Mikey Yates Releases 'Hoop Dreams' Print
Available to purchase via Artsy.
Mikey Yates is a Filipino-American artist who creates intimate snapshots of his life and love for sports. He recently worked with Artsy on a new archival pigment print that references an earlier painting he created back in 2018.
Hoop Dreams (2022) depicts a younger version of Yates as he lays on his bed shooting the basketball back and forth to himself. In the background, you can find various nostalgic images of the now defunct Seattle Supersonics, such as Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp. With the light beaming into the room, the orange basketball can be seen as an orbiting sun — “radiating light and energy, making life possible,” said writer Sean Beauford.
“I lived in Seattle for a few years, then I moved back in 8th and 9th grade, right before [the Seattle Supersonics] went to Oklahoma City,” Yates recalled in an interview. “Moving, especially living somewhere like Germany, everybody is from a different military base in the United States. So, you kind of hold on to those things about your state or your place.…It was a way for me to connect to the U.S. while away,” he added.
Hoop Dreams (2022) is an archival pigment print with spot varnishes and screen-printed layers on Satin Somerset Tub Size 410gsm paper. As an edition of 50, plus five artist proofs, the print is available to purchase via Artsy for £1,250 GBP / $1,521 USD.
For more on art, Stefan Rinck presents Semigods of the Jockey Club.
