Last night the husband and I went to the coolest fundraiser for the University of Alabama at Birmingham's art gallery. The show, on display from now until 30 January, features the work of thirty local and national artists who have designed skateboard decks and the coolest little Munny toys from Kid Robot. Each piece is being auctioned off to raise money for the gallery, located at 900 13th Street South . (The auction will be going until the last day of the show, and it's totally worth the bidding war for some of these pieces!) I've provided links to all artists who had web pages available. I really hope you follow a few of them and discover some really amazing stuff...there are some huuuuuuge things coming out of this region of the big, wide world.
Anyway, I had a chance to ask UAB Gallery Curator Brett Levine some questions about the show...
CURIOUS MORGAN:Where did the concept for the show come from?
BRETT LEVINE:The idea for the show came from my own interest in skateboarding years ago and my love of skate graphics. I also began to notice that a lot of our students were really interested in the artists in magazines like Juxtapoz and that they were really knowledgeable about skating and vinyl toy culture and collecting. I also wanted to create a show where the artists had a fun limitation - something someone provided to them that they would never have picked for themselves.
CURIOUS MORGAN:If you could send your Munny on a skateboard anywhere in the world, where do you think he/she would want to go and what would he/she do?
BRETT LEVINE:If I could send my munny on a skateboard anywhere in the world, it would be to the Obama inauguration with Mindi (Levine's lovely wife) and myself in tow! Otherwise, maybe with both of us on the back to Sydney!
THE DECKS
Deck by Doug Barrett
"Blink" by PUSH-Andrew Thomson, Foster Phillips, & Lloyd Cooper
Deck by John Fields
"Larry Langford" by Neil Kirkpatrick
(For any of you who haven't heard about the antics of our dear ol' mayor, check out this link! Seriously, it's worth reading up on Birmingham's king, who is now being indicted on over 100 counts.)
Deck by Dan Bynum
"Elemental Ban: Create/Decimate," by Erin Wright
Deck by Pat Snow
(top) "Pro Model" by Alan Barton and Rachel Gainer
(bottom) deck by Jason Varrone of Brooklyn, NY
(top) Varrone
(bottom) deck by Megan Kimber
(top) deck by Walton Creel
(bottom) deck by Clayton Colvin
Deck by Alan Skees
"Swing," by John Powers
"Shred It" Table by Jane Timberlake Cooper
"Pocket Rocket," by Gary Chapman
Decks by Derek Cracco
THE MUNNYs
Munny by Bo Hughins
"Spur," by Christopher Lowther
"Clock Munny," by Lisa Michitti
Munny by Chatham Hellmers
"J Munny," by Amy Pleasant
Munny by Kristin Skees
Munny by Merrilee Challiss
"MUNsNoopY," by Stephen Campbell
Munny by Byron Sonnier
Munny by Christopher Davis
"Blue Munny, "by Annie Butrus. This munny is based on this late 18th century painting by Thomas Gainsborough.
