Skateboard Art Show
This exhibition presented a collection of artworks by international artists, designers, illustrators, comic and graffiti artists and more who have used skateboards as their inspiration and medium.
The concept was to engage people in a project with one element in common: a skateboard blank deck. Everything else like theme, tool or material was free by choice.
Big thanks for some organizing help and creating flyer designs to Silvia Guizán Sarmiento Link and for hosting us Rachel Burns from ‘Das Gift’. Also thanks to all participating artists for taking time to experiment with paintings and installations on skateboard decks.
Berlin, May 2017
Pictures from the Event
Participating Artists, their decks and concepts
Adelina Arvat
Title of the piece: Society
Technique: Acrylic painting | Year: 2017
My skateboard drawing represents society nowadays and all its elements. It represents the fact that we never learn and history always repeats itself. It’s a sad representation of the world we live in and the fact that we are powerless individuals but we become powerful together.
People. Society. Politics. War. Useless. Powerless. Individual. Individuals. History. Defeat. Humanity. Blood. Pain. Failure. Religion. Money. Fear. Abundance. Acceptance. Moral. Mortal. Power. Race. End.
Artist: Alejandra Vargas Díaz
Title of the piece: Thirty mental jackets from embroidered lies.
Technique: Mix media collage on plywood deck | Year: 2017
The base of my work lays on exploring analogue materials to conceptualize pieces that reflect internal dialogues and feelings toward situations and emotions of daily experiences. Collage is the medium that I use to filter this perception and traduce it into something tangible and visible for others to interpret.
I created ‘Thirty mental jackets from embroidered lies’, based on the capability of people to create a burden for themselves and toward others by literally embroidering their real stories into lies carrying then through life like heavy garments.
Artist: Alejandro Morales
Title of the piece: Ophelia
Technique: Oil on plywood deck | Year: 2017
An interpretation of the account of the death of Ophelia in Hamlet.
The willow tree breaks taking with it Ophelia into the water
Intentional?
An accident?
… she cannot help herself out …
The elongated format of the board is quite a challenge, I wanted to tell a story and started with five different ideas. In the end, the material and the format dictate the narrative present on the board.
Graphic- and webdesigner, illustrator, galerist, publisher: Annette Köhn
Title of the piece: No title
Technique: Acryl painting | Year: 2017
Für mein erstes Mal Auf-Skateboard-Malen habe ich einfach gemalt, wie und was ich am liebsten male, also Treppen, die organisch in einem Raum herumschwingen, ein paar Rankepflanzen dazu und das alles auf der Lieblingsfarbe Blau. Mehr Bedeutung und symbolische Inhalte können sich meinetwegen im Auge des Betrachters entwickeln … gerne mit positiven Gefühlen, für alles andere kann ich keine Haftung übernehmen.
Anton Papenfuss
Title of the piece: No title
Technique: Various | Year: 2017
Skateboarding is a wonderful way to enjoy oneself and to explore the urban environment. Instead of finding my perfect board, I wanted to create the tool for the fun all by myself. The boards have a clean shape and a straightforward colouring. Designed with less flex – for faster rides.
Designer: Falko Glöckner
Title of the piece: Freizeitstress
Technique: Model building | Year: 2017
Ein Blick in den Kalender merkt ‘Samstag, Sonnenbaden mit Maria’ an. Mit einem Mal vibriert das Telefon und Marius informiert über die am selbigen Tag geplante Fahrt zum Sport. Da du dich nicht entzweien kannst, muss um eine Entscheidung gespielt werden.
Illustrator & street artist: Felix Aaron Hülpüsch
Title of the piece: Backyard brother
Technique: Acryl pens | Year: 2017
For this project, I tried to create a piece, which relates to the shape of the board but also includes the topics street, graffiti and skateboarding. So I painted a character that rides on a board and holds a spray can. As I can remember, Graffiti and Skateboarding have also been activities related to chilling in the streets and backyards of the city. That’s why I called the whole thing ‘Backyard Brother’ and put apiece on top of the board. The colouring is related to the 90s and the brightness things used to have for me back then. This era still inspires my work and lifestyle today. I used Molotow and Posca markers, so I stuck to my usual style of painting. The process was pretty intense and interesting, because painting on wood is always a challenge.
Artist: Graeme Shooter
Title of the piece: The good life
Technique: Acryl painting | Year: 2017
I love to keep everything on my desk in line. Everything must be sorted for me to be at peace in my mind. I also love the weekend and taking it easy should not be underestimated. This is how my desk looks.
Illustrator and comic artist: Helge Vogt
Title of the piece: Alisik & Sichel Michel
Technique: Acryl painting, spray can, leaf gold | Year: 2017
Helge Vogt is a comic-drawer (Alisik) and illustrator (Percy Jackson, Die Drei ???, …) from Berlin. These works show characters of his comic-book-series Alisik (Carlsen Comics). It‘s about a girl falling in love with a boy. There is only one problem: She is dead.
Illustrator: Iñaki Landa
Title of the piece: Welcome Refugees
Technique: Marker | Year: 2017
The aim of the artwork is to present a war scene which shows the violent and deadly journey millions of refugee and migrant people do fleeing from war. In the best-case scenario they reach our borders, where far from giving aid and implementing an active role of asylum and refuge, we welcome them with more violence instead.
Designer and illustrator: Kamil Frankowicz
Title of the piece: Two Abstract doodles
Technique: Acryl pen | Year: 2017
Nowadays most of us are used to have short attention spans. My work for this exhibition tries to hold visitors diving into the details. Also an attempt to transfer the viewer shortly into a comparable spirit when I feel lost in drawing or skateboarding forgetting the time.
Artist: Mayo Takakura
Title of the piece: Bird perch
Technique: Acryl marker, spray can | Year: 2017
It’s just like a bird perch.
Just rest on it to come down.
Artist: Mio Ebisu
Title of the piece: Totem pole skateboard
Technique: Skateboard, oil, acrylic, ink, canvas board | Year: 2017
When I went to an art supply shop, I found some small various shaped canvases. A face on a round canvas came up in my mind. A skateboard is like a tree, I added these and it became like a totem pole somehow, I like it!
Designer and illustrator: Rebecca Conrad
Title of the piece: Birdly
Technique: Acryl painting | Year: 2017
I love to paint objects. Bottles, matchboxes, discarded TVs, skateboards … It´s nice to go beyond flat paper or canvas. I enjoy to combine the abstract and the figurative and give it an ornamental touch. I also wanted to make sure to let the natural surface of the board come thru.
Artist: Régis Lemberthe
Title of the piece: Brutalist skateboard
Technique: Wood, concrete, electronics | Year: 2017
Boasting homemade concrete wheels, this brutalist skateboard rests on a shelf made from the same wood it was sculpted in, a block of sto… reclaimed roadwork wood covered in microphoned rubber. Give it a gentle nudge and enjoy the sound of the ground rolling on the wheels.
Illustrator: Sarah Marschall
Title of the piece: Dreamer
Technique: Acryl marker and marble colours | Year: 2017
Skate, tune out and dream … let go and feel free. Molotow marker and marble colours on wood.
Designer: Silvia Guizán Sarmiento
Title of the piece: Tapedecks
Technique: Grip tape | Year: 2017
Hello! It´s me, Silvia. Born in the ’80s of the Holy macanoli! und Haway que guay!
Just take a deck and put there some tape, or make a tape with tape on a deck, or just put something else on it. At the end it´s just a tapedeck, I mean tape-deck, I mean deck tape … Whatever! Thinking too much about a problem won’t make it necessarily easy to solve.
Designer and illustrator: Tom McClean
Title of the piece: Lucid lines
Technique: Chinese inks and brushes | Year: 2017
My concept has been mainly inspired by the unique form of the canvas defined by the skate deck, as-well-as the infamous phrase synonymous with skating: ‘skate or die!’. The meaning of this phrase for me is that skating is not just a sport, but an all-encompassing lifestyle. In Barcelona, where I live this is certainly the case, which why I chose to incorporate some elements of the city as well. The skateboard acts as an x-ray shining light on the inner-being of the heroine and exposing her soul.