Skateboarding is an action sport that involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry job, and a method of transportation. Originating in the United States, skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2009 report found that the skateboarding market is worth an estimated $4.8 billion in annual revenue, with 11.08 million active skateboarders in the world. In 2016, it was announced that skateboarding would be represented at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, for both male and female teams. Skateboarding made its Olympic debut in 2020 and was included in the 2024 games.
Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual artist and collagist associated with the Pictures Generation. She is most known for her collage style that consists of black-and-white photographs, overlaid with declarative captions, stated in white-on-red Futura Bold Oblique or Helvetica Ultra Condensed text. The phrases in her works often include pronouns such as "you", "your", "I", "we", and "they", addressing cultural constructions of power, identity, consumerism, and sexuality. Kruger's artistic mediums include photography, sculpture, graphic design, architecture, as well as video and audio installations.
Tony Alva is an American skateboarder, entrepreneur, and musician. He was a pioneer of vertical skateboarding and one of the original members of the Zephyr Competition Skateboarding Team, also known as the Z-Boys. The Transworld Skateboarding Magazine ranked him eighth in its list of the "30 Most Influential skateboarders" of all time.
Robert Lance Mountain is an American professional skateboarder and artist who was one of the prominent skateboarders throughout the 1980s, primarily due to his involvement with the Bones Brigade. As of August 2017, Mountain continues to skate professionally and his sponsors include Flip, Nike SB, Indy, Spitfire, and Bones Bearings.
Sandow Birk is an American visual artist from Los Angeles whose work deals mainly with contemporary American culture. Eight books have been published on his works and he has made two films. With an emphasis on social issues, his frequent themes have included inner city violence, graffiti, various political issues, travel, prisons, surfing and skateboarding. His projects are often elaborate and epic in scale, including a series on "The Leading Causes of Death in America" and the invasion and the second war in Iraq. He completed a hand-made illuminated manuscript version of the Qur'an, transcribing the English language text by hand in a personalized font based on graffiti, and illuminating the pages with scenes of contemporary American life.
Peggy E. Oki is an American skateboarder, surfer, artist, and environmental activist. She was an original member of the Z-Boys and competed with the Zephyr Competition Team in the 1970s. She was the only female member of the Z-Boys.
Ty Scott Page was a professional skateboarder and a leader in the skateboarding scene during "the golden era" of skateboarding in the early 1970s.
Lia Halloran is an American painter and photographer who lives and works in Los Angeles.
RISK, also known as RISKY, is a Los Angeles–based graffiti writer and contemporary artist often credited as a founder of the West Coast graffiti scene. In the 1980s, he was one of the first graffiti writers in Southern California to paint freight trains, and he pioneered writing on "heavens", or freeway overpasses. He took his graffiti into the gallery with the launch of the Third Rail series of art shows, and later created a line of graffiti-inspired clothing. In 2017, RISK was knighted by the Medici Family.
Jim Evans, sometimes known as TAZ, is an American painter, printmaker, and creative director who was a contributing figure in the visual art movement known as underground comix. After success as an illustrator of Underground Comix, Evans became known for his Album Cover and Film Poster art and hundreds of Rock Music posters, in addition to being owner of the Digital Marketing group, Division 13.
The Reincarnation of a Surfboard is a body of sculpture work created by Ithaka Darin Pappas. The project, which began in 1989 consist of approximately 300 wall-mounted sculptures that have been made using recycled surfboards as raw building material. The series to date has been exhibited on four continents. The most recent solo exhibitions of these works were mesa hosted by WOA - Way Of Arts in Cascais, Portugal in December 2012, by Hurley International in Costa Mesa, California in October 2013 and F+ Gallery in Santa Ana in February 2015.
Michael James Stilkey Jr. is an American artist known for his book sculpture paintings.
Yassi Mazandi, born in Tehran, Iran, lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Mazandi is a sculptor, painter and social activist.
Kim McCarty is an artist and watercolor painter living and working in Los Angeles, California. Her work has been exhibited in over twenty solo exhibitions in New York and Los Angeles. She often works in large formats using layers of monochromatic colors.
Ron Linden is a California abstract painter, independent curator, and associate professor of art at Los Angeles Harbor College, Wilmington. He lives and works in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles.
A skateshop is a type of store that sells skateboard parts and skateboarding apparel. When financially possible, skate shops sponsor local riders and promote skateboarding locally through skate videos and demonstrations, referred to as "demos".
Jeff Blaine Grosso was an American professional skateboarder, skate documentarian, and web series host from Arcadia, California.
Joe Ray is an American artist based in Los Angeles. His work has moved between abstraction and representation and mediums including painting, sculpture, performance art and photography. He began his career in the early 1960s and belonged to several notable art communities in Los Angeles, including the Light and Space movement; early cast-resin sculptors, including Larry Bell; and the influential 1970s African-American collective, Studio Z, of which he was a founding member with artists such as David Hammons, Senga Nengudi and Houston Conwill. Critic Catherine Wagley described Ray as "an artist far more committed to understanding all kinds of light and space than to any specific material or strategy"—a tendency that she and others have suggested led to his being under-recognized.
Skateboarding Hall of Fame, founded in 1997, is a museum and hall of fame located in Simi Valley, California, United States. The museum documents the history of skateboarding and the skateboarders, photographers, and other notable figures, publications, and companies who have influenced its development.
Greyson Thunder Fletcher is an American professional free skateboarder, surfer, visual artist and actor from San Clemente, California. He starred in the HBO series John from Cincinnati and his artworks have been exhibited in New York's Gagosian Gallery. His skateboard sponsors include; Arbor Skateboards, Independent Truck Company, OJ Wheels and RVCA.
