Featured Artists:  Emma Amos, Mark Beard/Bruce Sargeant, Katherine Bradford, Pelle Cass, Bing Davis, KeVon Dunbar, Monica Kim Garza, Robyn Gibson, Tim Hailey, Ed Hamilton, Jacob Heustis, Shaun Krupa, Zoe Leonard, Monica Mahoney, Jennifer Marman & Daniel Borins, Lance G. Newman, Raymond Pettibon, Gibbs Rounsavall, Ben Stone, Richard Sullivan, Darryl Tucker, John Wesley, and Russell Young.

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The Summer Games at KMAC Contemporary Art Museum coincides with the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris. The exhibition looks at how the intersection of art and sports, as well as other gaming and recreational activities, have led artists to new aesthetic and intellectual pursuits. Through both humorous and thoughtful observations, football, baseball, track and field, and boxing commingle with artistic interventions into ping pong and classic arcade games, giving viewers a glimpse into how contemporary artists approach these popular activities, often examining them for how they affect us physically, psychologically, socially, and politically. Sports and games have long been a highly regarded area of culture that arouses philosophical ideas about beauty, human stamina, discipline, and transcendence. Developing a sharp mind, coordination, and a clever awareness of your opponent’s level of skill are all a part of any game. Since early civilization, humans have been in thrall of the human body in motion and the grandeur of the live sporting event. Sports have continued to enchant artists into our modern era from Warhol’s celebrity images of Muhammad Ali, Dorothy Hamill, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Chris Evert, and Pelé, to name a few, to Leroy Neiman’s bold expressionist paintings of sporting scenes and the infamous early series of Equilibrium sculptures by Jeff Koons featuring basketballs floating inside water tanks. The Summer Games at KMAC features paintings, sculptures, photographs, installations, and interactive games that bring the joy, humor, and pathos of sports and games into the museum. 

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