Courtside Crafts: The Gilded Basketballs and Chain Mail Jerseys of Literally Balling

Craftsmanship goes courtside with the opulent stained-glass backboards, gilded basketballs, roped-off trophies, and chain mail jerseys from artist Victor Solomon. The works constitute Solomon’s first-ever solo exhibition in New York, Literally Balling, which opened yesterday at the Joseph Gross Gallery and runs through March 19. A continuation of the work which we saw from the artist early last year, Literally Balling manages to blend the fierce focus of the sport with modern iterations of archaic artisanal approaches. The result is a show which is as comically critical, positing the athlete as a quasi “modern-day king of court,” as it is downright impressive, with a range of works that each demanded over an 100 hours of the artist’s time to execute.

Below, a selection of the works on display at Joseph Gross Gallery for Literally Balling. 

Literally Balling runs until the 19 of March at Joseph Gross Gallery. Find out more on their site and see other works from Victor Solomon here.

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