Concrete to Canvas: Skateboarders' Art

As most of the artists featured in this volume point out, making art is a lot like skateboarding, and vice versa. Little surprise, then, that many of these artists use the idiom of graffiti. Both graffiti and skateboarding are fundamentally urban, requiring a visceral and often dangerous interaction with the hard surfaces of the American city; both demand that practitioners constantly be on the lookout for that perfect, unblemished surface; and both tend to drive cops and security guards nuts. Yet this is hardly a homogenous collection. Of the 29 artists profiled, roughly half practice some form of guerrilla urban art (graffiti, stencil and paste art, etc.), but the majority also work in more traditional mediums and nearly all have been featured in gallery shows. From the minimalist canvasses of Rob Abeyta Jr. to the hyperkinetic cartoonishness of Dalek and Andrew Pommier, the sheer artistic diversity on display is staggering. There is one problem with the volume as a whole: at 128 pages, it's too short by half. Like a dizzying skateboard trick, it's an exhilarating ride that ends much too soon. (Apr.)