ACE: art on sports, promise, and selfhood

Exhibition Tours:
Every Wednesday at noon, July 3 – December 4

The artists represented in ACE use sports and athletic culture to explore how youth, gender, race, promise, and identity are intertwined with athleticism, and how these elements share roles in defining cultural codes and rituals, thereby engendering community. While there have been several exhibitions of late that address similar themes, ACE will focus on topics of specific relevance to the university campus, with an emphasis on the social and cultural impact of competitive sports on young athletes.

Moving freely across artistic disciplines, ACE offers multiple points of entry for visitors to consider the parallels between the physicality of sports and the active process of creating art. How do young athletes and artists balance their passions and self-imposed challenges with the prospect of thwarted expectations and potential failure––or conversely, fame and power? What are the cultural impacts of harnessing and commodifying youthful stamina and drive? Who defines the rules of the game, and who gets to break them? Where does true resilience come from? And what does the future hold for the aces of today?

ACE includes several commissioned projects that unfold over time and activate the museum space. During the course of the exhibition, the museum serves as a site for reflection, dialogue, and artistic exploration. Drawing on guest speakers and the academic resources of the university, the museum hosts regular talks, performances, readings, and informal conversations related to the subject of art and athletics within a broad cultural, social, historical, and political framework.

The participating artists include Kevin Beasley, Petra Cortright, Darío Escobar, Radamés "Juni" Figueroa, Baseera Khan, Ari Marcopoulos, Catherine Opie, Sondra Perry, Paul Pfeiffer, Howardena Pindell, Cheryl Pope, Ronny Quevedo, Ashley Teamer, Hank Willis Thomas, and Wendy White.

Support for the University Art Museum exhibition and programs is provided by the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, The University at Albany Foundation, UAlbany Strategic Allocation of Resources Fund, University Auxiliary Services and generous support from John ’83 and Jennifer Troiano.