A conversation with Andrew Kuo on his court at Cherry Clinton Playground

"I wanted to make it a map. A wink to information. Locations on the  court. Like hot spots. He’s heating up from the corner. I wanted people  to be drawn to these dots. If I hit it from this dot, that's game.  Double or nothing from the purple dot."

Blake Gillespie, journalist, photographer, and writer at Sacred Hoops, speaks with artist Andrew Kuo on his court at Cherry Clinton Playground.

Read the interview here.

Photo: Blake Gillespie 

The on-the-courts mural was done in honor of ​“Super” John Williamson,  a New Haven-raised basketball legend, who got his start playing for  Wilbur Cross High School before making it to the American Basketball  Association (ABA) and National Basketball Association (NBA). 

“It’s euphoric, being able to keep his legacy alive, and to be able to have young kids on this court,” Kali [ Williamson ] said.

Read the article here.

Photo: Blake Gillespie 

“There’s something really sensory about it when you step on the court  and you look on the ground, you feel that in your shoes and your soles,”  Couliau tells SLAM. “It’s sort of a tribute to what we have under our  feet for so many hours during our lives. And I like the idea of showing  the human erosion, the passage of man without showing any photos of  people playing.” 

Read the SLAM Magazine interview here. 

Edgar Heap of Birds loves basketball. The artist holds season tickets for his team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and attends every game with family, wearing custom jerseys with his Cheyenne name, Hock E Aye Vi.

So it was a natural fit when Project Backboard, a nonprofit that invites artists to make over existing community courts, proposed that he redesign two in Long Island City, New York. The new courts were unveiled this past October, their grounds painted with jagged-edged patches of invigorating blues and greens, complete with new backboards sporting phrases like “NEW YORK TODAY YOUR HOST IS SHINNECOCK” and “NEW YORK TODAY YOUR HOST IS MOHAWK.”

Read the full essay written by Claire Voon at www.artsy.net.

Photographer and public historian, Sola Olosunde, captures the final weekend of Edgar Heap of Birds' Native Hosts installation at Murray Park, 11th St. & 45th Ave., Long Island City, NY 11101, on October 30, 2022. 

See the photo essay here. 

LOST [in translation] arrives on the twenty-year anniversary of one of  sports most iconic, and one of sports media’s most exploitative, moments.  LOST [in translation] re-focuses the lens on this moment in order to highlight what the media overlooked and correct a misrepresentation that has persisted for two decades...      

More.

Andrew Keh writes for the New York Times about the rising visibility of basketball art. 

Read the article here.

Image: An exhibit of basketball-inspired art called “To the Hoop” at the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, N.C., including “Akhet 1” by David Huffman and “Well Hung” by Suzanne McClelland. Martin W. Kane for UNCG University Communications, 2020.

A new book brings together the works of 250 artists, among them Richard Avedon, Salvador Dalí, Keith Haring and Andy Warhol, to offer an inclusive view of the sport from the modern lens. 

Read more here.

Huck Magazine

Posted Wednesday 19th May, 2021 

Text by Miss Rosen 

Photography © Joel Meyerowitz (main image)

Blake Gillespie, journalist, photographer, and writer at Sacred Hoops, visits Faith Ringgold's  court at St.Nicholas Park in Harlem and helps Project Backboard renovate a court with artist Andrea Bergart at McCaffrey Playground, in New York City.

See the photos and read the essay here.