Image: Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is presenting ‘Fútbol Is Life: Animated Sportraits by Lyndon J. Barrois, Sr.’, an exhibition timed to the arrival of the World Cup in Los Angeles and built around the artist’s miniature soccer scenes. The show brings together works by Barrois, an award-winning animator and visual-effects artist, whose hand-made sculptures and stop-motion animations translate iconic moments from women’s and men’s soccer into small-scale portraits, or “sportraits.”
According to LACMA, the works are crafted from gum wrappers, glue, paint and other materials. The museum describes Barrois’s approach as combining playful energy with emotional weight, while emphasizing the grace and power of the sport. The exhibition’s title frames soccer not just as subject matter but as narrative material, with Barrois’s miniature figures turning athletic action into carefully staged scenes.
The exhibition is organized by LACMA and is supported by the Contemporary Projects Endowment Fund, with additional support from Lisa Goodman, Josef Vascovitz, and Jason S. and Jamie J. Riffe. LACMA’s materials also note that all exhibitions at the museum are underwritten by the LACMA Exhibition Fund. The show is presented at the Resnick Pavilion.
LACMA’s description places particular emphasis on Barrois’s storytelling methods. By combining sculpture and animation, the artist presents the game through a highly manual process that relies on small, tactile materials rather than digital spectacle. The museum says the result is a unique vision of one of the world’s most popular sports, with the work highlighting both the artist’s technical range and his inventive approach to narrative form.
The exhibition page identifies one example from the series: ‘Fútballet’, with a detail showing U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo diving for a decisive save against Australia in 2015. That image underscores the exhibition’s focus on specific, recognizable moments from the history of the game, transformed into intimate objects that can be read as both sports imagery and miniature sculpture.
‘Fútbol Is Life: Animated Sportraits by Lyndon J. Barrois, Sr.’ opened on Feb. 15, 2026, and is on view through July 26, 2026, at the Resnick Pavilion in Los Angeles. The museum’s weekly update urged visitors to see the exhibition in its final days, alongside LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries, before it closes at the end of July.
