Event: Fútbol: The Beautiful Game (February 2, 2014–July 20, 2014, Los Angeles)
One of the most interesting Game Art exhibitions of the year is entirely dedicated to football aka soccer. Titled Futbol: The Beautiful Game, the new show at the LACMA (February 2 - July 20, 2014) features a killer list of players, pardon, artists who have explored the aesthetics, politics, and ideology of the beautiful game, including Douglas Gordon, Generic Art Solutions, Oscar Murillo, Mark Bradford, Andreas Gursky, and Andy Warhol. Seminal paintings, photographs, sculptures, and video works from 30 international artists are on display. Highlights include Mexico vs Brasil (2004) by Miguel Calderón, Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (2006) by Philippe Parreno and Douglas Gordon, a diorama of Rio's Iconic Maracana Stadium by Brazilian artist Nelson Leirne, not to mention Lyle Ashton Harris photographs of Italian ultras.
Kehinde Wiley, Samuel Eto'o, 2010
"The exhibition examines football—nicknamed "the beautiful game" by one sports commentator—and its significance in societies around the world. As a subject, football touches on issues of nationalism and identity, globalism and mass spectacle, as well as the common human experience shared by spectators from many cultures. Celebrating the sport on the eve of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the exhibition includes approximately thirty artists from around the world who work in video, photography, painting and sculpture. Two room-sized video installations—Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, by the artists Philippe Parreno and Douglas Gordon, and Volta by Stephen Dean—anchor the exhibition. Other works by artists including Miguel Calderon (whose 2004 video Mexico v. Brasil represents a 17-0 victory for Mexico), Robin Rhode, Kehinde Wiley, and Andy Warhol provide a sense of the miraculous possibilities of the sport as universal conversation piece." (Lacma)
Stephen Dean, VOLTA, 2002–2003
Single-channel color DVD installation (9') with audioand fabric enclosure
: LACMA
Submitted by Matteo Bittanti (all images courtesy of LACMA)