Celebrated American photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier’s first outdoor art installation, “The Liberty Portraits: A Monument to the 2024 Champions (2024–25)”, has been mounted in the plaza outside of Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The installation, which was unveiled on July 3rd, features monumental portraits of 10 members of the 2024 roster of New York’s WNBA team, the Liberty. The Liberty prevailed over the Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA Finals last year, marking the team’s first championship win in franchise history.
Frazier is best known for work that combines documentary photography, portraiture, and text to tell stories about communities facing environmental and economic devastation. Her collaboration with the Liberty was spurred by Clara Wu Tsai, the team’s co-owner and a prominent art collector. Previously, the foundation Wu Tsai runs with her husband, Joe Tsai, had commissioned a permanent, site-specific installation by Bahamian artist Tavares Strachan for the plaza outside Barclays Center.
“I’ve been a WNBA and Liberty fan since the franchise was founded in 1997 and it’s always been a dream to collaborate,” said Frazier in a press statement. “This collaboration extends beyond fandom and the spectacle of sport; it’s an act of celebrating and bearing witness to the full humanity of these championship players—their struggles, their triumphs, their lives outside the arena.”
The 10 featured players are each represented with two images: one close-up portrait depicting the player in uniform, and another depicting her with family members. Each portrait is accompanied by a first-person account from a loved one highlighting noteworthy moments from the player’s career. Among the players that Frazier photographed are forward Breanna Stewart, pictured with her wife, Marta Xargay Casademont; guard Sabrina Ionescu, pictured with her husband, Hroniss Grasu; and center Jonquel Jones, pictured with members of her family in the Bahamas, where she was born and raised.
The installation will remain on view for the duration of the 2025 season. Wu Tsai has planned additional art commissions for 2026 and beyond, selected by a jury of prominent art world figures including Studio Museum director Thelma Golden, LACMA director Michael Govan, and Serpentine Galleries artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist.
from Artsy News https://ift.tt/TqBhQx0
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