Get Your Own Street Art, as well as Architecture, at Venice Artwalk

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Hot off the Art in the Streets show at MOCA, which brings together the “best” of 40-years plus of street and skateboard art, comes the annual Venice Artwalk and its…

Skateboard painted by Nathan Ota, photo by Kristina Campbell
Skateboard painted by Nathan Ota, photo by Kristina Campbell (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)

Hot off the Art in the Streets show at MOCA, which brings together the “best” of 40-years plus of street and skateboard art, comes the annual Venice Artwalk and its kick-off event, a skate and surfboard auction. Up for auction will be skate decks featuring art by 70+ artists including Dogtown and Z-Boys; plus custom-shaped surf boards “tatted” by local tattoo legends. All the proceeds go to the vital Venice Family Clinic.  Below are the deets; listen to this DnA for a fascinating conversation with artists — Shepard Fairey, Lee Quinones, Fab 5 Freddy, Jeffrey Deitch, Fabian Debora, Enrico Bressan, Tahmineh Javanbakht — and others about the world of sanctioned and “real” street art.

And if you want a dose of Venice Studio Art and Architecture, the Artwalk is offering some terrific tours,  of the artists studios, and of experimental houses in West LA, in downtown Venice and on Appleton Way, with cutting-edge design by architects Brooks + Scarpa, du Archi­tects, San­ti­ago Ortiz and many others.

 The Art Walk Skate Surf Auction

Open to the public for one night only on Friday, May 20 from 6 to 10 PM at Track 16, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Bldg. C1, Santa Monica.  Admission is free.

Meet the artists, musicians, athletes, and tattoo legends who have created unique art works from reused, recycled, and recreated skate decks and custom-shaped and “tatted” surfboards. 

Bid on one-of-a-kind creations by more than seventy artists, including:
·       Venice’s own Dogtown and Z-Boys alumni Stacy Peralta, Nathan Pratt and Allen Sarlo, plus Jeff Ho
·       Pro skaters Lacey Baker and Daniel Espinoza
·       Graffiti and street masters RISK, Smog City, plus Bleek and Skegs from California’s Bomb Squad
·       Artists from the Human Pyramids Art Collective, as well as Alex Chiu, Haunted Euth, Shplinton, Hovin Wang and Anthony Ausgang
·       Napalm Records’ Brant Bjork
·       Plus dozens of other creative minds 

Also in this special auction are eight boards donated by Om Surfboards and custom-shaped for the Venice Family Clinic, including:
·       Rounded fintail modern fish tatted by Big Boy (Black Diamond Tattoo, Venice) and shaped by Dan Cobley (6’2”)
·       Performance longboard tatted by Justin Jakus (Black Diamond Tattoo, Venice) and shaped by Jeffrey Sudzin (8’6”)
·       Retro fish tatted by Charly Reynoso (Black Diamond Tattoo, Venice) and shaped by Terry Harper (6”)
·       New school fish tatted by Alayna Magnan (Black Diamond Tattoo, Venice) and shaped by Dan Cobley (7’6”)
·       Performance longboard tatted by Paul Deters (Black Diamond Tattoo, Venice) and shaped by Dan Cobley (9’)
·       Fun board tatted by Ryan Murphy (Ink Monkey Tattoo, Venice) and shaped by Dan Cobley (7’2”)
·       Fun board tatted by Jason Profant (Evermore Tattoo, Culver City) and shaped by Jeffrey Sudzin (7’1”)
·       Classic longboard tatted by Tyoni Aragon (Mavrick Fine Arts, Pomona) and shaped by Jose Barahona (9’3”)