spotlight || sports
The Art of the Game Entrepreneur John Pagnucco’s new Spirit of Sports gallery unites art and athletics. | by Joe Hart
P
ut the words “artwork” and “sports” in the same sentence, and you might conjure up an image of a framed Vikings poster or a signed baseball in a glass case. For John Pagnucco, however, the associations are rather different. “Andy Warhol had an athlete series. George Bellows painted boxers. Thomas Eakins focused on rowing and sailing,” he says. “I don’t consider any of it really unusual. Once you get beyond food, sex and shelter, sports is a common denominator around the world. It’s an integral part of our daily life. So it makes sense that some artists would focus on sports.” So much sense, in fact, that he’s founding a business on the principle. Pagnucco is an investment banker whose twin passions for art and sports have taken root in Spirit of Sports, an e-commerce business that focuses on sports-themed artwork and gifts. There are plenty of places to buy sports-related licensed merchandise or team memorabilia, he explains. “That’s hero or team worship, and that’s different,” he adds. Instead, he’s selling fine art and high-end gifts with a sports-related theme — no logos, no personalities and no memorabilia. Pagnucco founded the sports-focused Arena Gallery back in 1991 in the Edina’s Galleria shopping mall. Eventually he closed its doors to focus on his career. But the idea stuck with him. “A few years ago, a sliver came under my fingernail. With e-commerce technology improving, retail specialization coming into focus and the economy improving, I decided it was time to relaunch on the Internet.” To raise awareness of his project, Pagnucco is displaying a selection of artwork in the model home at the Brownstones on France. The traditional architecture of the luxury units is an excellent backdrop to the Spirit of Sports, Pagnucco says: “We’re talking about the oldest artistic subject in the world, going back thousands of years to cave paintings and primitive sculptures. Celebration of the human body has always been deeply woven into the fabric of every culture.”
get in the game You can check out a selection of works from Spirit of Sports on display in the model home at Brownstones on France, located at 50th and France. 182 Artful Living
| Autumn 2011
Artful-LivingMag.com