EXHIBITION | Board

I started skating when I was about 8 years old and kept at it for at least 12 more years. In between it I used a snowboard to fill those long dark days of Swedish winter. I have always loved the flow, the movement the freedom. Recently a new exhibition opened here in Melbourne at the NGV Studio called BOARD. The exhibition is all about the creative process behind the skate culture.

Presenting 1970s & 80s skateboards and ephemera from Tony Hallam’s collection alongside contemporary decks created for the exhibition, it explores the evolution of board graphics and design.

Senior Curator of Contemporary Art Alex Baker states: ‘Tony Hallam’s collection digs deep into the formative years of skate culture during which board graphics evolved from simple lettering to elaborate artwork. Once a professional skateboarder, Hallam has gone to painstaking lengths to track down some of the most important boards in history. On view at NGV Studio are gems such as Tony Hawk’s first signature model (1982) and an early Zephyr board (mid-1970s) personally owned by skateboard legend Stacy Peralta. The selection of skateboards and ephemera in Board allows an insight into skateboarding’s surfing roots through to its cross-fertilisation with punk rock and other renegade sub-cultures. Hallam’s is considered one of the most comprehensive skateboard collections in the world, and the NGV is honoured to present it to both avid skate fans and non-initiates alike. This is an important lesson in another form of art history – one that speaks a language that originated on the streets and is ongoing today.’

Juxtaposing the old with the new is a wall of decks by 50 Australian artists working across a range of media curated by Just Another Agency in support of the Three Sixty Project.

Don't miss this great exhibition if you are in the neighborhood. I know I wont!
Located on Flinders Street at the corner of The Atrium at Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia.

Board runs from 12 Nov - 5 Feb