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Inside Barclays Center, when the New York Liberty players take the court, most fans (with the exception of the lucky few in floor seats) are looking down on them from the stands. But in this new public art exhibition by LaToya Ruby Frazier, all who pass by Barclays Center will get a chance to look up at the players, feeling awed by their physical strength and touched by their personal stories.
The installation, titled "The Liberty Portraits: A Monument to the 2024 Champions" celebrates professional female athletes, reflecting the power of female leadership, influence, diversity, and love for the game of basketball and family. The exhibition is open to all who walk past Barclays Center and will be on view through October.
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A longtime Liberty fan, Frazier spent time with each of the players on the 2024 roster to photograph them in uniform and also with their chosen family. She then designed double-sized, nine-foot-tall portraits presented in display cases to showcase the work. Frazier said she created the concept in this double-sided fashion as a way to juxtapose two different parts of each player's identity.
In the athletic portrait, the artist asked players to reflect on their intensity on the court, perhaps even thinking about a moment where they made a mistake and wish they could change their actions. The portraits, powerful and raw in their intensity, show the competitive spirit of women athletes and instantly command respect.
"In order for you to look at them, you're bending the knee to them," Frazier told Time Out in an exclusive interview, calling the display Brooklyn's own "Mount Olympus in front of Barclays."
Brooklyn's own "Mount Olympus in front of Barclays."
For the second set of portraits, Frazier visited the players in locations meaningful to them, including spending time with Jonquel Jones' family in the Bahamas and visiting players in Texas, Arkansas and Alabama, among other locations. Over the years, Frazier has noticed the way players have been talked about in the media, and she wanted to instead capture their dignity and humanity.
"There's a tenderness to who they are when they're not on the court," Frazier said. "Though we are projecting on them as superfans, this is somebody's daughter, someone's mother, someone's niece. You cannot disrespect them. They are human beings."
In addition to exploring Frazier's visual storytelling, fans can also read a first-person story written by a loved one of each player. For example, Jones' mother wrote a stirring testimony about her daughter's early years growing up in the Bahamas and dreaming of playing in the United States. For Breanna Stewart's portion, her wife Marta Xargay Casademont shared deep insights into the couple's early dating years, family life and views.
"What these players' families have to say, I think is going to move and compel people," Frazier told Time Out. "It's going to give them a new perspective on the Liberty and inspire them. There's a lot of life lessons in terms of what they're sharing and everything they went through, from their struggles to their victories."
Though Frazier is a renowned artist who has exhibited at MoMA, the Brooklyn Museum, ICA Boston, Seattle Art Museum, and museums across Europe, this is the first commissioned public art exhibition for the Pittsburgh-area creative. She credits her bond with Clara Wu Tsai, vice chair of BSE Global (parent company of the New York Liberty) for making it happen. Frazier believes it was Wu Tsai's eye for art that compelled her entrust Frazier to build the monumental artwork.
The piece itself really shows the real power of sisterhood and collectivity and unity.
"The piece itself really shows the real power of sisterhood and collectivity and unity and what it means to see the fullness of someone's humanity and to respect it," Frazier told Time Out.
Following Frazier's installation, Wu Tsai will continue to bring public art to the plaza with a series of temporary new commissions in the coming years. A jury of esteemed art world leaders, including Thelma Golden, Michael Govan, Clara Kim, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Anne Pasternak, and Akili Tommasino, have convened to nominate artists and select the 2026 commission, to be announced this fall.