Seven artists will create new commissions for the forthcoming $9.5 billion Terminal One at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, which will open in phases beginning next year.

The commissioned artists are Kelly Akashi, Firelei Báez, Julie Curtiss, Woody De Othello, Tomás Saraceno, Ilana Savdie, and Yinka Shonibare. Three of the artists—Báez, Savdie, and Curtiss—are based in New York, while Akashi is based in Los Angeles and Othello is based in Oakland, California. Shonibare is London–based, and Saraceno is Berlin–based.

The seven monumental works are being presented under the banner “We Travel Under One Sky,” part of the terminal’s larger public art program, which is being organized by Culture Corps.

Several of the works focus on New York’s histories of migration, including Shonibare’s installation of hand-painted Dutch wax batik kites, titled Kites for Queens; Savdie’s mosaic Egregoros, which alludes to Old Master paintings of voyages; and Curtiss’s mosaic of oversize hands.

Báez’s mural Blue Calaibi–Yao Muzidi (or on alternate means of navigation) will overlay sea flora and swimming figures over various historic maps of the city, while Akashi’s 18-foot Migration of Flora will feature native flowers rising f...