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MOUNT CLEMENS — As the United States gets ready to be one of the hosts of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, unearthed art from the last US-hosted cup serves as the centerpiece for an exhibit that brings the beautiful game close to home.
“Chazz Miller: 1994 World Cup Collection” showcases 18 works of art from Miller — a Detroit-based visual artist, muralist, and community activist — originally created for the 1994 World Cup. Created with sponsorship from Jesse Hernandez, the works portray the competing nations of the ’94 cup not as players in uniforms, but as “cultural warriors drawing from mythic imagery, indigenous heritage and the universal language of sport,” according to a statement from the Art Center.
“Each painting transforms the soccer match into something larger than competition,” Miller said in an Anton Art Center press release. “The paintings present soccer not just as sport, but as a ritual of movement, strategy and cultural expression…a shared moment capable of uniting nations through imagination, artistry and play.”
Miller could not be reached for comment at press time, but Matt Matthews — an avid sports fan and the Anton Art Center’s executive director — was set on bringing those works to the Mount Clemens gallery from the moment he got in contact with Miller.
“Shortly after I started here in 2024, I met Chazz Miller,” Matthews said. “We were hiring Chazz to do another project for us (live painting a mural at the 2024 ArtParty fundraiser), but he was showing us some of his work and one piece that he brought was from this World Cup collection. I am a huge sports fan and knew that the World Cup would be returning to North America in 2026, and so I told our gallerist Stephanie Hazzard that I wanted to do a World Cup show when the World Cup came in 2026.”
After nearly two years of planning, the Art Center was able to secure the works to be showcased from June 13 to July 18. And with so much time to plan for the World Cup-aligned event, the team at the Anton Art Center have been able to put together an exhibition that honors the 1994 World Cup’s local impact. Televisions will be brought in to watch this year’s games as they take place, with a major viewing party scheduled for Saturday, June 13 at 7 p.m. with presenting sponsor Detroit City Football Club. A themed pinball machine originally created for the 1994 World Cup will be brought in as well.
A universal aspect of soccer is that it is ideally played on turf grass, and the Art Center has secured and will grow samples of FIFA-grade turfgrass created by Dr. John “Trey” Rogers III and the Michigan State University Turfgrass Management Program team. Grass from the MSU team will be used throughout the 2026 World Cup’s stadiums and was used in 1994 when the Pontiac Silverdome hosted four matches during the group stages.
Though many at the time would predict ways the 1994 World Cup would impact soccer’s popularity in the United States, that grass from the Silverdome played a pivotal part in shaping how professional soccer would grow in southeastern Michigan.
“One thing that’s been part of the founding story of our organization has been the co-ed adult soccer leagues, which were founded before we even had a pro team, played on Belle Isle,” said Alex Wright, co-founder of Detroit City FC and the club’s chief creative officer. “Belle Isle is actually the end destination for the grass those World Cup ’94 players played on at the Silverdome … After the game ended, they moved it out to Belle Isle and planted the sod on the island in the playing field area, and years later that’s where we came back and had our first games as a league. So really, the literal foundation of Detroit City FC was played on the same turf as the players that played in the World Cup ’94.”
Since then, Detroit City FC has moved from the island and onto the mainland, playing for a number of years in the early 2010s at Cass Tech High School before moving in 2016 to Keyworth Stadium in Hamtramck. And while the closest 2026 World Cup stadium will be the soccer-specific BMO Field in Toronto, Ontario, Detroit is soon to have its own soccer stadium with the projected completion of Detroit City FC’s AlumniFi Field in 2027. The Detroit region that will host a true home field for Detroit City FC’s professional teams is one much more soccer-saturated than the metro region that hosted World Cup matches over 30 years ago.
“Soccer has become a part of everyday life for folks in Michigan,” Wright said. “It’s a game that’s grown by leaps and bounds in this last generation … for maybe a generation or more now (Michigan has been) raising some of the finest soccer players in the country, and I think anyone that’s grew up or had kids in this town knows that there’s a number of elite youth operations that have become a phenomenal place to grow the game (and) teach kids to play the game the right way and give them a launching pad to either a collegiate career, a professional career or just to be making a life-long love of the game. It’s those generations of work that have founded that life-long love of the game that, I think, is pointing into the direction of where soccer is going to go in our community.”
And when the Anton Art Center came around looking for partners for showcasing Miller’s art, Winter says supporting the exhibit was a natural fit for where the club is at.
“One of the core pillars of our organization is that soccer is fun,” Wright said. “Soccer is not only a great sport, but it’s a great platform for creativity. So, when other organizations out there — especially the Anton Art Center — approach us with an opportunity that not only celebrates the game but the creativity behind the game, that’s exactly where we want to be and that’s what our fanbase has come to expect of us.”
The exhibit “Chazz Miller: 1994 World Cup Collection” runs from June 13 to July 18 at the Anton Art Center at 125 Macomb Place in Mount Clemens. A World Cup watch party is scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. on June 13, and a reception and artist talk with Miller is scheduled to take place on Saturday, June 20 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The center is open on Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. Metered lot and street parking, which is free after 6 p.m. and on weekends, is available. Go to theartcenter.org for more information.
