CalArts alum and current Trustee Lyndon Barrois Sr. (Film/Video MFA 95) debuts a new solo exhibition, Fútbol Is Life: Animated Sportraits, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) on Sunday, Feb. 15. The exhibition runs through July 12 and is timed ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup’s arrival in Los Angeles this summer.
The show features Barrois’ meticulously hand-made “sportraits,” sculptural works crafted from gum wrappers, glue, paint, and other materials. For this exhibition, he expands the scale of that signature practice, presenting life-sized works fabricated from gum-wrapper material enlarged 62 times its original size.
The exhibition traces World Cup history from 1930 through 2022, capturing moments such as Brazil’s Marta celebrating a goal and Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt, while pairing athletic feats with the political climates surrounding them.
In a recent interview with Essence, Barrois described the broader framework of the exhibition: “In terms of how the world reacts to this game and how it can separate or unite nations, it’s powerful. I wanted the conversations to go more in depth this time, to bring in the politics and the questions that come up when you really look at the history. I’m never going away from that. That’s what we do as artists.”
Barrois, founder of It’s a Wrapper Studios, has worked in visual effects for more than 30 years, including on The Matrix trilogy and Happy Feet. He joined the CalArts Board of Trustees in 2020.
