Deck The Walls

exhibition

Deck the Walls
Skateboard Art and Silent Auction, Graffiti Art and Video Opening Reception: October 9, 2009, 7pm - 10pm
Exhibition runs: October 9, 2009 - November 1, 2009

Free Admission

An urban culture exhibition featuring 16 skateboards designed by local artists (sponsored by indecks SkateShop located on Brant Ave.), a large graffiti mural by Brantford native Sam Bradley with video documentation of its creation, and a lineup of entertaining events every weekend throughout the exhibition.

Skateboard artists include James Ascher, Sasha Barkans, Roan Bateman, Garner Beckett, Sam Bradley, Sarah Copoc, Dave Hind, Ebony Jansen, Bob Laurin, Parker Littell, Dave McCreary, Rob Porteous, Mark Roberts, Tim Southern, Tim Turvey, and Dave Wierzbicki.

Read the Brant News article 'Juxtaposition' in the making about the creation of the graffiti mural.

Artists

Roan Bateman

Painter/Illustrator/Graphic Designer

Now based in Brantford, Roan is a painter and a musician who has spent the last 15 years heavily involved in the Toronto music scene. Although his roots lie in painting with acrylics, the need for poster and album art for himself & friends has led him down many different paths. Roan is now primarily a graphic designer.

His deepest visual influences are native and psychedelic arts for their use of nature, colour & strong symbolism. There are also countless album sleeve designs & poster art that have played an important role. To drop a few names, Lauren S. Harris, Norval Morrisseau, Aubrey Beardsley & Rick White have remained at the top of his list of influences for many years now.

Garner Beckett

Garner Beckett grew up in a very small town in rural southern Ontario on the north coast of Lake Erie. Garner received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Waterloo in 2002.

He currently lives in Brantford Ontario and occasionally exhibits locally and in the Greater Toronto Area. He continues to paint and explore sculpture as well as various types of video and animation.

Sam Bradley

Sam Bradley was born and raised in Brantford, Ontario Canada. He developed an interest in animation after attending a one year course at Sheridan College, which in turn introduced him to the world of art. Not long after, he applied and was subsequently accepted into the first class of Sheridan's Bachelor of Applied Arts degree in Animation. During his four years studying animation he developed a taste for a wide range of art, from illustration to production design to fine art. Half way through Sheridan's BA program, he directed the animated music video "While We Were Hunting Rabbits" for one of Canada's better known rock musicians, Matthew Good. The music video has since aired on MuchMusic, and been internationally distributed on Matt's "best of" DVD entitled "In A Coma." Continuing at Sheridan, Sam took part in creating several short animated films which have been shown, recognized and awarded by several film festivals.

Since graduating, Sam has worked both freelance and full time for a number of animation studios, on an array of different projects. For the past year he has been working at Elliott Animation in Toronto as the supervising location designer on the largely successful "Total Drama" series, created by FreshTV. After hours, he spends much of his free time following his own artistic pursuits. Not one to settle for a particular style or medium, he's happiest in unfamiliar territory. During 2009 he has produced a series of watercolor cityscapes, wrote and illustrated his first comic to be published early 2010, developed pitch material for both TV shows and feature films, as well as prepared a series of skateboard paintings to be exhibited at the Brantford Arts Block. With his free time, Sam takes an active interest in travel, social media, architecture, and over indulges in scifi and fantasy novels.

Dave Hind

Dave Hind is an artist, musician and metalworker of functional objects. He was born in Hamilton and now lives in Brantford Ontario. His artistic practice is grounded in the reclamation of materials. The interaction of the industrial and natural recur in the materials, processes, and images he uses and explores.

Ebony Jansen

Ebony Jansen, born and raised in Brantford Ontario, is currently a student studying Art and Art History at the University of Toronto joint with Sheridan College. Interests in maps and cartography relay in to much of her work surrounding ideas of movement, transportation, changing landscapes and spacial interactions. Ebony is working on building a portfolio while continuing to explore and experiment with drawing, painting, and print media.

Bob Laurin

When Bob was about 12 years old he started skateboarding. The graphics on the boards were the first real art he was exposed to. Well, the only art that caught his eye at that age. When he was about 13 he started to draw a little. Oddly enough he liked to draw logos as opposed to say tree's or animals, or whatever a 13 year old draws. He would draw the logos of his favorite skateboard companies or do his own versions of them. Anyways, he knew he wanted to work in skateboarding when he was older. In what capacity, he didn't know. It turned out he wasn't very good at skateboarding although to this day it is still his favorite thing to do. So he put 2 and 2 together. He can draw, or at least he thought so. So why not start a company. He gets to spend all day drawing skateboard graphics for his boards. When you spend 18 or so years admiring the work on the bottom of boards and then one day kids are admiring yours, there's no better feeling. Being around skateboarding so much exposed him to photography, which has become his second love. He doesn't really have a particular style when it comes to photography. If he sees something he likes, he tries to get the best perspective of it and capture that. He owes everything good in his life to the culture and lifestyle that is skateboarding.

Parker Littell

Parker Littell graduated from BCI high school and now attends Sheridan College for art. He currently lives in both Brantford and Oakville. Parker was born in November of 1990 and paints acrylic pop art. Parker has exhibited locally a couple of times in the past few years.

Dave McCreary

Dave McCreary has been a resident of Eagle Place then Holmedale then Eagle Place then Holmedale for many years. He has also been a sign maker, a graphic designer and a teacher. He is currently wrapping up his year-long Brantford drawing series at West One Eleven, to be shown in its entirety at the Brantford Arts Block in the new year.

Rob Porteous

Rob Porteous is a Brantford based artist, designer and builder. His works take on all forms, from poster design and painting to interior design and furntiure making. Rob's creations are usually conceived out of necessity to fill the artistic voids left in a world of mass-produced, name-branded uniformity.

Mark Roberts

Mark Roberts is a Brantford designer currently studying creative advertising at Mohawk College. His biggest artistic influence comes from Brazil's Os Gemeos. He will be traveling to Sao Paulo, Brazil to study and work as a designer internationally at the beginning of next year. Mark does not like Mondays.

Tim Turvey

Tim Turvey is an involved story. For a microscopic glimpse into his life, visit www.turvey.ca.

David Wierzbicki

David Wierzbicki was born in 1978 and grew up in Brantford, Ontario. When he was a child he constantly got in trouble for drawing all over his schoolwork. In high school at North Park Collegiate he began to connect the dots and understand the history and power of art. After three years studying Interpretive Illustration at Sheridan College, David began working as a graphic artist and continued to explore his love of painting and drawing. His gallery showings include a graduate class show in the CBC Atrium in downtown Toronto and two showings at The Ford Plant in Brantford as well as in numerous collaborations around the Internet. He currently lives in Brantford with his wife Amy and is in college studying theology while continuing to paint in his spare time.