Larger-Than-Life Moments in Miniature

The stuff of dioramas: balsa wood, clay  … and gum wrappers? Fútbol Is Life: Animated Sportraits by Lyndon J. Barrois, Sr. celebrates 2026 World Cup matches in Los Angeles with depictions of football history’s big moments on a small scale—and via a unique medium.

New Orleans-born, Los Angeles-based artist Barrois creates 1-inch-tall sports figures out of gum wrappers, whose foil side provides structure and paper side he paints meticulously. “These toys that I make” pay homage to elite athletes, he tells AramcoWorld.

For this exhibition Barrois researched photos and videos, then spent seven months sculpting, painting and sealing gum wrappers with glue for 40 vignettes that re-create World Cup scenes spanning 1930 to 2023. Many depict “not the crowning moments but the crowning achievements for those teams”—among them Saudi Arabia’s 2022 upset of powerhouse Argentina that prompted midfielder Salem Al-Dawsari’s backflip.

Additionally, the show brings moments to life via stop-motion-animated short films by Barrois, who has contributed visual effects to “The Matrix” trilogy of films, among others.

“Sportraits” reach beyond what takes place on the pitch, he says. They remind us of the common ground that nations and cultures can share during play. “We can agree to disagree, but we don’t have to get all tribal and hateful,” Barrois says. “For those moments, sports do that.”

Top A detail of “Fútballet” depicts England’s Bryan Robson blasting a goal past France’s Jean-Luc Ettori in 1982.
Credit: ©Lyndon J. Barrois Sr. and Museum Associates/LACMA