Michael Mapes Reframes Three USMNT Players' Journeys

Michael Mapes is an American artist is known for building portraits from fragments – what he calls “biographical DNA” – layering images, materials and memories into something more human than heroic. For his latest work, Mapes turns to football, creating collages of three U.S. Men’s National Team players. But instead of focusing on goals or big moments, ahead of the World Cup he looks backwards, pulling apart their journeys to understand how they got there in the first place.

Each piece is made up of hundreds of elements: family photos, early playing days, the people and places that shaped them. It’s a perspective that feels right at home in Creative Soccer Culture, where story and identity run deeper than the surface. As Mapes puts it, the work is about how individuals are built by communities, mirroring the way teams, and culture itself, come together.

The project sits within Chobani’s ‘Feed the Dream’ campaign, but Mapes’ contribution stands on its own, less about branding, more about connection; it feels distinctly artistic, foregrounding process, materiality, and the idea that behind every player is a layered, deeply personal story waiting to be seen. We caught up with Mapes to find out how each piece came to life, and what sits beneath the surface.

Your work often digs into what you call a subject’s “biographical DNA.” When applying that to footballers, what layers of their story felt most important to surface beyond what we already see on the pitch?

For each of the three players, the focus on football and the accompanying acclaim encouraged a kind of reverse engineering approach. Acquiring the “biographical DNA” became an exercise in considering the path of each player, deconstructing their past to have a better sense of how they got to the present. Was their potential evident in match video, interviews, baby pics, photos of family, friends, mentors and coaches? To me, the pivot for all three was the shift to competing at a higher level at a young age and the changes required to do so. 

There’s something powerful about translating a footballer’s journey into a physical, collage-based artwork in an increasingly digital culture. What does that analogue approach bring to the storytelling?

I believe art, in general, provides contrast and compliment to the myriads of imagery created and broadcast digitally. More specific to my work, the stories told aren’t chronological or comprehensive. They don't move or make sound. They represent a collection of experiences, adjoined by a single artwork. The manner and meaning of the experience isn’t dictated by the medium. Rather, it's encouraged by the art and determined by the observer.

Soccer culture is built as much on community as it is individual talent. How did you reflect the unseen contributors – family, friends, local scenes – in these pieces?

The title of this body of work is Fed by Many, and Chobani’s campaign is rooted in the same conviction — that no one makes it alone, that dreams are grown through collective nourishment. These artworks parallel the concept of soccer culture through compositional choices that suggest movement and multiplicity. Interweaving individual images and objects to form a singular portrait is a metaphor for individuals to a community and for players to a team. 

Each portrait is made up of hundreds of images. Was there a moment in the process where a player’s story ‘clicked’ for you — where the narrative became clear through the collage?

Early in the process, I watched numerous videos and highlight clips of Christian Pulisic playing youth football. Despite the curation, it was very evident he was playing at a higher level, something known by his parents and coaches. I thought of how talent and potential can be rewarded by early recognition and nurturing. In the case of all three players, I was inspired to consider how football completely changed the trajectory of their youth. In the work, I sought to make compositional connections to the transformation of that talent to present day. 

Installing these works in the communities that shaped each player feels significant. How do you hope locals engage with the pieces compared to a wider audience seeing them in New York?

I’ve had my own experiences of engaging people that came to excel in their fields, sports included. I played two-on-one against Larry Bird when I was a teenager and to this day, he is my favorite player. In a competitive context, there are scores of people who played with and against these three athletes and experienced their greatness firsthand - to victory and defeat. That highly personal contact, for athletes, teachers, coaches, and fans, connects us to their stories, wherever they may be telling them. I hope experiencing the artwork might be a catalyst for that connection.

Football is often documented through photography, fashion, and film — where do you see collage or art in general sitting within that broader creative ecosystem of the sport?

I appreciate that collage can accommodate numerous mediums and types of content. In this series of works, the composition is shared by photos, stills from video and deconstructed football jerseys. I wanted the art to combine beauty, style and content. As an artist, I was asked to create work that serves the interest of the players. True portraiture. I think art has the potential to being more humanity to the sport. 

With the World Cup as a backdrop, this project connects grassroots origins to a global stage. How do you view the role of art in reframing how we see footballers – especially in a U.S. context?

I wouldn't say there's a particularly rich history of the collaboration between art and sport. That isn’t to say there aren’t incredible individual works with athletes or competition as their subjects. However, the vast popularity of sports has drawn it close to commercial interest, particularly in the way it is experienced in culture. I greatly appreciate that Chobani hired me as an artist for this campaign. They wanted portraits of the three players. Not posters. In my work, they saw a match for my artistic approach to their campaign of “Feed the Dream”. For anyone who knows my work, or has a broader interest in art, they will see an artists’ approach to telling a visual story about three people - who happen to be great footballers. And while the primary image is singular, in a gestalt sense, closer examination gives way to appreciating the complexities of the athletes and the influences and interests around them. This appreciation of the artwork takes the form of looking and contemplating meaning. And connecting those thoughts to our own experiences.

What did working with athletes – whose identities are often tightly managed – teach you about trust, interpretation, and storytelling as an artist?

I approached this commission with a relative blank slate. I knew something about football and nothing about the three athletes. I had no bias or preconceived notions of how to approach the work. I got to know them through what was available to me. Hundreds of photographs, listening to interviews, watching videos of them playing, reading bios, visiting social media. As you said, their identities are certainly managed, however, their friends and families afforded us an access that was a more personal path. As I began considering photos and objects for potential use, I imagined the response of each of the players to their own portraits as I might imagine my own.

Finally, when someone stands in front of one of these portraits, what’s the one feeling or realisation you’d want them to walk away with?

We are not singular in nature. The athletes are not simply athletes. Nor are we one thing. We are the composition of many things, connected in known and unknown ways.