Written By Jonel Juste for Artburst Miami

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 Sunday, 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 caption: Emma Amos’s “Hurdlers I” (1983) blends painting and textile, depicting womenathletes in mid-leap while incorporating handwoven elements that reference African kente cloth. (Photo by Lazaro Llanes, courtesy of Pérez Art Miami Museum)

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 May 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. “I think sports and arts deserve deeper exploration in museum exhibitions,” he says. “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 explains.

Photo caption: Ernie Barnes’s “Fumble in the Line” (1990), where football players are depicted in exaggerated, almost sculptural forms. (Photo by Lazaro Llanes, courtesy of Pérez Art Miami Museum)

Fabiana A. Sotillo, a curatorial assistant and co-curator of PAMM’s show, says 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,” she shares. “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 explains 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 says. “We were able to build a presentation that truly caters to every type of visitor: sports fans, art admirers, young visitors, etc.”

Photo caption: “I think sports and the arts are worthy of much deeper exploration in museum exhibitions,” says Franklin Sirmans, director of Pérez Art Museum Miami and organizer of the museum’s presentation of “Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture.” (Photo by Lazaro Llanes, courtesy of Pérez Art Museum Miami)

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 emphasizes 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 says. “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 caption: Featuring more than 100 works by artists from around the world—including highlights from PAMM’s collection—”Get in the Game” demonstrates how sport has inspired both personal expression and shared cultural memory. On display at PAMM through Sunday, Aug. 23. (Photo by Lazaro Llanes, courtesy of Pérez Art Museum Miami)

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.

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.

Photo caption: Holly Bass’ “NWBA (jordan)” 2012 freezes the artist in midair, her silhouette transformed through the incorporation of basketballs in a photograph. (Photo by Lazaro Llanes, courtesy of Perez Art Miami Museum)

Bass says 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,” she says. “So it’s kind of like art imitating sports imitating art.” She emphasizes that the work’s athleticism is real, not simulated. “This isn’t Photoshop or some kind of wire suspending me in the air. 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 says his background in sports has shaped his views on 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,” he says. “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?”

Photo caption: 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. (Photo courtesy of the artist)

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 says. 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, says 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 caption: Work by Cheryl Pope. Top: variety jacket from the series I’VE BEEN HEARD, 2016. Down: customized sneakers. (Photo by Lazaro Llanes, courtesy of Perez Art Miami Museum)

“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 says. 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 Friday, 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. “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 says. For Moriarty, wrestling naturally combines sport and art, blending athletic skill with theater, imagery, storytelling, and performance.

Photo caption: Lee Moriarty’s “Summer Garden Selfie,” 2024. (Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, gift of Adam Abdalla)

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.

Photo caption: Especially visible in the display are World Cup soccer balls produced by Adidas, stretching from the early leather era to highly engineered contemporary designs. (Photo by Jonel Juste)

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 and there’s room for all and inspiration to be found in a consideration of games in our lives.”

Headline photo caption: 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 is featured in “Get in the Games: Sports, Art, Culture,” at Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) through Sunday, Aug. 23. (Photo courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York) 

WHAT: “Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture”

WHERE: Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), 1103 Biscayne Blvd, Miami

WHEN: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Friday and Saturday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday; 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday.

COST: $18 adults; $14 seniors 62 and older, students with ID, and ages 7 to 18; free for members, children 6 and under, and free admission for all on Thursdays after 5 p.m.; Other free admissions with ID: active U.S. military and veterans, health care professionals and first responders, Florida educators, and visitors identifying as disabled and their accompanying caregiver.

INFORMATION: (305) 375-3000 or pamm.org

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