Art takes many forms, but at the seventh annual Skate Deck Show, the only form allowed is the shape of a skateboard.
Put together by Art Design Xchange in Portland, the Skate Deck Show is an open call to artists of all mediums and ages to put their work on display, and potentially be sold to the public.
This year’s show brought together more than 230 artists submitting a combined total of 275 boards. Syd Spencer is the ADX community manager and head curator.
She joins us to share more on this year’s show and how it got started.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. For seven years now, artists of all ages have been given a very simple prompt: Take a skateboard and turn it into a work of art. It’s called the Skate Deck Art Show. It’s put on by Portland’s ADX or Art Design Xchange. This year’s show includes work from more than 230 artists.
Syd Spencer is the ADX community manager and curated this show. She joins us now. It’s great to have you on Think Out Loud.
Syd Spencer: It’s great to be here. Thanks for having me.
Miller: What was the original idea behind this event?
Spencer: At ADX, we host several community shows throughout the year. Throughout several years of doing these kind of community showcases, we learned pretty quickly that having a common, what we call substrate or common canvas, is a really great way to include a wide range of artists, rather than trying to customize different sizes and accommodate all kinds of different mediums and styles. Hosting everybody on a similar canvas allows for bringing in a bunch of artists into the show.
Miller: You find that it actually lowers the barrier for entry?
Spencer: Absolutely, yeah. It makes it really easy for people to get involved. And it makes it a lot easier on us to hang the show so we can have the capacity to do a lot more of the program.
Miller: So handy for you as well?
Spencer: Absolutely, yeah.
Miller: This is now the 7th annual show, as I mentioned. How has it grown or evolved since 2019?
Spencer: It’s definitely grown quite a bit. Throughout the years, we’ve seen a huge expansion in people’s ability to transform the skateboard. At the onset, we saw more of a conventional painting or kind of vinyl wrapping of a skateboard. Then each year after year, as people attended the opening of the show, they saw how people are shifting the medium a little bit and breaking out of the mold of the skateboard.
Each subsequent year we’ve seen more sculptural pieces. Different mediums like glass and ceramic come into play, even textiles, 3D work that is coming out of the skateboard. The really exciting thing about this show is that the boards don’t have to be ridable or functional. They’re just incredible pieces of art. So it’s almost as though you’re walking into a really bizarre skate shop where none of the boards are actually really ridable, but they’re just these incredible pieces of art.
Miller: But some of them could be ridable. Are some of them actually ridden? I mean, people put wheels on them and then say this is my skateboard?
Spencer: Definitely, yeah. So at the opening night, we were really happy to be partnered with Commonwealth Skateboarding who had a little pop-up in our parking lot, where they were selling wheels and trucks. People, in theory, could get the trucks and wheels for the skate deck that they purchased, and after the show wraps and they receive their skate deck that they bought, they can kit it out and ride it all the way out into the sunset.
Miller: What are the age ranges of the artists?
Spencer: It’s a huge range. It’s really cool. I think the youngest person we had this year was 10 years old. And the oldest, I’m not sure.
Miller: But an adult?
Spencer: Yeah.
Miller: What’s it like to be curating art made by people of such diverse ages?
Spencer: Diverse ages and diverse backgrounds is also a really cool part of it. My role in the curation process is always really exciting because I never really know what is going to be brought to me. Our guidelines for submission for this show are super broad and the show isn’t juried. So anybody can enter the show. And if you enter, you’re in. My only true guidelines are that it has to fit in the dimensions and it has to be able to be hung. Outside of that, people can go all different directions.
For my process, I really try to create a mix of styles and phases of people’s art careers, mixed in with one another. Emerging artists next to an established professional artist is something that I think looks really interesting on a gallery wall and feeds into the ethos of the show, being a show rooted in community values. We’re all participating in this together and we want to create this show together.
Miller: Do you think that visitors would immediately know who is the emerging artist and who is the established one as they walk around?
Spencer: It’s possible that they might not. That’s really [an] interesting part of it. We have gallery tags that provide some additional information, including social media of the person who created the deck. So visitors are welcome to kind of follow the rabbit hole for the artists that really speak to them, and they can discover more about the work that they’re seeing. If they really resonated with that deck, they can continue to follow that artist. So it’s a cool way for even emerging artists to gain more of a following and more recognition in the community.
Miller: Did any themes emerge this year when you looked at more than 200 decks that are now up on the walls? Were there any sort of common threads?
Spencer: I believe every year we see creative themes surrounding strong political movements of the times. Last year we saw a lot of boards reflecting the Palestinian struggle and creating that into art. This year we saw a lot of thoughts about the ICE protests down at the ICE building. Somebody did a really fascinating collage with that. Others had strong statements on their boards. So political statements are one.
Then we see those classic skate motifs of street art, then classic skulls, snakes and all that good stuff, and then a lot of beautiful floral and botanicals as well. So it really ranges, but lots of color and lots of fun.
Miller: How does this show fit into ADX’s overall mission?
Spencer: We’re a 15-year-old women-owned art space in the Central Eastside. We really strive to create a creative space for our members to engage with one another and have a community space to come and create in. So people come into ADX for business, for community, to dive deeper into their creativity. I think that the Skate Deck Show really speaks to the variety of people who can come into ADX and engage with their work there.
Miller: Are you a skater yourself?
Spencer: I’ve dabbled in the past. I wouldn’t say it is my life’s work. But we had a really fun skate clinic with Stronger Skatepark, who are based out in Milwaukie. As part of the show, they helped me get more confident in my pushing and even brought in a mini ramp. So they are wonderful and really helped me learn a little bit more.
Miller: Has this show encouraged you or is it just sort of a different world, that this is more about art?
Spencer: This show is really cool because it does draw in a lot of skaters who either have had a past life skating or are currently really in that world. We’ve also worked to collaborate with a lot of skate brands like Commonwealth Skating and Stronger Skatepark, also including Skate Like a Girl and Portland All Wheels Welcome to the show. It has personally encouraged me quite a bit. I think it’s so much fun, but I definitely am a low-and-slow kind of gal.
Miller: Syd, great to meet you. Thanks so much.
Spencer: Thank you so much.
Miller: Syd Spencer is ADX community manager and head curator.
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