With the U.S. Open less than two months away, the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) recently unveiled this year’s theme, “Celebrating Our New York Story.” The artwork created by Brooklyn-based artist Eugenia Mello represents the connection between this Grand Slam tennis tournament and New York City.
As a child growing up in Argentina, Mello loved tennis. A coach told her that she had to improve her running to excel. Once she started running, that became her passion. Last year, she ran in the New York City Marathon, which gave her incredible inspiration about the colors and excitement of each of the city’s five boroughs.
“New York Marathon day is such an amazing day to see the energy of this city,” Bello said. “The energy in this city is so palpable and it really inspired my artwork. A lot of what I try to do is depict the intangible. You can’t photograph the energy of something, but you can paint it or draw it.”
The artwork Mello created for the U.S. Open captures the vibrancy and color of the tournament and of New York City. It incorporates iconic imagery from each of the five boroughs — Queens’ Unisphere, the Manhattan skyline, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Bronx’s New York Botanical Garden and the Staten Island Ferry. During the U.S. Open, Mello will create a live mural painting on the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. In contrast to other Grand Slam events, like Wimbledon, the U.S. Open takes place in a public park, Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
“The inclusivity of events like this is so important,” said Mello, who teaches at CUNY Queens College and the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. Tickets for the general public went on sale today. For those who cannot afford tickets, there are activations, such as Fan Week, the week prior to the main draw on August 30, which is seven days of free admission as people can watch the qualifying action and practice. This includes Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day on August 23.
Mello calls the poster “Pulse.” “The idea is that there is this court in the middle where a ball is bouncing and it’s creating a pulse, and everything around it is sort of vibrating to its rhythm,” Mello said. “All those little circles … are people that are coming around it from everywhere … I wanted people to see themselves in it and for it to be colorful and allude to celebration.”