SFMOMA's Get in the Game Exhibition Shows That Sports Is No Museum Piece More than 200 compelling artworks and design objects focus on sports, including broadcast By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Tuesday, November 26, 2024 - 7:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art is hosting Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture until Feb. 18, 2025.
The U.S. is home to dozens of sports-themed museums, from the California Surf Museum to the New England Ski Museum. There are the iconic ones, of course - Cooperstown, NY's Baseball Hall of Fame, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH - as well as more-nuanced venues - the Museum of Polo in Lake Worth, FL, the World Kite Museum & Hall of Fame in Long Beach, WA. But is sports actually gallery-worthy?
San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) believes so. From Oct. 19, 2024, to Feb. 18, 2025, it's hosting Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture, which explores and chronicles the powerful - and sometimes contentious - place of athletics in contemporary life and art.
The Broadcast-Sports Angle Although the depictions of sports, produced by artists and designers inspired by athletes, are important, there are also elements that reflect broadcast's place in that universe. For instance, the exhibition features four screens showing short video clips and photography of major events in sports history and includes references to broadcast media, such as ABC's Wide World of Sports.
There are definitely connections to broadcast sports in the exhibition design, says Rebecca Herman, assistant director, communications, SFMOMA, and in some of the specific artworks as well.
Paul Pfeiffer's video installation Caryatid (Pacquiao) refers to a Manny Pacquiao boxing match.
In addition, some of the contemporary artworks in the exhibition are inspired by televised sports events:
Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno's Zidane, a 21st century portrait is a two-channel, 90-minute video using footage from 17 cameras that tracked soccer star Zinedine Zidane during the infamous 2005 match where he was sent off the field after headbutting an opponent.
Tara Mateik's video installation reenacts the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, including references to the audio commentary.
Paul Pfeiffer's video Caryatid (Pacquiao) offers edited TV coverage of a Manny Pacquiao boxing match to make it look like he's fighting an unseen opponent.
Rosalyn Drexler's painting Death of Benny Kid Paret depicts the demise of boxer Paret, with six vignettes that mimic a TV screen.
And More Audiences will also encounter conversations advancing issues around gender, race, and identity, as well as artworks responding to the achievements of such sports figures as Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Colin Kaepernick, Diana Nyad, Venus Williams, and Zidane.
Gabriel Orozco's Ping Pond Table invites museum visitors to participate.
There is also an interactive component. Viewers are able to play with interactive artworks by contemporary artists: Maurizio Cattelan's 22-person foosball table, Stadium (1991), and Gabriel Orozco's Ping Pond Table (1998), a four-way ping-pong table with a square pool in place of a net.
In addition, real-life items - Michael Johnson's gold running shoes, Nike's original Air Jordan basketball shoes - are presented as art, along with exhibits chronicling the design evolution and technological advances of surfboards, tennis racquets, and football helmets. Reflecting changes on the fields of play, the exhibition integrates more-esoteric designs from recent years, such as the Cheetah Xceed prosthetic running leg, developed by biomedical engineer Van Phillips (himself an amputee).
Sam McKinniss's painting Ameriquest Field in Arlington, TX, Sept. 3, 2006 depicts baseball fans in the stands.
The show - SFMOMA's largest-ever single-subject exhibition - has a companion book. The identically titled tome examines how sports unites people through shared emotional and physical experiences and sparks conversations on gender, race, money, the human body, and the drive to compete and win. Topics range from the intersection of race and mental health and the role of stadiums in society to the history of adaptive sports and the data revolution in baseball. The book also revisits key moments in sports history, such as Colin Kaepernick's protest, Simone Biles's withdrawal from the 2020 Olympics, the first-ever Gay Games, and Brandi Chastain's World Cup win.
San Francisco and the Bay Area may be losing sports teams - the NFL Raiders left Oakland for Las Vegas in 2020; the MLB Athletics played their final game at the Oakland Coliseum in September and will play in Sacramento for the next three or more seasons - but the NFL 49ers, the MLB Giants, and the NHL Sharks are still there. Now the area also has an artistic rendering of sports that's as unique as it gets.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
09/10/2026
September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026
New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
30/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/09/2026
Mavis has launched Mavis Camera 8.2, the latest release of its professional camera app for the iPhone and iPad. This update brings support for iPhone 18 Pro and...
29/09/2026
Oak View Group (OVG) has announced Cisco as an Official Technology Partner, with plans to standardize infrastructure across its venue network on Cisco solutions...
29/09/2026
SportsNet Pittsburgh (SNP) won three honors at the 2026 Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
Program awards went to Bucs BP in the Sports Program Live category (produced ...
29/09/2026
The Professional Women's Hockey League has announced home openers for all 12 teams for the 2026-27 season, along with a broadcast partnership with CBC under...
29/09/2026
Manifold technologies has been recognized as a contributor to the Media eXchange...
29/09/2026
FuboTV has announced My Local Sports, allowing subscribers in select markets to add their local regional sports network (RSN) as an add-on to a Fubo Sports subs...
29/09/2026
Asian News International (ANI), a wire agency and video news provider based in India, has deployed Grass Valley's AMPP Media Operating System and Framelight...
29/09/2026
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has deployed Ikegami UHK-X600 cameras as part of an upgrade to IP-based production infrastructure. The deployment ...
29/09/2026
REMI, REMCO models will drive the bulk of the broadcaster's NHL productions ...
29/09/2026
Three years in, the facility is supporting more centralized race production, com...
29/09/2026
NBC, Peacock, and NBSN are carrying all four Wild Card series with a production ...
29/09/2026
19 Nonfiction Projects Across All Stages of Production to Receive More Than $1 million in Support as Documentary Film Program Approaches 25th Anniversary
LOS ...
29/09/2026
Two new plug-ins launch alongside updated bundles
Zynaptiq have just announced the launch of two new plug-ins, alongside new and improved versions of two of...
29/09/2026
All-in-one bus processor revealed
Wes Audio's ng product range has come a long way since it was first introduced, and now includes a tasty selection of ...
29/09/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Ikegami announces that the South African Broadcasting Corporation, SABC, has chosen Ikegami UHK-X600 camera systems as part of an advance to IP-based operation ...
29/09/2026
Blendkit Offers 20% Discount to Celebrate Crossing 150K Asset Milestone
Brie Clayton September 29, 2026
0 Comments
Blendkit, the largest 3D asset libr...
29/09/2026
Interactive streaming specialist Ease Live supported more than 76.5 million fan sessions across three major European media operators during this summers FIFA Wo...
29/09/2026
Ease Live has added support for VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) to its graphical overlay technology, opening up new ways for broadcasters, streamers and rights...
29/09/2026
Rise AV has announced the launch of the inaugural Rise AV Awards, a new global awards programme celebrating the women, advocates and organisations across the AV...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Clear-Com announced that First Baptist Nashville has upgraded its production communications with a Clear-Com intercom solution as part of a comprehensive sanct...
29/09/2026
Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K Captured Action Shots for Sketch
Brie Clayton September 28, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's portable design and dynamic range...
29/09/2026
Kean Production Services Deploys AJA ColorBox to Deliver Consistent, Accurate Co...
29/09/2026
Berklee Alumni and Faculty Nominated for the 2026 Latin Grammy Awards A total of 28 Berklee alumni and faculty earned nominations across 20 categories this ye...
29/09/2026
Berklee's K-Pop & Beyond Explores Connections Between K-Pop and Hip-Hop Now in its fifth year, the series brings together artists, industry leaders, and s...
29/09/2026
We tend to think we live in a digital world, with hopes and fears around artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, data centres and the next big technolo...
29/09/2026
Today, in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Apple relea...
29/09/2026
Final Cut Camera, the professional filming app for iPhone, receives a major upda...
29/09/2026
RT lyric fm is proud to announce the annual Choirs for Christmas competition callout. Warm up those vocal chords and join us on RT lyric fm for a celebration ...
28/09/2026
The NHL has announced Adobe as an Official Creative, Marketing and AI Partner beginning with the 2026-27 season. The partnership will provide the league and its...
28/09/2026
MultiDyne will exhibit at CABSAT 2026 (October 5-7, Dubai Exhibition Centre), showcasing an expanded technology portfolio following its June 2026 acquisition of...
28/09/2026
ARRI and HONOR have announced the HONOR Magic9 Pro Max, a flagship smartphone carrying ARRI branding on the device and packaging as the first product-level expr...
SFMOMA's Get in the Game Exhibition Shows That Sports Is No Museum Piece More than 200 compelling artworks and design objects focus on sports, including broadcast By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
