Symbols, signifiers, armour, fashion: football shirts are everywhere, and can mean anything. Our big summer exhibition – opening to coincide with the men’s Euros – looks at how artists have explored the power, ubiquity and recognisability of football shirts for a hundred years. From constructivism in the 1920s to conceptualism in the 2020s, this is a century of football shirts being used to communicate ideas of community, belonging and aesthetics.  

Starting with Varvara Stepanova’s radical, experimental designs for football kits in the early Soviet era, the show goes on to look at the role of football shirts in the creation of national identities in Croatia and Ghana, as expressions of bias, anger and division in the work of Rachel Maclean and Trackie McLeod, and as portable, wearable canvases in the work of Christian Jeffery, Martin Kazanietz and Diana Al-Shammari. And that’s before we’ve even looked at teams who have taken inspiration from artists, like OGC Nice’s Yves Klein blue third shirt, Walthamstow FC’s William Morris kit, Leith Athletic’s Paolozzi patterned strip and an Ajax x Van Gogh collab that’s definitely not a bootleg, honest. 

It’s not just shirts though, it’s also, you know, like, art: Rhys Coren’s psychedelic videos are based on classic ’90s kit patterns, Leo Fitzmaurice creates origami wallpaper by folding cigarette packets into mini football shirts, Jil Mandeng explores her mixed heritage in paintings that combine African masks with European shirts, while Jonathan Monk’s flag speaks to the global dominance of major sports brands.

Who knew there was so much to say about the relationship between art and football shirts? Us. We knew. 

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

DIANA AL SHAMMARI | AS VELASCA | JUNO CALYPSO | CACAHUETES SLUTS | DAMIEN CIFELLI | PHILIP COLBERT | RHYS COREN | HATTIE CROWTHER |  PAOLO DEL VECHHIO | GODRIED DONKOR | FOKOHAELA | LEO FITZMAURICE | GOAL DIGGERS FC | CALLAN GRECIA | JJ GUEST | SKO HABIBI | CHRISTIAN JEFFERY | MARTIN KAZANIETZ | JONATHAN KELHAM | RACHEL MACLEAN | JILL MANDENG | TRACKIE MCLEOD | JONATHAN MONK | DAVID SHRIGLEY | HANK WILLIS THOMAS | RACHEL WOZICKA 

13 JUNE TO 28 SEMPTEMBER 2024

PRESS The Sunday Times, SoccerBible, Euronews