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At a glance Gallery 80808 seems completely unrelated to the skate park at Owens Field Park. However, this weekend the Skate and Create exhibition will bring the two together for a good cause.
Opening today, the art show features over 50 works of art created on skateboards as well as additional paintings. Ranging in price from $20 to $350, the boards are the products of the creative efforts of local artists, tattoo artists, students and professional skate boarders.
The second annual Skate and Create exhibit is put on by Columbia-based non-profit Pour It Now. Created by David Toole, owner of Bluetile Skateboards at 631 Harden St., and Ryan Cockrell, the organization aims to help raise funds to create as many skateparks as possible in South Carolina. The organization's name refers to the medium of skateparks: "Pour the concrete now."
Currently, Cockrell estimates that the group, which is partnering with Columbia City Parks and Recreation, should be getting official bids from contractors in the next two months. Preliminary estimates have the cost of the park, excluding landscaping and seating, to be about $600,000.
The City of Columbia has allocated a half million dollars to the project and thus far Pour It Now has raised over $7,000. Past fundraising has included concerts, skateboard demos, contests and perhaps most creatively, creating and selling a private bottled water label, Skate 2 O, at local festivals to get the name out.
Even if the bids come in low, Cockrell says, there is a lot more to the park than just the concrete.
"We want the skatepark to be the jewel of Owens field. We want everyone, all the neighbors, not just skateboarders, to love and enjoy, and have a place to spectate and that will cost tens of thousands," said Cockrell. "It will be a gradual process."
But this weekend the creation of the park is not the focus - it's the creative process. The boards, all donated by Toole's distributors, were given to artists between a singular day and a month in advance. The funds raised by the artists' suggested prices are pure donations, while the proceeds of all other works are split 60/40 between Pour It Now and the artists.
The extreme variety of the skateboards is astounding. With no limitations, some of the artists went wild with turquoise tile mosaics, modeled ceramics and found object collages that utilize mirrors, bottle caps, chains and plastic mesh. Others display injured boarders, splatter painting, text, twisted and goofy cartoons and Alice In Wonderland-like scenes.
Local found object artist Susan Lenz, who was integral in the planning and logistics of the show and also donated gallery space, provided a truly abstract piece that employs horseshoes, scissors, a vinyl record and a hand broom.
Another artist whose studio is in Vista Studios, which surround Gallery 80808's display space, who Toole was also excited about is David Yaghjian. His vivid skateboards depict imaginary creatures and are slightly more whimsical that his typical oil paintings.
Also representing the local art scene, Miguel De Leon, a fifth-year USC media arts student. De Leon contributed photography to the exhibit, which really breaks up the show in a great way and displays eerily lit abandoned-looking building interiors.
Professional skateboarders whose work will be gracing the show include Michael Sieben, Tommy Guerreo and Russ Pope.
Skate and Create opens at 5 p.m. at Gallery 80808 located at 808 Lady St. in the Vista. The exhibit is free, as are limited hors d'oeuvre and live music by the Adam Barker Jazz Quartet, which will begin around 6 p.m. The show will run from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.
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