Art In Transit

​Andrew Leicester

​Minneapolis, MN
Bobbins
Brick bridge columns, pavers
2007

The Carolina textile industry inspired Leicester's brick cladding for six sculptural bridge columns supporting the Trade Street light rail platform at the CTC/Arena Station. Using three colors of brick, shape, and pattern, the artist creates unique designs that respond to multiple angles of view, while referencing the bobbins theme of his ceramic art surrounding the Charlotte Bobcats Arena. The platform paving features a five-color Zig Zag Reversed Twill Weave pattern based on American cotton design. The art honors the creativity inherent in artifacts of the textile industry – the shape of a bobbin, webs of thread, the finished fabric – and the ingenuity of technological innovations in textile production.

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Artist Bio​​

For the past three decades, British born Andrew Leicester has created public art projects throughout the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. His dedication to public art stems from his desire to make art accessible to all people, and, to drive this accessibility, his projects are always tightly woven to the social, historical, and environmental characteristics of their location. Leicester has won numerous awards for his work, as well as fellowships from the McKnight Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. His most recent work addresses the issues of sustainability, most specifically wind and solar power, and reclamation.