FULL DECK:
A Short History of
Skate Art

SPONSORS
Art in the Garden
Dean Alan Olson Foundation
Rockford Area Arts Council
Fred Turner
and Women’s Art Board

Full Deck features some of the most radical skate art from the 1960s to today, from handpainted and carved decks to limited and first edition designer boards. Since the first graphic was drawn onto a board (a “deck”), the culture of skateboarding has grown hand-in-hand with the visual arts.

The skate artist’s aesthetic—raw, passionate and personal—is energized by a devotion to the act of skating and a DIY embrace of skate culture. The eye-catching images on the bottom of skateboards are one of the purest forms of self-expression; highly personal and mostly created without artistic boundaries–just like skateboarding itself.

On view are more than 300 decks from artists, skaters, and companies across the country, including rare boards from private collections, vintage and commercial boards, video and photographs. This traveling exhibition was organized by Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts (Walnut Creek, Calif.), curated by Carrie Lederer.

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