Do art and football go together? The evidence is all over town for Super Bowl weekend
While Super Bowl 54 fans might not be traveling to Miami for the art, it will be hard to miss. Especially when it’s going up on walls.
Visitors can see one of Miami’s iconic art scenes: A newly created mural on one of Wynwood’s famous walls. CES, a graffiti artist born Robert Michael Provenzano, painted the mural on Wednesday, directly across the street from the Museum of Graffiti.
CES is known for his streamlined and aerodynamic “Wildstyle” alphabetic reconfiguration in contemporary graffiti.
The Super Bowl-themed mural, commissioned by sports brand X2 Performance, will be unveiled to NFL Hall of Famers and other guests at an invitation-only breakfast on Friday.
Tristan Eaton, a Los Angeles-based street artist, designed the game tickets and commemorative program showcasing how art and culture have influenced and changed Miami in the last 10 years.
Eaton used the event to influence his work — the colorful design features South Florida’s signature tropical leaves and NFL logos and scenes. Eaton and four other artists, Dasic Fernandez, Joe Iurato, Kelsey Montague and Risk, also created large-scale murals, sculptures, building wraps and products that will be part of the game day experience.
But tourists will experience many styles — and forms — of art this week in the Magic City, starting when they arrive at Miami International Airport.
Passengers on Concourse D can see ”The Football Player,” the iconic, hyperrealist sculpture created in 1981 by American artist Duane Hanson. Hanson created his own technique of casting in polyester resins reinforced with fiberglass in the 1960s. The artist used partial body molds which he would then assemble and perfect until the figure matched his conception. The sculpture is near gate D47.
Tourists can also watch vintage video footage from the 1966-1996 Miami Dolphins on a set of repurposed flight information monitors in Concourse F. The monitors will play archived TV news coverage and home movies documenting the NFL’s only perfect season in 1972 by the Dolphins, their “Dolfans,” local all-time favorite players and more.
Goldman Global Arts, curators of the Wynwood Walls, collaborated with the NFL to arrange for Eaton and four other artists to create art for Super Bowl weekend. In addition to the tickets and program, the arts consists of sculpture, murals and building wraps.
Dasic Fernandez, an artist from Chile, created a mural, centered on the Vince Lombardi Trophy, that covers 27 floors of the Citigroup Center building in downtown Miami. Kelsey Montague, an American mural artist, created an interactive mural of individual works representing all the NFL clubs at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Joe Iurato put together a scavenger hunt of his murals representing 10 of the biggest moments in NFL history; fans can use the ONEPASS app to hunt for the works. And Kelly Graval, the artist known as RISK, created a 40-foot mural in neon font at the Super Bowl Live Festival at Bayfront Park.
On Sunday, Christine Sun Kim, the transgressive deaf artist, will sign the National Anthem alongside Demi Lovato to nearly 100 million people watching the Super Bowl.
Transgressive signing aims to outrage or violate basic morals and sensibilities. The artist visualizes sounds and distills spoken language into clever new forms. She told Artnet she was stunned when she received the offer to represent the non-hearing community. She’s excited to bring new representation to her community.
“With the NFL’s massive platform, we can actually bring sign language to millions of homes.”
Kim said she hopes the event will bring new attention to language-deprived deaf babies, police brutality towards disabled people and a lack of mental health services.
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 3:21 PM.