Plus ultra is Brian Alfred’s seventh solo exhibition with Miles McEnery Gallery. Timed to coincide with the 2026 FIFA World Cup, being hosted across North America and culminating with the final in the New York area, the exhibition brings together a new body of paintings and a new animation exploring the imagery, spectacle, and collective experience of sports.

The opening reception on June 25 will feature a series of special collaborations developed in conjunction with the exhibition, including a limited-edition GRIMM Artisanal Ales beer featuring artwork by Alfred, a unique release of custom jerseys created in collaboration with Adidas, and a custom painted ping-pong table designed by the artist for visitors to enjoy. The notion of “play” is important in Alfred’s exhibition, being explored both through the paintings and various other interactive formats.

Alfred has teamed up with Adidas, a foundational partner of the FIFA World Cup, to create a limited edition soccer jersey for the exhibition. The edition of 75 jerseys will feature the details of Plus Ultra, with customizable patches relating to diverse collectives within both the art and soccer worlds that can be added during the exhibition opening. Each jersey purchase comes with a complimentary, editioned zine specially created for the exhibition.

For this exhibition, GRIMM Artisanal Ales—a frequent creative partner of the artist—will debut a limited-edition light IPA. The beverage features custom-designed sleeves by Alfred and will be served exclusively during the opening night festivities.

Alfred has also created a new animation for ZAZ10TS Times Square, on view through June 21, extending Plus Ultra into one of New York City’s most visible public spaces.

In mid-July, the gallery will host a private panel discussion featuring FC Bayern Munich. As a prominent representative of Germany’s premier football division, the club’s panelists will gather within the immersive environment of Alfred’s exhibition to explore the significance of their league and the FIFA World Cup, concluding with a question-and-answer session for those in attendance.

Alfred centers the show on sports imagery as a mode to explore its interpersonal, aesthetic, and emotional role inherent to competition and fandom. As a longtime player and co-founder of Triboro United Soccer Club, a non-profit youth soccer club based in Brooklyn and Queens that provides over 25% of players with scholarships to play soccer, Alfred is deeply familiar with the culture and rituals of the game.

Stadiums, athlete portraits, jubilant celebrations, and moments of anticipation are distilled into his signature graphic language of abstract forms and bold fields of color. The resulting compositions evoke a peculiar tension between stillness and excitement, drawing equally from Pop art and Japanese ukiyo-e prints.

In an essay accompanying the exhibition, cultural writer Samantha Chen observes, “Alfred’s works omit and omit again, only to circle back to this sense of perpetual anticipation. We are repeatedly brought into scenes on the cusp of something - empty stadiums waiting for gameplay, confetti that hangs midair, crowds that churn restlessly - and asked to consider what it means to stay at the threshold forever. Here, hope springs eternal; everything is possible, and one cannot lose a game that has yet to begin. Alfred insists there is meaning to be found in the sustained, attentive act of moving continuously towards something, to returning to the threshold as practice.”