Squid's art show

5/26/2023

A little change of pace here these are film photographs I took at Squids Art Show that happened Jan, 7 2023. Squid showed a selection of his skating boarding photographs taken in Portland Oregon over the last two years. I love Squids dedication to his photography and commitment to his passions. Everyone can do things once but the continued practice driven by passion alone is something much more impressive. Squid makes time to coordinate with other skateboarders to photograph them at least once a week. As we watch late stage capitalism crush passion and intuition its truly something special to carve out time for passion.

This show also included a variety of other. talented Portland artists who love skateboarding. Photographer Ari Landon exhibited his film photographs of skateboarders and tabled a variety of prints and the coolest film test strip bookmarks. Also Tabling was Joe Brook, Ocelocuauhtli Ollin and Little Hen. Music was by, and Donavan Diaz exhibited his painted skateboard decks.

It was a great turn out and a beautiful celebration of art, community and skateboarding. ❤️

I love that this show was hosted at Gallery GoGo. The gallery is a re-imagining of space. located in the mall in downtown Portland it was originally a fancy dress store. Azure, the gallery owner, has re-impinged and creatively transformed the space. My favorite example is the dressing rooms turned immersive mini galleries. This kind of re-imagining is so important as we see people going out and using mall spaces less and less. I love the spirit behind spacing these spaces and its this same spirit I see in skateboarding. Skate boarders see mundane pieces of construction and imagine so much more. I love walk with squid when he tiny gasps and grabs his phone to take a picture of a ramp or piece of abandon concrete. I see something mundane, he sees a challenge, a trick, a photograph. How special to see things differently, to re-imagine, to bring life back to forgotten spaces.