Victor Solomon has become the go-to artist for NBA stars. Solomon’s worked with Kevin Durant and LeBron James to design custom-made pieces, including stained-glass backboards, and he’s collaborated with the Boston Celtics for work related to Paul Pierce’s jersey retirement. Solomon’s love for basketball and the NBA started when he was a kid growing up in Boston, and now he’s collaborating with the league itself.
Basketball Is Back: The Minimally Informed Man’s Guide to the 2018-19 NBA Season
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Solomon teamed up with the league on the VS x NBA Team “Crystal Print” Series, for which he created a hand-pressed gold foil stamp of each of the NBA’s 30 team logos and suspended in a glass floating frame. The series is a hand-numbered, limited edition collection with a run of just 1,000 pieces per team. (You can see the full look at all the team stamps at the Literally Balling site.)
View this post on Instagram
here we go ✨ #VSxNBA limited edition, gold foil-stamped, franchise crystal prints now at literallyballing.com/nba A post shared by victor solomon (@victorsolomon) on Oct 1, 2018 at 8:08am PDT
“It’s really a crazy honor to have been a fan of the league for so long and then finally get to work with them on something I’m so proud of,” Solomon told Men’s Journal. “I think the relationship between fan and team is such a powerful one that contextualizes the best parts of civic pride and generational, tribal lineage. Working with the league to create something elegant and sophisticated as a totem to celebrate that has been amazing.”
VS x NBA Team “Crystal Print” Series Solomon’s work has been shown around the world in art shows in New York, Los Angeles, and Shanghai, and he’s also set for exhibitions in Paris and Dubai. For the stars in the NBA, they know who to go to if they want some custom-made, basketball-related art—it’s Solomon.
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Solomon spoke with Men’s Journal about designing basketball-related art, collaborating with NBA stars, and his favorite places he’s traveled to. What’s your process like in creating these VS x NBA Team “Crystal Print” pieces? I try to stay process agnostic and let the concept of a piece dictate the appropriate approach. For the stained glass works, it’s basically putting together a jigsaw puzzle of glass, but making all the pieces first. For the porcelain Kintsugi basketball, it’s slip casting the vessel, then smashing it and re-assembling it with that storied process. For the Crystal Print’s, it’s hand-pressing gold leaf on this 10-mil. transparent poly substrate and suspending it in this glass floating frame.
VS x NBA Team “Crystal Print” Series What inspires you to create your art and where do you get some of your ideas and inspiration from? For me, to be able to celebrate sport and use unique, sometimes antiquated processes to create objects that tell a story is the most intoxicating and rewarding thing ever. Inspiration is everywhere – from institutions like churches or museums, hallowed spaces like the Hoosiers gym and Rucker or even just going for a drive and letting your mind go. You’ve done a lot of work with athletes and the league. What do you like most about working in the sports world and combining that with your art? I think there’s a natural parallel to the discipline and stylistic flare athletes and artists share. With the acceleration of this sort of image-economy, there’s a desire for evocative “post-able” objects, but also more and more—thankfully—an appetite for meaning and narrative within works. Athletes and artists are both storytellers in their unique ways and it’s been interesting to see a natural connection evolving between the two.
View this post on Instagram
incredible honor to be asked by Nike to create an experience welcoming KD to the bay. this new collection parallels KD’s journey with totems from each phase and will be open to the public this weekend only, rsvp for your viewing time in the bio A post shared by victor solomon (@victorsolomon) on Oct 21, 2016 at 11:56am PDT
What are some of the things you’re currently working on? I’m about to head to Boston for an installation at the Celtics new office, then to New York for an installation at the NBPA’s office. I’m also talking with a handful of teams and brands about site-specific sculptures for facilities and stadiums and in the early parts of conceptualizing exhibitions for Dubai and Paris for 2019. Outside of that, I’ve been thinking a lot about the physical activation of a visitor to an experiential space and have a big idea around refining the form of sport as a platform to connect people that we just raised some venture money around, so will be unveiling that summer 2019. In order to view the video, please allow Manage Cookies
When did you first know you wanted to become an artist? It was never really a destination or intention. I’ve always been attracted to, and sort of at the mercy of, a compulsion to make things. That’s manifested itself across a number of mediums over the years: painting, writing, film, and all the pieces that got us here. I think the Literally Balling project is amazing because it’s developed into a broad practice and a wide-ranging aesthetic, rather than just a technique or singular type of production.
VS x NBA Team “Crystal Print” Series Where did your basketball fandom come from? I’m from Boston so the sport has always been a big part of my life. Basketball was special to me because you don’t need much to participate and with the clean meritocracy of it, everyone playing has the same goal. I was a poor, Cambodian Jew kid in East Boston—an outlier to say the least—but within the lines of a basketball court, on the same level as the rich and middle-class Italians and Irish kids I grew up with. What do you like the most about doing your art shows? What’s the process like for you in putting a show together? Putting a show together is one of the great thrills because you begin the process with the blankest piece of paper possible. Under the auspices of “art” there’s no creative governor, so the only limitation is your own imagination. I like to back into it from a sort of spatial experience projection, thinking about how a viewer will move through the exhibition – what they come in the door with and how each piece experienced informs the next and what sensation they should have at the end of it.
VS x NBA Team “Crystal Print” Series What are some of the pieces you’ve created for NBA players that you enjoyed working on the most? I developed this porcelain basketball, broken and reconstructed with a traditional Kintsugi process – which is an ancient Japanese technique of celebrating a ceramic object’s imperfections as formative steps in it’s journey by filling the cracks with gold – a technique that felt like a perfect metaphor for the athlete’s journey. Nike and Hypebeast reached out about putting together an exhibition in Shanghai for Lebron’s Asia tour and we created a variation of these pieces for the occasion. As we all know, he’s grown up in front of us and had a rich and storied career, so I made 16 unique pieces for the experience, one to represent each year in the league. Got to have a great conversation with him about it and he understood and loved the narrative and symbolism of the works. Your career has taken you around the world. What are some of your favorite places that you’ve been? Any places you’d still like to go? I was really taken with Shanghai and surprised by how much I loved it. I didn’t know what to expect, but it’s a gorgeous, cosmopolitan city that both feels rich with history and represents the promise of the future at the same time. Looking forward to getting back their soon. I’m excited to explore Dubai for the first time and have yet to experience Italy or Greece. Looking forward to returning to Paris and Melbourne, but for now, happy to sit on the couch for a little while.
View this post on Instagram
Literally Balling; Xanadu – February 16 6-10pm – 1052 South Olive Street A post shared by victor solomon (@victorsolomon) on Feb 14, 2018 at 7:44am PST
What do you hope people take away from interacting with your art and when they take it home with them? There’s a lot—I think basketball as a dynamic connector that flattens class/race/socioeconomic segregators, I think the piece-by-piece conceptual narrative I try to build into every piece, that aesthetically it’s pleasing to experience—but also, that this can be anything you want.
Victor Solomon
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Victor Solomon has become the go-to artist for NBA stars. Solomon’s worked with Kevin Durant and LeBron James to design custom-made pieces, including stained-glass backboards, and he’s collaborated with the Boston Celtics for work related to Paul Pierce’s jersey retirement. Solomon’s love for basketball and the NBA started when he was a kid growing up in Boston, and now he’s collaborating with the league itself.
Basketball Is Back: The Minimally Informed Man’s Guide to the 2018-19 NBA Season
Read article
Solomon teamed up with the league on the VS x NBA Team “Crystal Print” Series, for which he created a hand-pressed gold foil stamp of each of the NBA’s 30 team logos and suspended in a glass floating frame. The series is a hand-numbered, limited edition collection with a run of just 1,000 pieces per team. (You can see the full look at all the team stamps at the Literally Balling site.)
Basketball Is Back: The Minimally Informed Man’s Guide to the 2018-19 NBA Season
Read article
Basketball Is Back: The Minimally Informed Man’s Guide to the 2018-19 NBA Season
View this post on Instagram
here we go ✨ #VSxNBA limited edition, gold foil-stamped, franchise crystal prints now at literallyballing.com/nba A post shared by victor solomon (@victorsolomon) on Oct 1, 2018 at 8:08am PDT
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
here we go ✨ #VSxNBA limited edition, gold foil-stamped, franchise crystal prints now at literallyballing.com/nba
A post shared by victor solomon (@victorsolomon) on Oct 1, 2018 at 8:08am PDT
“It’s really a crazy honor to have been a fan of the league for so long and then finally get to work with them on something I’m so proud of,” Solomon told Men’s Journal. “I think the relationship between fan and team is such a powerful one that contextualizes the best parts of civic pride and generational, tribal lineage. Working with the league to create something elegant and sophisticated as a totem to celebrate that has been amazing.”
Solomon’s work has been shown around the world in art shows in New York, Los Angeles, and Shanghai, and he’s also set for exhibitions in Paris and Dubai. For the stars in the NBA, they know who to go to if they want some custom-made, basketball-related art—it’s Solomon.
How James Harden’s On-Court Creativity Inspired the Adidas Harden Vol. 3 Shoe
Read article
Solomon spoke with Men’s Journal about designing basketball-related art, collaborating with NBA stars, and his favorite places he’s traveled to.
How James Harden’s On-Court Creativity Inspired the Adidas Harden Vol. 3 Shoe
Read article
How James Harden’s On-Court Creativity Inspired the Adidas Harden Vol. 3 Shoe
What’s your process like in creating these VS x NBA Team “Crystal Print” pieces? I try to stay process agnostic and let the concept of a piece dictate the appropriate approach. For the stained glass works, it’s basically putting together a jigsaw puzzle of glass, but making all the pieces first. For the porcelain Kintsugi basketball, it’s slip casting the vessel, then smashing it and re-assembling it with that storied process. For the Crystal Print’s, it’s hand-pressing gold leaf on this 10-mil. transparent poly substrate and suspending it in this glass floating frame.
What inspires you to create your art and where do you get some of your ideas and inspiration from? For me, to be able to celebrate sport and use unique, sometimes antiquated processes to create objects that tell a story is the most intoxicating and rewarding thing ever. Inspiration is everywhere – from institutions like churches or museums, hallowed spaces like the Hoosiers gym and Rucker or even just going for a drive and letting your mind go.
You’ve done a lot of work with athletes and the league. What do you like most about working in the sports world and combining that with your art? I think there’s a natural parallel to the discipline and stylistic flare athletes and artists share. With the acceleration of this sort of image-economy, there’s a desire for evocative “post-able” objects, but also more and more—thankfully—an appetite for meaning and narrative within works. Athletes and artists are both storytellers in their unique ways and it’s been interesting to see a natural connection evolving between the two.
View this post on Instagram
incredible honor to be asked by Nike to create an experience welcoming KD to the bay. this new collection parallels KD’s journey with totems from each phase and will be open to the public this weekend only, rsvp for your viewing time in the bio A post shared by victor solomon (@victorsolomon) on Oct 21, 2016 at 11:56am PDT
incredible honor to be asked by Nike to create an experience welcoming KD to the bay. this new collection parallels KD’s journey with totems from each phase and will be open to the public this weekend only, rsvp for your viewing time in the bio
A post shared by victor solomon (@victorsolomon) on Oct 21, 2016 at 11:56am PDT
What are some of the things you’re currently working on? I’m about to head to Boston for an installation at the Celtics new office, then to New York for an installation at the NBPA’s office. I’m also talking with a handful of teams and brands about site-specific sculptures for facilities and stadiums and in the early parts of conceptualizing exhibitions for Dubai and Paris for 2019. Outside of that, I’ve been thinking a lot about the physical activation of a visitor to an experiential space and have a big idea around refining the form of sport as a platform to connect people that we just raised some venture money around, so will be unveiling that summer 2019.
In order to view the video, please allow Manage Cookies
When did you first know you wanted to become an artist? It was never really a destination or intention. I’ve always been attracted to, and sort of at the mercy of, a compulsion to make things. That’s manifested itself across a number of mediums over the years: painting, writing, film, and all the pieces that got us here. I think the Literally Balling project is amazing because it’s developed into a broad practice and a wide-ranging aesthetic, rather than just a technique or singular type of production.
Where did your basketball fandom come from? I’m from Boston so the sport has always been a big part of my life. Basketball was special to me because you don’t need much to participate and with the clean meritocracy of it, everyone playing has the same goal. I was a poor, Cambodian Jew kid in East Boston—an outlier to say the least—but within the lines of a basketball court, on the same level as the rich and middle-class Italians and Irish kids I grew up with.
What do you like the most about doing your art shows? What’s the process like for you in putting a show together? Putting a show together is one of the great thrills because you begin the process with the blankest piece of paper possible. Under the auspices of “art” there’s no creative governor, so the only limitation is your own imagination. I like to back into it from a sort of spatial experience projection, thinking about how a viewer will move through the exhibition – what they come in the door with and how each piece experienced informs the next and what sensation they should have at the end of it.
What are some of the pieces you’ve created for NBA players that you enjoyed working on the most? I developed this porcelain basketball, broken and reconstructed with a traditional Kintsugi process – which is an ancient Japanese technique of celebrating a ceramic object’s imperfections as formative steps in it’s journey by filling the cracks with gold – a technique that felt like a perfect metaphor for the athlete’s journey. Nike and Hypebeast reached out about putting together an exhibition in Shanghai for Lebron’s Asia tour and we created a variation of these pieces for the occasion. As we all know, he’s grown up in front of us and had a rich and storied career, so I made 16 unique pieces for the experience, one to represent each year in the league. Got to have a great conversation with him about it and he understood and loved the narrative and symbolism of the works.
Your career has taken you around the world. What are some of your favorite places that you’ve been? Any places you’d still like to go? I was really taken with Shanghai and surprised by how much I loved it. I didn’t know what to expect, but it’s a gorgeous, cosmopolitan city that both feels rich with history and represents the promise of the future at the same time. Looking forward to getting back their soon. I’m excited to explore Dubai for the first time and have yet to experience Italy or Greece. Looking forward to returning to Paris and Melbourne, but for now, happy to sit on the couch for a little while.
View this post on Instagram
Literally Balling; Xanadu – February 16 6-10pm – 1052 South Olive Street A post shared by victor solomon (@victorsolomon) on Feb 14, 2018 at 7:44am PST
Literally Balling; Xanadu – February 16 6-10pm – 1052 South Olive Street
A post shared by victor solomon (@victorsolomon) on Feb 14, 2018 at 7:44am PST
What do you hope people take away from interacting with your art and when they take it home with them? There’s a lot—I think basketball as a dynamic connector that flattens class/race/socioeconomic segregators, I think the piece-by-piece conceptual narrative I try to build into every piece, that aesthetically it’s pleasing to experience—but also, that this can be anything you want.
For access to exclusive gear videos, celebrity interviews, and more, subscribe on YouTube!
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Training Secrets That Keep Jon Rahm a Powerhouse on the PGA Tour
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Everything You Need to Know About the Rolex Series
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Tiger Woods Will Make His First Start of the Year at the Genesis Invitational
Racing Legend Travis Pastrana to Make 2023 Daytona 500 Attempt
Training Secrets That Keep Jon Rahm a Powerhouse on the PGA Tour
The Best Prop Bets for Super Bowl LVII
Everything You Need to Know About the Rolex Series
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More Videos
The MJ5: Tony Hawk on His Favorite Gear, Why He Always Carries His Board, and More
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