Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

SFMOMA's Get in the Game Exhibition Shows That Sports Is No Museum Piece

26/11/2024

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.
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2024/11/26/sfmomas-get-in-the-game-exhibit...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

06/08/2026

FCC Votes to Modify TV Station Ownership Caps

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

LTN Showcases Live Event Master Control Capabilities for...

Proven offering builds on more than 20,000 live sporting events with greater automation, flexibility, and operational control LTN , the industry leader in tran...

06/08/2026

Hornets Tech brings new encoder and decoder range to IBC2...

Hornets Tech, a specialist in broadcast connectivity and IP video, is bringing a new range of encoders, decoders and an IPTV platform to IBC2026. Broadcast in...

06/08/2026

Introducing Adobe for ChatGPT: Create, edit and get work done - all in ChatGPT

Introducing Adobe for ChatGPT: Create, edit and get work done - all in ChatGPT Deepti Pradeep August 6, 2026 0 Comments The Adobe plugin in ChatGPT br...

06/08/2026

Hisense Adds Dolby Vision 2 to Select Models

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

MediaKind to showcase one unified portfolio at IBC2026

At IBC2026, MediaKind will make its first major appearance as a unified global powerhouse in video, showcasing one of the world's most comprehensive video i...

06/08/2026

Big Blue Marble to unveil AI-assisted piracy detection an...

Big Blue Marble (#5.A63) will demonstrate how its integrated technology and operational expertise help media companies scale premium services with less complexi...

06/08/2026

NIH expected to award Scripps Research nearly $4.2 million over 5 years to advance tools for vaccine design

LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research has received more than $500,000 in first-year fund...

06/08/2026

Improving vaccine design for Ebola, HIV and more

LA JOLLA, CA-Viruses are masters at invading our cells thanks to specialized proteins that coat their surfaces. When scientists design vaccines, they often crea...

06/08/2026

How a chemical reaction triggers brain inflammation in Alzheimer's disease

LA JOLLA, CA-The brain has its own immune system, which detects threats and mounts a defense. A growing body of evidence has shown that in Alzheimer's disea...

06/08/2026

Jin-Quan Yu elected to the National Academy of Sciences

LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research chemist Jin-Quan Yu has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors a scientist can achieve....

06/08/2026

Scripps Research ranks third in 2026 Cure Innovation Index

LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research ranked third in the inaugural 2026 Cure Innovation Index recognizing the top-performing institutes and centers across the United S...

06/08/2026

Scripps Research chemist Benjamin Cravatt elected to American Philosophical Society

Benjamin Cravatt, the Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology and a professor of chemis...

06/08/2026

Scripps Research immunologist Dennis Burton elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

LA JOLLA, CA-Dennis Burton, professor and the James & Jessie Minor Chair in Immu...

06/08/2026

How changes to proteins can alter drug interactions for new precision therapies

LA JOLLA, CA-Inside every human cell, proteins are constantly being tagged with small chemical modifications after they're produced. Known as post-translati...

06/08/2026

Scripps Research establishes endowed chair honoring renowned structural biologist Ian Wilson

LA JOLLA-Scripps Research has established the Ian Wilson Endowed Chair, a new fa...

06/08/2026

Scripps Research's Skaggs Graduate School awards doctoral degrees to 34th graduating class

Scripps Research's Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Science...

06/08/2026

Scripps Research chemist Jin-Quan Yu is named a Fellow of the Royal Society

LA JOLLA, CA-Professor Jin-Quan Yu of Scripps Research has been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the U.K.'s national academy of sciences and ...

06/08/2026

Experimental HIV vaccine achieves a long-sought goal

LA JOLLA, CA-For years, researchers have been hoping for vaccines that protect people against not just one strain of HIV, but every strain of the quickly mutati...

06/08/2026

Calibr-Skaggs advances CLF065, a regenerative GLP-2 therapy, into two Phase 2 IBD studies

LA JOLLA, CA-The Calibr-Skaggs Institute for Innovative Medicines, the nonprofit...

06/08/2026

Chemists snap together complex 3D molecules from highly reactive radicals'-without losing their shape

LA JOLLA, CA-Building the complex 3D molecules needed for new medicines has alwa...

06/08/2026

A fentanyl countermeasure that adapts to combat future black-market drugs

LA JOLLA, CA-Fentanyl and related variants of the synthetic opioid kill more Americans each year than car accidents and gun violence combined. In too-high doses...

06/08/2026

Two Scripps Research assistant professors named 2026 Baxter Young Investigators

LA JOLLA, CA-What do decoding communication between organs and reimagining the future of genome editing have in common? They're among the scientific questio...

06/08/2026

Calibr-Skaggs awarded $5.1M by NIH to develop long-acting hepatitis B virus therapy

LA JOLLA, CA-Of the 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States, app...

06/08/2026

Lab studies explain how new cancer drug works as it enters patient testing

LA JOLLA, CA-For some people, cancer immunotherapies are life-changing. These treatments can turn the body's own immune system against a tumor, either elimi...

06/08/2026

Newly identified molecule strengthens the eye's response to damage in retinal disease

LA JOLLA, CA-Many conditions that cause vision loss share a common feature: the ...

06/08/2026

Molecular scissors caught in action: A structural blueprint for RNA therapeutics

LA JOLLA, CA-RNA interference is a natural mechanism for living cells to control whether specific genes are being used or not. Crowned with the 2006 Nobel Priz...

06/08/2026

Immune molecule may drive excessive drinking in alcohol use disorder

LA JOLLA, CA-The drugs that keep rheumatoid arthritis in check may one day help people stop drinking. A new Scripps Research study shows that an anti-inflammato...

06/08/2026

Back in action: Researchers make drug-resistant bacteria vulnerable again

LA JOLLA, CA-Antibiotic resistance is one of the most urgent threats to global health, linked to an estimated 4.7 million deaths worldwide in 2019 alone. As mor...

06/08/2026

Scripps Research scientists demonstrate a faster, cheaper route to making critical drugs using common table sugar

LA JOLLA, CA-Some of the world's best-selling diabetes drugs depend on a che...

06/08/2026

Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance

LA JOLLA, CA-Detecting infectious disease threats early and responding quickly can dramatically alter the course of an infectious outbreak. Technologies such as...

06/08/2026

Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration

LA JOLLA, CA-Molecular biophysicist Joan Pulupa will join Scripps Research in Ja...

06/08/2026

Scripps Research scientists train the immune system to make antibodies against numerous HIV strains

LA JOLLA, CA-HIV is globally so diverse, consisting of hundreds of thousands of ...

06/08/2026

ASG Ups Michele Ferreira to Chief Business Officer

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

WNBC and WNJU Expand New York Giants Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

Utah Scientific to Highlight NBOSS at IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

Disney, TikTok Ink Global Short-Form Content-Sharing Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

Kane Peterson Joins QuickLink's North America Team

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

FCC Returns $881 Million in Unused TV Broadcaster Relocation Funds

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

PlayBox Neo to highlight secure and scalable workflow del...

At this year's SET EXPO, PlayBox Neo will present recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solutions. By show...

06/08/2026

Modern Streaming Solutions Private Limited Partners with...

Live demo at IBC2026 VisualOn Booth, Hall 5, Stand A55 Amsterdam, Netherlands Modern Streaming Solutions Private Limited, a rising force in India's dig...

06/08/2026

Screen Australia and YouTube Australia fund five new teams through eleventh Skip Ahead initiative

Screen Australia and YouTube Australia fund five new teams through eleventh Skip...

06/08/2026

How Karukera Studio Built a Media Production Hub with SNS EVO

How Karukera Studio Built a Media Production Hub with SNS EVO Melanie Ciotti August 5, 2026 0 Comments Hero images displays Karukera Studio in Sainte-...

06/08/2026

NHK drama series Rosanjin no Kamado shot on PYXIS 6K

NHK drama series Rosanjin no Kamado shot on PYXIS 6K Brie Clayton August 5, 2026 0 Comments Blackmagic PYXIS 6K and DaVinci Resolve Studio capture the...

06/08/2026

Camera Match: AutoSetup 3d Plugin / script for Photomontages- Cinema 4D

Camera Match: AutoSetup 3d Plugin / script for Photomontages- Cinema 4D Jamie Cardoso August 5, 2026 0 Comments If you do any kind of Architectural Vi...

06/08/2026

Fox Corporation Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year Fiscal 2026 Financial Results

Fox Corporation Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year Fiscal 2026 Financial Resul...

06/08/2026

Documentary on the life and impact of Dnal Lunny to air on RT

In Time airs Monday 10 August at 9.35pm on RT One and RT Player In Time is the first film account of the life of D nal Lunny, one of the most influential Iri...