La Loma Projects is pleased to announce GOALS, an exhibition featuring work by Meegan Barnes, Nadjib Benali, Gary Clement, John Collins, Shaun Ellison, Marc Etherington, Aaron Jones, Evan Jones, Kelly Lynn Jones, Brian Lotti, Devin Morrison, Faye Sanders, Jake Sheiner, Pace Taylor, and Liz Walsh. GOALS brings together artists whose works investigate sport, games, and play. Professional sports is a billion-dollar hydra of entertainment and exhibitionism; beyond the commercialism, paydays, and steroids, our fields, courts, racetracks and pools are home to strength, style, skill, identity and pride, individualism and teamwork, euphoria and despair, real and implied violence. Globally and at home, sports absorb and reflect the darkest strains in our politics, a shadow-play of nationalism and tribalism. “Sports” dramatize play, but they are not play. Play is not for consumption and serves no discernible function. It is seemingly unnecessary, what technocratic purpose does it serve? One could ask the same thing about music or painting and come up with the same answer: these outlets lend us color and meaning, without which we would lead dull lives. Whether played inside the grandest arena or the humble neighborhood court, bounded by finish lines or chain-link fences, refereed or umpired, photo-finished and booed or cheered, this theater is not merely a healthy distraction from life, or any separation from it, but some essential expression of life itself.