By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: June 22, 2007
‘THE PLAYERS’ Fifteen artists explore the relationship between sports, history and culture. Patrick Barth uses anonymous contemporary athletes as models for an illustration of a battle in the Iliad; Kadir Nelson paints elite street basketball teams playing on a court in Harlem. Michelle Elzay photographs fencers, and Susannah Ray captures surfers; David Rathman paints boxers, and Freddy Rodriguez’s paintings pay homage to the “Apostles of Dominican Baseball.” Nancy Hwang’s digitally manipulated version of a famous photograph of Warhol and Basquiat in boxing gloves recreates the image for a population for whom the art world serves as a surrogate for sports, replete with similar narratives of achievement, failure and redemption. Arsenal Gallery in Central Park, 830 Fifth Avenue, at 64th Street; closes on Wednesday. (Schwendener)