists in varying stages of their careers for its permanent works and rotating exhibitions, reflecting diverse backgrounds and ideas intended to spark wonder and conversations, Weston said. Artists can apply and sign up for updates at flydenver.com/at-the-airport/art/opportunities.
Detour’s piece is the only big unveiling planned at this point.
“A very big concern going forward is making sure that whatever we bring in, we can preserve for the passenger and community for generations to come,” Weston said.