On view at Cleve Carney Museum of Art

By GINNY VAN ALYEA

I, like so many in the US, have finally gotten the World Cup bug. But while I love watching the matches, there is a limit to how much I will tune in for. Luckily, there are two very well-timed art exhibitions in Chicago that are focused on the sport of football that we can all enjoy as well.

As the FIFA World Cup captures global attention, the two Chicago-area exhibitions examining the sport through the lens of contemporary art and documentary photography are locally based. In West Town, Elise Seigenthaler Gallery is presenting The Soccer Show: A Celebration of the World Cup, on view through Aug. 22. The exhibition features new and recent work by Gabrielle Bianco, Chris Cosnowski, Adehle Daley, Modou Dieng Yacine, Aaron Eskridge, Sébastien Johnson, Duncan McGillivray-Smith, and Ed Oh. Working across diverse practices and perspective, these artists approach soccer as both a subject and a lens.

From the roar of the stadium to the intimacy of a neighborhood pickup game, from the elation of a last-minute goal to the weight of systemic inequalities within the sport’s governing bodies, the works on view capture what makes soccer so enduringly powerful: its ability to contain multitudes. 

At Elise Seigenthaler Gallery

In Glen Ellyn, the Cleve Carney Museum of Art is featuring The Saturday Man: At the Edge of the Game, a survey of photographs by Peter Robinson, who spent decades documenting soccer around the world, including 20 years as FIFA's official photographer. Rather than focusing solely on the action on the field, the exhibition highlights the fans, rituals, communities and personalities that define the game. The Saturday Man: At the Edge of the Game presents 53 photographs depicting the world’s most popular sport through the eyes of the acclaimed photographer Peter Robinson. Robinson has spent over six decades documenting everything from the intensely local British football of the 1960s, to the unconventional (and now defunct) North American Soccer League, and the evolution into today’s game of billionaires and superstars. His time as the official photographer for FIFA and contributions to publications, such as Onze and Sports Illustrated, cemented his reputation as one of the leading photographers of his generation. However, what defines Robinson as an artist is his distinctive skill in storytelling, utilizing football to explore the human condition.

Through decades of change in the worlds of football and photojournalism, Robinson’s unique artistry contrasts an increasingly commercialized version of the formerly grassroots sport.The exhibition remains on view through Aug. 9.

Together, the exhibitions offer two distinct perspectives on the world's most popular sport—one through contemporary artistic interpretation and the other through the work of one of soccer's most accomplished documentary photographers. While the sport itself is gaining ground and enthusiasm throughout the country, these two locally available exhibitions offer a different way to view football on and off the field.

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