Upcoming & recent exhibitions, performances, screenings, projects, publications.
(Updated Dec. 2025)
Tag: sports
The Polis Project: Astria Suparak on Sports
“I spoke to Suparak about the counter-narratives from artists she’s found through her curation work, the Western fascination for utopian narratives, and how sports and the arts are not mutually exclusive sources of inquiry and criticism of our political and cultural spheres.”
The Game is Not the Thing film & performance series
Spanning pre-cinema to post-internet, this six-part screening & performance series challenges the idea that the worlds of sports and art are mutually exclusive.
Jordan Wept
A video spotlighting the range and utility of the long-running Crying Jordan meme, which re-immortalizes one of the 20th century’s most successful athletes into an avatar of failure; an Everyman for disappointment, angst, and sorrow; a tool for rapid responses to live events; and a demonstration of the increased power of (anonymous, decentralized) fan culture.
Walker Magazine: “No Time for Winners”
“The sports film genre—as it has come to be defined through its codes, scholarship, production and screening contexts, and broadcast platforms—is dominated by two typologies: fictive sports films, which often reinforce dominant attitudes and social and cultural stereotypes while distorting or whitewashing history for storytelling purposes; and commercial documentaries, which typically focus on exceptional players, coaches, or teams.”
Carnegie Museum of Art film series
Suparak is the guest curator for the 2024 Film Series, crafting programs around key ideas present in both the museum collection and her own practice, including science fiction and fantasy, architecture, sports, media criticism, diaspora and inheritance.
CityTV feature on INCITE: Sports
Government cable TV show interview with Astria Suparak and Brett Kashmere, focused on INCITE Journal: Sports and related exhibitions and events.
A Subjective, Contextual History of Washington, D.C. Pro Basketball
A history of the team and how it intertwines with civic issues, particularly: gun laws and violence, business and labor, real estate and gentrification, race, and class.
EXPANDING THE FIELD: Sports & Politics Discussion Series
Three-part series with journalists, academics, and cultural producers covering topics like athletic protest, concussions and health issues, and labor and exploitation.
A BEAUTIFUL GAME
The film and videomakers amplify fan glee, silliness, and irreverence, and provoke a rival team’s fanbase. These artists celebrate athletes’ rebellious streaks, and admire their disciplined feats of excellence.
Canadian Art feature on INCITE Journal: Sports
“Artists and curators program soccer-related art for gallery spaces—and kick around ideas about politics and power in the process”
POWER FORWARD
The artists in this exhibition draw upon the hidden and political histories of sports to open up analyses of the social world.
SPORTS MUSIC
A playlist of official and adopted team theme songs, rapping by professional athletes, music made for sports films, and sports-themed pop songs from the past six decades. Musical styles range from choral groups with orchestras, rousing anthems, and advertising jingles, to disco, soul, rock, hip hop, pop, and R&B.
A SELECTIVE GUIDE TO SPORTS IN EXPERIMENTAL MEDIA
A cross-sectional overview of the various ways that sports have been treated in artists’ film and video, experimental documentary, and media-based installation throughout history.
THE NATION’S FINEST
A deconstruction of the athlete body – how it is used for national, political, and social agendas, and how it is viewed and re-crafted by artists.
A NON-ZERO-SUM GAME
This year-long series of art exhibitions, film programs, discussions, commissioned projects, and other events took place in galleries, cinemas, sports bars, bookstores, and on rooftops from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C.
INCITE Journal of Experimental Media: SPORTS
The first volume of its kind, this double issue examines the intersections of sports, performance, popular culture, and experimental media. Features 41 contributors including artists, writers, critics, scholars, historians, and athletes.
SPORTS SWEATBAND
Custom-made, embroidered sweatband to wear to any sport event! Or while sporting. Or as a conversation starter in a non-sports setting.
Goals
An installation superimposing the goals of six major sports, creating an actual-scale “color field” abstraction.
Associated Press article on NFL fans and Whatever It Takes
Published widely and internationally, including ABC News, CBS, ESPN, Forbes, Fox News, Houston Chronicle, Huffington Post, Miami Herald, NBC Sports, NPR, Salon.com, Seattle Times, SF Examiner, SF Chronicle, USA Today, Washington Post, Yahoo! News
Astria Suparak 