A new art installation at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport aims to celebrate and highlight women in the art industry in a unique way.
Fort Lauderdale-based artist Lori Pratico, whose background is as a billboard painter in Philadelphia, used her expertise in mixing text with artwork on a large scale to create “NOTICE,” which features the names of over 100 female artists printed in bold letters on the floor and walls of the airport’s Terminal 1 Concourse C gallery space.
The exhibit, which debuted in January, invites viewers to challenge and re-evaluate how we view female artists and their impact in our modern day and throughout history. The idea for this piece comes from Pratico’s work through her non-profit, Girl Noticed, where she created murals celebrating noteworthy women and girls around the country, she said.
“I traveled around the United States doing murals that celebrated girls and women who had been nominated by their community. The murals were portraits of whoever was nominated, but they also included words that highlighted a message attached to each woman or girl,” says Pratico.
Following this experience creating murals celebrating numerous women throughout the country, Pratico hoped to continue to find new ways to celebrate women through her art, she said. That’s when an opportunity arose to display her art in the TC1 gallery space in the Fort Lauderdale Airport.
“When this opportunity came about to create something to be displayed in this very public space, I started looking at how I could still recognize women who often go unnoticed but in a different way,” she says. She decided the best way to highlight women in her exhibition was by celebrating a variety of female artists, including household names and lesser-known creatives.
In addition to the artists’ names printed on the walls and floor, there are four transparent vellum sheets suspended from the ceiling that depict artists Frida Kahlo, Lee Krasner, Yayoi Kusama, and Alma Thomas. “For these hanging portraits, I wanted to feature artists who I felt have had a major impact on the art industry but ones who also inspired me personally as an artist,” she says.
“That’s why I chose to print their images on this transparent film, which I then added hand-painted embellishments to. I wanted the viewers to be able to see the other artists’ names through their images. It serves as a way to show how they’ve sort of cleared the way for future female artists.”
As an artist, Pratico emphasizes including a deeper meaning in each of her creations. So, by having an exhibition showcasing an important message about female representation in the arts, it’s not lost on her how significant it is to have her art in such a high-traffic area, she said.
“It feels like a privilege to have my art be seen by so many people from all different walks of life, but I hope that there’s a young girl who maybe goes, looks up a name, and studies that artist,” says Pratico.
“NOTICE” will be the final of four exhibitions shown in the T1C gallery, which opened in August 2023 as a temporary space dedicated to featuring immersive art experiences for airport visitors.
The temporary art space will go away as the airport’s Terminal Connectors project begins. The $260 million upgrade is expected by late 2027 and will create two new terminal connectors linking Terminals 1 and 2 and Terminals 2 and 3.
If You Go
WHAT:
“NOTICE” by Lori Pratico
WHEN:
Through July 2025
TICKETS:
Accessible to Terminal 1 passengers with a valid boarding pass to go beyond the security checkpoint area
WHERE:
Terminal 1, Concourse C, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, 100 Terminal Dr., Fort Lauderdale
INFORMATION:
Broward.org/Arts
