Pick a side: The clamor of the stadium or the calm of the museum. Are you Team Sports or Team Arts? At the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), “Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture” challenges the age-old divide to bridge the cultural gap between the two.
The exhibition aims to reconcile the athlete’s arena and the artist’s studio and serves as a reminder that whether someone wears a jersey or a museum wristband, the quest for excellence remains the same.
On display through Sun., Aug. 23, “Get in the Game” features more than 100 works by artists from around the world and showcases sports memorabilia, including vintage sneakers, racing equipment, and Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Men’s and Women’s World Cup soccer balls from 1930 to 2023.
(Photo: Jonel Juste)
Especially visible in the display are World Cup soccer balls produced by Adidas, stretching from the early leather era to highly engineered contemporary designs.
Organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and presented in Miami with locally focused additions, the exhibition arrives in the wake of events like the Miami Open and as the Magic City continues to host global spectacles such as Formula 1 in this month while preparing for the FIFA World Cup 2026 at Hard Rock Stadium in July.
Franklin Sirmans, PAMM’s director and organizer of the museum’s presentation, believes the timing adds to its significance.
Lazaro Llanes
"I think sports and the arts are worthy of much deeperexploration in museum exhibitions,” says FranklinSirmans, director of Pérez Art Museum Miami andorganizer of the museum’s presentation of “Get in theGame: Sports, Art, Culture.”
“I think sports and arts deserve deeper exploration in museum exhibitions,” he said. “This show is at PAMM in a year of unprecedented presentations of sport on the national and world stage.”
He sees the exhibition not just in terms of what spectators witness on the field, court, or track, but also in how those events resonate in memory and imagination.
“The exhibition pauses and creates space for conversations and reflections on how these events impact us,” Sirmans said.
Fabiana A. Sotillo, a curatorial assistant and co-curator of PAMM’s show, said her outsider perspective on sports shaped how the exhibition was recontextualized for local audiences.
“When I started working on the presentation of ‘Get in the Game’ at PAMM with Franklin, I was aware that this show would be a challenge for me due to the fact that I am not as knowledgeable about sports as Franklin is,” Sotillo said. “However, what I thought would be a disadvantage for us ended up being a very valuable aspect of our presentation in Miami.”
As the curator and writer of the exhibition’s materials, Sotillo explained that her unfamiliarity allowed her to consider visitors who might feel intimidated by sports, as well as those who might feel they would be out of place in a contemporary art museum.
“My lack of sports knowledge ended up being an advantage, since I really catered the exhibition materials to those who may be intimidated by the idea of sports, but also considered the other side of the coin: those who might be intimidated by art,” she said. “We were able to build a presentation that truly caters to every type of visitor: sports fans, art admirers, young visitors, etc.”
As a result, the exhibition is divided into six thematic sections: Fandom, Winning and Losing, Breaking Records and Rules, Count Me In, Field of Play, and Mind and Body. Sotillo said the goal is not to dictate a story but to create a space where viewers can connect with both fields without needing any prior expertise.
“Sports, arts, culture — these are all community builders,” Sotillo said. “Both athletes and fans experience such intense emotions during competitions, and art is all about capturing emotions and expressing ideas.”
This focus on emotion appears in works like Ernie Barnes’s “Fumble in the Line” (1990), which depicts football players in exaggerated, almost sculptural forms. Their bodies collide in a chaotic struggle that reflects both the brutality and beauty of the game. Barnes, a former professional football player, is known for translating his personal experiences into art that highlights movement, tension, and rhythm.
(Photo: Lazaro Llanes, courtesy of Pérez Art Miami Museum)
"Ernie Barnes’s “Fumble in the Line” (1990), where football players are depicted in exaggerated, almost sculptural forms.
Emma Amos’s “Hurdlers I” (1983) blends painting with textiles, showing women athletes mid-leap while incorporating handwoven elements that reference African kente cloth. The piece links physical endurance with cultural identity, considering the show’s broader themes of how sports intersect with race, gender, and history.
One of the most striking pieces is Hank Willis Thomas’ 2016 work “Guernica,” a mixed-media work that recreates Pablo Picasso’s famous antiwar image with NBA jerseys instead of human figures. According to art curator Jason Jenn, this piece prompts the viewer to reflect on how themes of war and sacrifice in the original piece relate to the struggles faced by professional athletes and the challenges they overcome to entertain fans.
(Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York)
Hank Willis Thomas’ 2016 work “Guernica,” a mixed-media work that recreates Pablo Picasso’s famous antiwar image with NBA jerseys instead of human figures.
Nearby, Holly Bass’ “NWBA (Jordan)” (2012) captures the artist mid-air, her silhouette transformed with basketballs in a photo that is playful, athletic, glamorous, and critical.
Bass said the image was inspired by Michael Jordan’s iconic “Jump Man” logo, which itself has roots in dance.
“It was originally inspired by a photo of Jordan imitating a ballet dancer doing a grand jeté,” Bass said. “So, it’s kind of like art imitating sports imitating art.”
She emphasized that the work’s athleticism is real, not simulated.
“This isn’t Photoshop or some kind of wire suspending me in the air,” she said. “I’m a trained dancer.”
The exhibition frequently revisits the theme of bodies under pressure, whether in triumph, strain, spectacle, or change. Jake Troyli, a professional artist who lives in Brooklyn and whose work is included in “Get in the Game,” played Division I basketball at Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C. He said his background in sports has shaped his views on performance and spectatorship.
(Photo courtesy of the artist)
"Jake Troyli, a professional artist who once played Division I basketball in college said his experience as an athlete led him to think more critically about performance and spectatorship.
“As I started to gain some distance between myself and my time playing in the NCAA, I began to turn a critical eye toward the dynamic of the spectator/spectacle relationship,” Troyli said. “What does it mean to perform? What does it mean to perform for a hungry audience? What does it mean for so much of a person’s self or self-worth to be tied up in the results of the performance?”
These questions extend beyond sports; they also relate to the conditions many artists face, particularly in public forums where creation and judgment feel immediate. This parallel resonates with artist Cheryl Pope, who is both a visual artist and a boxer. Pope, who won the Chicago Golden Gloves in 2014, considers boxing fundamental to her understanding of art.
“My experience of boxing has been critical to my understanding of being an artist,” she said.
Training and competition taught her discipline, positive thinking, and how to manage risk, which later informed her studio practice.
The exhibition's educational programming is also designed to show how sports can connect visitors to museums. Marie Vickles, PAMM’s senior director of education, said the show offers “a really exciting and accessible entry point for visitors of all ages and backgrounds to engage with art via an avenue that everyone is familiar with—sports.” Her team has organized tours, workshops, public talks, screenings, and hands-on activities aimed at youth, educators, adults, and families.
(Photo courtesy of the artist)
"I think sports and the arts are worthy of much deeper exploration in Lee Moriarty, a professional wrestler and visual artist, thinks both wrestling and art have always been connected and have influenced each other./Lee Moriarty, a professional wrestler and visual artist, thinks both wrestling and art have always been connected and have influenced each other.
“The universal themes of teamwork, discipline, resilience and perseverance across sports and arts have provided us with ways to craft experiences that make folks feel welcome in a museum,” Vickles said.
During the opening week, PAMM hosted the first session of “Game Time,” a two-day conference bringing together artists, athletes, poets, curators, journalists, and performers. Sirmans described the gathering as an added layer of interpretation, with a second session planned for June 26.
Lee Moriarty, a professional wrestler and visual artist who took part in “Game Time,” sees a connection that already exists in his own life.
(Courtesy Perez Art Miami Museum)
Lee Moriarty’s “Summer Garden Selfie,” 2024. Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, gift of Adam Abdalla
“I think both wrestling and art have always been connected and have influenced each other so it’s great to see it being explored deeper,” he said.
For Moriarty, wrestling naturally combines sport and art, blending athletic skill with theater, imagery, storytelling, and performance.
The exhibition also ensures its global perspective reflects Miami. Sirmans noted that the museum included works and references that resonate locally, such as sketches by LeRoy Neiman of Muhammad Ali in Miami Beach and a podcast made with the young girls of Little Haiti Football Club. These additions help tie the show’s broader themes to local experiences.
By the time visitors leave PAMM, Sirmans hopes they will no longer view sports and art as separate worlds.
“Sports and arts are metaphors for our lives,” he said. “There’s room for all and inspiration to be found in a consideration of games in our lives.”
IF YOU GO
“Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture”
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), 1103 Biscayne Blvd, Miami
Through Sun., Aug. 23.
305-375-3000
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