[photo credit: Eventbrite]
Andrew D. Bernstein, the Curt Gowdy Media Award recipient who spent 20 years documenting Bryant through his lens, will close out “The Art of Sport” at SPARC Centre Gallery on January 24 with a conversation about the murals that went up around the world after Bryant and his daughter Gianna died in a helicopter crash nearly six years ago.
The discussion follows the publication of “Mamba & Mambacita Forever,” Vanessa Bryant’s book cataloging more than 700 of those murals, with photography by Bernstein.
The exhibition itself, according to organizers, pairs Bernstein’s action photography with expressive painting by visual artist Taura. SPARC describes the collaboration as layered works where photographs become the foundation for brushwork, handwritten text, and kinetic marks. The resulting pieces, the gallery says, aim to evoke the intensity of live competition.
Bernstein’s credentials need no embellishment. He has covered more than 40 NBA Finals and 38 All-Star Games. He photographed the 1992 Dream Team. His work hangs permanently in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame—one of only four photographers so honored. For the Los Angeles Lakers, he was the constant: present for championship parades in 1985, 1987, 1988, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010, and 2020.
But it was his relationship with Bryant that produced his most sustained body of work. Their 20-year collaboration yielded “The Mamba Mentality: How I Play,” published in 2018, which spent 27 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Bernstein captured Bryant’s very first professional photograph in 1996 and, two decades later, his final game.
“It has truly been a dream job for me documenting the NBA for almost four decades,” Bernstein has said. “What an amazing experience to witness through my camera so many spectacular athletes and moments that have defined eras.”
The January 24 event, running from 4 to 6 p.m., will feature Bernstein in conversation with artists involved in creating Bryant memorial murals. A book signing follows, with “Mamba & Mambacita Forever,” “The Mamba Mentality,” and “Journey to the Ring”—Bernstein’s 2010 collaboration with coach Phil Jackson—available for purchase.
Tickets start at $17.85 through Eventbrite. The gallery will also be open for public viewing on Tuesday, January 20, and Thursday, January 22, from 5 to 7 p.m.
Beyond his commercial work, Bernstein serves as a mentor and board member at Heart of Los Angeles, a nonprofit providing arts programming to underserved youth. He helped create their after-school photography program.
SPARC, the South Pasadena Arts Council, was founded in 2009 and moved into its permanent headquarters at 1000 Fremont Avenue in 2024. The gallery entrance is located at the rear of the building, off the parking lot.
Nearly six years after Bryant’s death, the murals remain—on freeway underpasses, on the sides of buildings, on walls in cities where he never played. The photographs that inspired many of them came from Bernstein’s archive. In January, for two hours in South Pasadena, he’ll explain how images become monuments.
Event Information: SPARC Centre Gallery 1000 Fremont Avenue, Unit 120, South Pasadena, CA 91030 (Entrance at rear of building)
Public Viewing: January 20 and 22, 2026, 5-7 p.m. Ticketed Conversation: January 24, 2026, 4-6 p.m. Tickets: Starting at $17.85 via Eventbrite Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-conversation-on-the-art-of-sport-tickets-1980035059163 Contact: (626) 789-5605 or info@sopasartscouncil.org
