Nashville International Airport® Unveils Winter/Spring Flying Solo Exhibition Showcasing Nashville Artists

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Jan. 28, 2026) – Nashville International Airport® (BNA®) has debuted its Winter/Spring installment of the acclaimed Flying Solo exhibition series, offering travelers an opportunity to experience new works by Nashville‑area artists. The exhibits will remain on display through April 19, 2026, featuring works by Nashville artists including Amber Lelli, Kymberlee Stanley, Yanira Vissepó and David Wilson.

Flying Solo is a longstanding rotating exhibition program that highlights the work of local artists and arts organizations each season. The series presents a diverse range of media—including mixed media, oil paintings, acrylics and collages —selected to reflect the depth and creativity of Nashville’s artistic community. 

Since its establishment in 1988, BNA’s Arts at the Airport program has served as a dynamic platform for showcasing Tennessee’s cultural richness. The airport’s terminal and public spaces feature a blend of rotating exhibitions, permanent artworks and live performances, creating an engaging cultural experience for millions of travelers each year. 

A brief biography of the featured artists and their work is as follows:

• Amber Lelli
  “Rest in Pieces” (mixed media)
  Located on Concourse D, near Gates D3 and D5
  https://www.amberlelliart.com/ 
  Instagram: @amberlelliart 

Amber Lelli is an artist guided by curiosity and a drive to continually expand the boundaries of her work. Her work ranges from large‑scale sculpture to intricate marquetry and bold printmaking, exploring how materials and ideas can be stretched, combined and reimagined. Each piece invites viewers to experience something new, whether through the harmony of contrasting elements or a story told through innovative design.  

A Tennessee native, Lelli earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in studio art from Middle Tennessee State University. She has created public art installations and immersive environments for institutions and festivals across the country. One of her most notable works, “Celestial Falls,” is a two‑story suspended sculpture commissioned by the city of Nashville that blends technical precision with imaginative vision. 

“Rest in Pieces” reflects on themes of grief, remembrance and renewal. Drawing on the symbolic language of floriography, the series examines how individuals and communities navigate loss and the process of rebuilding. Each sculptural form incorporates floral motifs chosen to honor personal stories, memorials or shared values such as respect, friendship and hope.  

The exhibit invites viewers to consider the emotional fragments they carry and encourages a collective movement toward healing and intention. 

• Kymberlee Stanley
  “Windows of Wonder” (oil on canvas)
  Located on Concourse D, near Gate D2
  https://www.kymberleestanley.com/
  Instagram: @kymberleestanley1 

Kymberlee Stanley is an award-winning contemporary impressionist known for bold brushstrokes, vibrant color and a dynamic use of light. A Southern California native, she draws inspiration from coastal color and invites viewers to pause and notice moments of beauty in everyday life. 

Stanley moved to Nashville in 2012 at age 46 and began a focused pursuit of oil painting after earlier careers in teaching and social work. Her work has since been featured in numerous juried exhibitions, including those of the Laguna Beach and Southern California Plein Air associations, the Oceanside Museum of Art and Nashville’s Parthenon Museum. In 2025, she was honored with the Oil Painters of America’s Betty Schmidt Memorial Scholarship, supporting her plein air studies in France. 

In 2024, she founded the Nashville Painters’ Salon, modeled after the artist gatherings of the French Impressionists, and hosts regular studio sessions for artists seeking community and development. She is also a licensed psychotherapist and leads therapeutic arts workshops exploring the connections among creativity, spirituality and healing.

Stanley views art as an invitation to attention and transformation. Her painting “Sabbath” emerged from the view outside her window while she recovered from breast cancer in 2022. Her “Windows of Wonder” exhibit was conceived while painting on stage at the Nashville Home Show, where she used 100-year-old windowpanes as canvases. 

Through her work, Stanley hopes to offer viewers a look through the windows of time and reflect on how art can meet them—and carry them—through the changing seasons of their lives. 

• Yanira Vissepó 
  “Stacking Stones” (Acrylic, oil relief on linen)
  A/B Waiting Area, Pre-Security
  https://www.yaniravissepo.com/ 
  Instagram: @yaniravissepo

Yanira Vissepó creates vibrant compositions that connect the landscapes and flora of her native Puerto Rico with those of her adopted home in the American South. Her work pairs dreamy, color‑saturated washes with sharp, cut‑out plant forms, creating a dynamic mix of minimal and immersive elements that balances defined and undefined shapes. 

Drawing on her experience as part of the Puerto Rican diaspora, she explores themes of identity, transition and environmental history. Techniques including stain painting, linocut printmaking, cyanotype, dye resists and hand embroidery emphasize both the resilience and fragility of the natural world. The plants she depicts—species native to Puerto Rico and Tennessee—serve as symbols of healing and connection, linking the ecological and cultural narratives of her two homes. 

Vissepó studied printmaking in 2019 at the Kyoto International Mokuhanga School, an experience that shaped her use of soft gradients and refined forms. She has completed residencies at Coop Gallery in Nashville, the Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory (MI-LAB) in Echizen, Japan, and the Nashville Public Library. She has also served as a teaching artist at the Frist Art Museum and the Nashville Public Library. 

Her work is included in the collections of the Metro Arts Lending Library in Nashville, Soho House Nashville and the Vanderbilt Museum of Art. Vissepó has held solo exhibitions at the Lyndon House Arts Center in Athens, Georgia; Elephant Gallery in Nashville; and Sheet Cake Gallery in Memphis. She has also participated in group exhibitions at 21c Museum Hotel Nashville, the Vanderbilt Museum of Art and the Frist Art Museum.

• David Wilson
  “Now Arriving...” (acrylic and collage)
  Level 1, International Arrivals Waiting Area, Pre-security
  Instagram: @ddwilson75 

David Wilson was born in Lockport, Illinois. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from Illinois State University in 2001, a Bachelor of Arts degree in fine art/design from Columbia College Chicago in 1998 and an Associate of Arts degree in fine art from Joliet Junior College in 1995. 

Wilson has taught various studio art and art history courses at Black Hills State University, Eureka College, Illinois State University, International Music Camp, Joliet Junior College, Oregon Coast Community College, Owensboro Community and Technical College, University of St. Francis, and Vanderbilt University’s Sarratt Art Studios. Since 2001, he has participated in more than 150 exhibitions, conducted grant-funded research with U.S. military art collections, and organized fundraising events for several arts nonprofits. He has also served as curator for the Salem Art Association in Oregon and for Owensboro Community and Technical College in Kentucky. 

Wilson currently works as the program coordinator for the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University. He volunteers with Gilda’s Club Middle Tennessee, where he leads workshops and coordinates the organization’s annual art exhibition. He also teaches watercolor at Vanderbilt’s Sarratt Art Studios and recently curated “The Art of Cartooning: Content and Process,” an exhibition at Nashville State Community College examining cultural, political and social issues through original comic strips, political cartoons and animation art. 

 The Flying Solo series stands as a testament to BNA’s dedication to uplifting local artists and enriching the traveler experience.