Shaq is a basketball player, rapper, actor, reality show star, sometimes police officer, and a social media maven. Now, he's taking an interest in art.
A few months ago Shaq tweeted that he was working with Peter Max (he of the colorful Statue of Liberty paintings, among others) on something. Now we know why. FLAG in New York will host an exhibit called "Size DOES Matter" from February 19, 2010 to May 27, 2010, and the emphasis of the collections is... you guessed it, big stuff. So, naturally, they grabbed one of the biggest athletes in the world to lend his discerning eye to the curatorial process.
From the press release:
The exhibition will include works in a variety of media that employ scale as a key component of their composition. Every work in the show was selected by Shaq himself or is being newly made at his request.
Artists in the exhibition will include: Maurizio Cattelan, Paul Pfeiffer, Chuck Close, Charles Ray, Cathy de Monchaux, Ugo Rondinone, Richard DuPont, Yinka Shonibare, Joe Fig..."
And the list goes on and on.
From a Bloomberg report, we have some Shaq quotes:
“New York is the art capital, so I’m pleased to be starting at the top,’’ O’Neal, 37, said in an e-mail interview. “It was a little harder than I thought it would be. When you think about what each of the artists put into their work, what they are expressing and want to share with the world, you feel bad about having to narrow it down.’’ He said he chose pieces he “can relate to.’’
