Curated by Max Seiler, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation Intern
Double Play highlights work from the University at Albany Fine Art Collections, showcasing the various ways artists have used sports as a visual element in their work. Presented alongside ACE: art on sports, promise, and selfhood in the museum’s main gallery, Double Play includes work by Kyle Avery, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Andreas Feininger, Mary Ellen Mark, Joel Meyerowitz, Helmut Newton, Ry Rocklen, Mark Rucker, Neal Slavin, Andy Warhol, and Allen Yates. Each artist explores sports in a variety of ways including, for instance, portraits of athletes; various expressions of masculinity and gender; design and patterning specific to athletics; and themes of victory and sacrifice. Art and sports may seem at first worlds apart, but they have many areas of visual and conceptual overlap. Just as artists explore themes of gender, sexuality, historiology, and beyond, sports are a perfect gateway to talk about the same issues. Issues like Title IX, pay discrimination between genders, or racism among some sports fans are all topics related to athletics, but at the core of each is a concept that can be universally applied to other parts of society. Art is a perfect medium to understand and deconstruct these issues within sports.