Image: Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe
Arizona State University Art Museum will open 'Cross Check: Jacob Trouba and William Wegman' on Sept. 10 with a VIP preview, a keynote conversation and a public reception centered on the artists’ collaboration across contemporary art and professional sport. The program, announced by the museum in Tempe, begins with an invitation-only preview for board and council members and special guests from 4 to 5 p.m., followed by a keynote lecture from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and a public opening reception from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The keynote, titled 'Art, Athletics, and the Marks We Make,' features artist William Wegman and NHL defenseman Jacob Trouba in conversation about their joint project. According to the museum’s announcement, Senior Curator Alana Hernandez will moderate the discussion. The talk is framed around the ways Trouba’s body and hockey gear generate marks that Wegman then translates into painterly works, with the artists discussing creative risk, discipline, identity and the overlap between artistic and athletic practice.
'Cross Check: Jacob Trouba and William Wegman' brings together two artists with distinct practices and presents collaborative works publicly for the first time, according to the museum’s exhibition description. Wegman, born in 1943, is known as a renowned artist, while Trouba, born in 1994, is identified in the museum materials as a professional hockey player turned artist. The project is rooted in hockey’s physical language and in movement as a form of artistic production, translation and collaboration.
The exhibition explores the body as both subject and medium. The museum says Trouba covers himself in ink while wearing hockey gear and propels himself across the canvas, leaving marks that record speed, force and impact. Wegman responds by translating those gestures into paintings at an intimate scale, creating an ongoing dialogue between action and reflection. The title 'Cross Check' refers to the hockey maneuver in which a player forcefully checks an opponent with both hands on the stick, a reference the museum uses to underline the exhibition’s connection between play and creative exchange.
The opening reception will allow visitors to see the collaborative works in the galleries, meet the artists and experience the exhibition as it debuts. The museum says guests will be able to explore the show while cocktails, light bites and music accompany the evening. Admission to the reception is free, though RSVP is required, and the museum notes that space is limited.
Support for the exhibition is provided by NHL Unites and Tickets Unlimited. The museum also says the opening reception is generously underwritten by American Express. ASU Art Museum, part of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, is located at 51 E. 10th St. in Tempe, and the Sept. 10 program is scheduled for 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., with the VIP preview preceding it from 4 to 5 p.m.
