Art of the Game Turns the 2026 World Cup Into a Public Art Trail Across New York and New Jersey
A fleet of oversized soccer balls is about to move through the region’s most visible public spaces. Art of the Game, a new public art project tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, has commissioned 23 contemporary artists to create large-scale sculptural works that will be installed across New York and New Jersey through Labor Day, with some slated to remain permanently.
Organized by ARTS 14C, the Jersey City, New Jersey-based nonprofit, the project was shaped in part by Agnes Gund before her death last fall. That connection gives the initiative a distinctly philanthropic lineage: Gund, a longtime patron of contemporary art, also founded Studio in a School in 1977, and proceeds from an accompanying Christie’s online sale will be shared among the artists, ARTS 14C, and the education nonprofit.
The sculptures were fabricated at Powerhouse Arts in Brooklyn and then placed at sites that range from Rockefeller Plaza, where Katherine Bernhardt’s work stands in front of Christie’s headquarters, to locations including Brooklyn Bridge Park, Grand Central Pershing Square, MetLife Stadium, Gansevoort Landing, Exchange Place, Hudson Yards, the Brooklyn Museum, Paseo Park, Columbus Circle, and SIUH Community Park. The project’s reach is part of its point: it treats the World Cup not simply as a sporting event, but as a civic occasion with a public-facing cultural footprint.
Museum leaders helped shape the artist roster. Futura 2000, Edgar Heap of Birds, and Taína H. Cruz were among those nominated by directors from institutions including the Brooklyn Museum, MoMA, and the Whitney Museum. The lineup also includes Fred Wilson, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Hank Willis Thomas, Katherine Bernhardt, and Bony Rameriz, five of whom will be represented in Christie’s online sale from July 2 to 17.
As the tournament approaches, Art of the Game offers a rare kind of urban commission: one that links public art, institutional support, and fundraising while turning the city itself into an exhibition route. In a season defined by global attention, the project asks what a major sporting event can leave behind once the crowds move on.
