LaToya Ruby Frazier on The Liberty Portraits
“The ten, nine-foot tall double-sided structures is my new 21st century monument dedicated to the New York Liberty 2024 championship team.”
On July 3, BSE Global, parent company of 2024 WNBA Champion New York Liberty, the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center, alongside its Vice Chair Clara Wu Tsai revealed The Liberty Portraits: A Monument to the 2024 Champions, a new public art installation by renowned artist LaToya Ruby Frazier honoring the 2024 WNBA championship team, now on display on the plaza at Barclays Center.
The series, Frazier’s first outdoor installation, celebrates the New York Liberty as professional athletes, reflecting the power of female leadership, influence, diversity, love for the game of basketball and family. Referencing the heroic scale of the Statue of Liberty, Frazier designed double-sided, nine-foot-tall portraits of each player on the 2024 roster presented in architectural display cases—one side featuring a portrait of a player in uniform, and the reverse side showcasing an image of the same player with their chosen family. To make the latter 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. Known for incorporating storytelling in her work, Frazier’s portraits also include the voice of a loved one chosen by each player as first-person testimonies on text panels. The Liberty Portraits: A Monument to the 2024 Champions will be on display through the 2025 WNBA season.
Courtesy of: @nyliberty
