Central Park

The Arsenal Gallery Pays Homage to the World of Sports

Parks & Recreation is pleased to announce The Players, a sports-inspired contemporary art exhibit. Using various mediums, the exhibit explores the many ways in which sports address several cultural issues. The exhibit will be on display May 2 through June 27, 2007.

"New York City parks are home to hundreds of recreational fields and facilities for all active New Yorkers," said Commissioner Adrian Benepe. "Every year, sports flourish in our city parks as new athletes are born and made. We are delighted to showcase The Players exhibit, which creatively calls attention to the importance of athletics in our lives and culture."

In The Players, fifteen contemporary artists use sports as a means for addressing a variety of issues including identity, heroism, nostalgia, popular culture, gender, and the process of making art. The sports imagery portrayed by the artists reveal the dominant presence of sports in American culture. David Rathman’s smoky paintings of the boxing ring evoke the intense, familiar drama of a fight. Scott Zieher’s collages reorder the visual components of sports – balls, rackets, and uniformed figures – while retaining the swingy look of their source material – Archie comics. John Berens conjures the mood of a basketball court in the late afternoon sun in his Memory Painting. Michelle Elzay directly takes on the past in her serial portraits of fencers, contemporary practitioners of an historic sport.

Other artists, Freddy Rodriguez, Kadir Nelson, and Susannah Ray visualize the matter of identity in sports. The works of Rodriguez and Nelson celebrate minority athletes while Ray commemorates the brave surfers on Rockaway Beach. Jack Balas and Orly Genger portray the human body in sports as a creative process. Luis Gispert, Jeffrey Reed, Tim Laun, and Patrick Barth use their art to represent winning and losing in sports, here the athletes are likened to warriors in battle. The exhibit not only focuses on athletes, but also the fans. Lee Walton and Nancy Hwang document the loyal involvement of the fan in the world of sports.

Parks and Recreation is home to 800 athletic fields, 550 tennis courts, 53 pools, 48 recreation centers, 14 miles of beaches, 13 golf courses, 9 skateboard parks, and four major stadia including the home fields of the Yankees and Mets. Options for amateur athletes are increasing as new ballfields, recreation facilities and golf courses are built in existing facilities and upgraded at rates that haven’t been seen in decades.

The exhibition is organized by Parks & Recreation’s Public Art Coordinator Clare Weiss. The Arsenal Gallery is dedicated to examining themes of nature, urban space, wildlife, New York City parks and park history. It is located on the third floor of the Parks Department Headquarters, in Central Park, on Fifth Avenue at 64th Street. Gallery hours are Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Admission is free.

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