Justin Terry was born in Knoxville, Tenn., and grew up in Nashville where he graduated from The University School of Nashville in 1991. After receiving a bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree from the University of Colorado in Boulder, he moved to Barcelona, Spain and worked as an English professor. In 2009, he completed a master’s of Fine Arts in painting as well as a master’s of Science in Theory, Criticism, and History of Art, Design, and Architecture from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he currently lives.

Justin keeps a painting studio, teaches summer art history courses at Pratt, and writes about art in New York City. He is represented by Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville. His paintings for the airport are a continuation of an abstract series he began in 2007 called The Daily Series. They are the largest works he has made to date.

Artist Statement

“Many of our days pass without notice, consumed either by work or movements of some kind, yet each one carries a mark that is unique in how it influences an individual’s perception. In this abstract body of work, the material qualities of paint are exploited to create a surface built up from movement over time. As paint is pushed across a hard support, marks, colors, lines, and light intrinsically emerge, fossilizing the activity of work being performed on a specific, yet often generic, day. Each painting’s title comes from the date on which it is completed, thus, producing a meditative gesture towards the anonymous day.”

Shown Right: February 16, 2008, oil on birch panel, 30" x 40."

Arts at the Airport receives funding for the visual arts from the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority (MNAA) and the Tennessee Arts Commission (TAC). The Flying Solo Exhibition Series is funded under an agreement with the TAC. For more information about Arts at the Airport, please call (615) 275-1614.