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Two-person exhibition featuring professional wrestlers and artists Lee Moriarty and Thekla Kaischauri presented in the Miami Design District, alongside the first museum-led conference on culture & sports

— On view March 19 through March 29, 2026 —

Miami, FL — GAME TIME is pleased to present Sunset Flip, a two-person exhibition featuring professional wrestlers and artists Lee Moriarty, Ring of Honor Pure Champion, and Thekla Kaischauri, All Elite Wrestling Women’s World Champion. Curated by Cultural Counsel and Orange Crush founder Adam Abdalla in partnership with gallerist Nina Johnson, the exhibition will be staged in the Miami Design District with an opening reception on Friday, March 20 at 7pm, following a panel discussion at Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) as part of the GAME TIME Session 1.

Presented alongside GAME TIME: Session 1—Dialogues on Art, Sports, and Headlines, a new cultural programming series exploring the convergence of art and sports at PAMM, Sunset Flip grows out of the expanding dialogue between contemporary art and the culture of sport that the conference brings together. The exhibition explores the intersection of professional wrestling and contemporary art through the work of two artists whose practices move fluidly between the ring and the studio. Bringing together painting, performance, and personal narrative, Sunset Flip considers wrestling as both spectacle and artistic language.

The show unfolds in parallel with the group exhibition Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture at PAMM, in which Moriarty is also featured, positioning Sunset Flip as part of a broader survey that examines the aesthetics, mythology, and performative dimensions of sport as it meets art. Together with GAME TIME, which is also organized by Abdalla, these presentations reflect a growing institutional and cultural interest in the ways athletic performance and contemporary art intersect.

Sunset Flip features ten works, including three never-before-seen tennis paintings by Moriarty created on the occasion of the Miami Open. The exhibition also precedes Kaischauri’s participation in House Show: Power, Spectacle, and Pro Wrestling at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, co-curated by Abdalla. Coinciding with both of his presentations in Sunset Flip and Get in the Game, a limited-edition benefit print of Moriarty’s Pink Mink Portrait is also being released by New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) and Orange Crush, with proceeds benefiting Little Oaks. At the heart of Sunset Flip is a dialogue between Moriarty and Kaischauri’s distinct but complementary artistic practices. Both artists approach wrestling as a form of performance and storytelling, translating the physical language of the ring into painterly gesture, character, and narrative.

Moriarty’s paintings reveal a different side of luchadors—figures often defined by elaborate masks and larger-than-life personas inside the ring. In his portraits, they appear in quiet, everyday moments: one lounges in a beach chair beneath the sun; another builds a snowman on a still winter afternoon; a third peers through binoculars while birdwatching in a peaceful clearing. Drawing on his personal experiences within the wrestling world, the Tampa-based artist’s work is shaped by his background in Mexican lucha libre. He competed and trained in Mexico under legendary wrestler Negro Navarro, studying the highly technical grappling style known as llave. In 2025, PAMM acquired an artwork by Moriarty for its permanent collection, making Morarity the first active professional wrestler to have their artwork acquired by a major museum. Building on his emergence in the contemporary art scene, Sunset Flip offers an extension of Moriarty’s visual practice, which plays with the visual tropes and stereotypes surrounding professional wrestling, offering an insider’s perspective on the tension between spectacle and self.

A creative and physical force, Kaischauri’s career also traces back to her early influences and training from ballet and martial arts to violin. Much of Kaischauri’s art reflects her passion for Japanese joshi (women’s) wrestling. Her vibrant paintings depict the artist’s wrestling persona bruised and battered after a match. Kaischauri also designs many of her own wrestling costumes, blending the visual languages of painting, performance, and fashion.

Together, Moriarty and Kaischauri’s works reflect wrestling’s layered identity as sport, theater, and visual culture. Presented during GAME TIME and alongside PAMM’s Get in the Gameexhibition, Sunset Flip situates professional wrestling within a broader cultural conversation about performance, identity, and the aesthetics of competition.

Ahead of the exhibition’s opening reception on the evening of March 20, Sunset Flip will also be celebrated during the Art & Wrestling panel discussion that morning from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM. Hosted by PAMM as a part of the GAME TIME series, the conversation will gather artists, wrestlers, and curators alike to discuss how professional wrestling blurs the lines between performance art, athletics, and camp. From wrestlers with artistic practices to exhibitions that capture the sport’s larger-than-life energy, the discussion explores the growing exchange between contemporary art and wrestling. The conversation will feature Moriarty and Kaischauri alongside Abdalla and artist Shaun Leonardo.

This series of exhibitions and programming arrives on the heels of the recent release of The Deep State: Art, Culture & Florida. Part art book, part cultural deep dive, and part fever dream, the limited-edition publication is an ode to the Sunshine State’s strange beauty and rich contradictions. The book reflects South Florida’s evolution as a cultural hub and destination for artists and their communities, while offering insight into Miami’s growing role as a site of creative expression and intrigue. This volume features a chapter on Moriarty’s work, alongside paired conversations, including Abdalla in dialogue with Miami Design District developer Craig Robins, and PAMM Director Franklin Sirmans in conversation with philanthropist and collector Jorge M. Pérez. To purchase The Deep State, please visit this link.

For more information on Sunset Flip, please visit the Miami Design District’s website.

To purchase tickets and learn more about GAME TIME Session 1, please visit GAME TIME’s website.

About GAME TIME

GAME TIME, a new cultural platform exploring the convergence of art and sports, debuts at Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) on March 19 and 20, 2026, during the opening weekend of Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture. The inaugural edition, GAME TIME: Session 1—Dialogues on Art, Sports, and Headlines, unites artists, athletes, curators, poets, journalists, and cultural icons for electrifying conversations, performances, screenings, and live events.

Coinciding with the Miami Open and leading up to major world sporting events in South Florida, including Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix and the FIFA World Cup, GAME TIME is the first major museum-led conference examining cultural production in and around sports. By inviting athletes and artists to share the stage, GAME TIME provides a space for cultural institutions to seriously consider, explore, and investigate the intersection of art and sports in ways that extend beyond the aesthetics of athletics.

GAME TIME is incubated by curator and creative director Adam Abdalla in collaboration with PAMM, and supported by Knight Foundation, LeRoy Neiman and Janet Byrne Neiman Foundation, Cultural Counsel, Miami Design District, and Commissioner.

About Miami Design District

The Miami Design District is a one-of-a-kind neighborhood that combines luxury shopping, galleries, museums, design stores, restaurants, and major art and design installations all within an architecturally significant context. The Miami Design District is owned and operated by MiamiDesign District Associates, a partnership between Dacra, founded and owned by visionary entrepreneur Craig Robins, and L Catterton Real Estate, a global real estate development and investment fund, specializing in creating luxury shopping destinations. As Miami becomes increasingly known for its own rich culture, the growth of the Miami Design District further reflects how the city is deserving of its place on the global stage.

For more information, visit miamidesigndistrict.com / Facebook: MiamiDesignDistrict / Instagram: @miamidesigndistrict

About Thekla Kaischauri

Thekla Kaischauri grew up in Vienna, Austria and took ballet and gymnastics lessons from an early age. In later years she was involved in the punk scene in Vienna, forming the band Death Row Groupies, and earning an MFA in 2020 from the University of Applied Arts. After stumbling upon an independent wrestling match when she was 19 years old, Kaischauri decided to start training to become a professional wrestler, while also attending school. She successfully wrestled in Japan from 2018-2024 as part of the Stardom promotion, and most recently has joined AEW in the United States, where she wrestles as “The Toxic Spider.”

About Lee Moriarty

Lee Moriarty (b. 1994, Pittsburgh) is an American artist and professional wrestler performing regularly on All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on TNT as well as TBS, and sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH). Moriarty has been ranked as the 47th- best grappler on the planet by Pro Wrestling Illustrated, and currently holds the title of ROH Pure Champion. His presentation at NADA Miami 2024 in collaboration with Orange Crush marked his public debut as a visual artist. He had his first gallery solo exhibition with Night Gallery in Los Angeles in September 2025. Artistically, Moriarty’s work often depicts wrestlers in repose, including intimate portraits of luchador icons like El Santo and Blue Demon. The art reflects an often underexplored duality within the lives of pro wrestlers, resonating with Moriarty’s own multi-hyphenate talent.