STYLE of SPORT | Gear & Apparel Curated for the Stylish Sports Enthusiast

FOUR TENNIS COURTS, 2021

Installation at Wood Kusaka Studios. Artwork © Jonas Wood. Photo: Marten Elder. Courtesy Wood Kusaka Studios and Gagosian

Opening June 2nd at Gagosian New York is JONAS WOOD / Four Tennis Courts, four new works in the continuation of this artist’s series. In the oil and acrylic canvases on view, Wood has reworked four of his favorite drawings from a suite of twenty-four produced between 2016 and 2018, all of which depict famous international tennis tournaments.

Wood first made use of sports imagery in dynamic post-Pop portraits derived from boxing, baseball, and basketball cards. He later became interested in depicting the physical spaces associated with sports. While watching games on television, Wood developed a shorthand approach to representing courts and fields, paring complex scenes down to geometric shapes and flat, saturated colors. Each court is rendered in large scale portrait format, preserving its key characteristics, while simplifying or eliminating the players and spectators.

The courts of Abu Dhabi, London, Melbourne, and Paris this new series are all distinguished by their iconic colors and identifying signage. Wimbledon with Bball Orchid (2021) and French Open with Orchid (2021) incorporate snippets of paintings of plants and basketballs, hinting at the studio space beyond the screen. Australian Open with Red Lines (2021) and Abu Dhabi (2021) feature strategically positioned abstract elements, with bars of red and black recalling postwar Color Field painting. Read More

MOUNTAIN LINES, EVEREST, 2019

Now on view at the Michael Hoppen Gallery in London is Sohei Nishino|New Works featuring a monumental new work by the artist, Mountain Lines, Everest. Drawing inspiration from 18th century Japanese mapmaking, Nishino combines photography, collage, and psychogeography to create large scale experiential prints of urban and natural landscapes. Fascinated by the geographical and historical magnitude of Everest, Nishino took on one of the world’s most challenging environments to create his latest piece.

Nishino uses photographs as geographical representation, but it is with a subjective point of view. His signature photo-collage technique pieces together thousands of images taken over the course of his travels, to construct dioramas of complex geographies which integrate human and physical landscapes. From a distance, Nishino’s maps are almost abstract. It is not until we examine them in detail that the full experience unfolds.  Read More

BRONZE ERODED BASKETBALL, 2019

Daniel Arsham’s newest “relic”, Bronze Eroded Basketball, was released last week in a limited edition of 99. Arsham is one of the most prominent and influential contemporary artists, with a cult-like following whose new work garners a buzz similar to a hot sneaker drop — and from a similar demographic. Like all of this artist’s work, this cast bronze sculpture of a regulation size basketball sold out within minutes of its release. Read More

TEA WITH MUHAMMAD ALI, 1965

WATER JUMP, SANDOWN PARK, ESHER, c.1970s

GOALKEEPER JOHN HOLLOWBREAD, WHITE HART LANE, LONDON, 1964

Gerry Cranham: Simply The Best is currently on display at the Michael Hoppen Gallery in London. Now in his 90th year, the work of this British sport photographer defined the genre with pictures that were both intimate and action-packed, capturing the exhilaration and humanity of his sporting subjects.

Over the course of a career which spanned half a century, the range and variety of his sport images cemented Cranham’s reputation as a tireless innovator. Though his reputation rests on his legendary sports images, he also recorded some of the 20th Century’s most dramatic historical and cultural moments, from documenting the funeral of JFK to photographing Steve McQueen at the height of his celebrity. Read More

 

 
On January 25th, Sotheby’s auctioned the only privately owned collection of every Supreme skate deck ever manufactured in the sale “20 Years of Supreme.” Spanning 20 years of production, the archive included all 248 decks created by Supreme from 1998–2018, passionately collected over decades by owner Ryan Fuller. Offered as a single lot, the collection sold for $800,000, purchased by a young Chinese collector named Carson Guo.

This landmark archive interweaves streetwear, luxury, art and skate culture. Established in 1994, Supreme began as a skateboarding and fashion shop in downtown NYC that has grown into a global brand with a massive cult-like following. Supreme started producing their own skateboards in 1998 and have collaborated with the most coveted brands over the last 20 years – most famously with Louis Vuitton. The complete Louis Vuitton Boite skateboard trunk with tool kit, trucks, and wheels was also included in the lot.

Supreme is equally known for their skateboard collaborations with such prominent artists as George Condo, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Richard Prince, KAWS, Marilyn Minter, Nate Lowman, and Takashi Murakami, among others that are part of this collection.
 

CARSON GUO

Guo has not revealed too much about his plans for the collection, only to say they will go on view at a new creative shop and collaboration space he is opening in Vancouver in 2020. While this rare lot may be off the market now, many of these individual skateboard decks are also currently available at our partner site, GC/EDITIONS.

ROW 1: GEORGE CONDO, SHEPARD FAIREY, KEHINDE WILEY, KAWS X KROOKED, KEITH HARING, ANDY WARHOL; ROW 2: MARILYN MINTER, ANDY WARHOL, KENNY SCHARF, DAMIEN HIRST, DAMIEN HIRST, JEFF KOONS; ROW 3: NATE LOWMAN, ANDY WARHOL, KEITH HARING, JULES DE BALINCOURT, JOSE PARLA, GEORGE CONDO

Andy Warhol to Keith Haring, Jeff Koons to Damien Hirst, George Condo to Shepard Fairey – many of the most important contemporary artists have turned the skateboard deck into their sporty canvas. The parameters of its shape create a unique frame, contained within are works of art that often reference some of these artists most important pieces.

For many of contemporary artists whose work started on the street, and who are often skateboarders themselves, it’s a way to stay connected to their roots. For the blue chip artists at the top of the contemporary art world, says collector and art advisor Glori Cohen, “the skateboard provides a unique cool factor at a low price point — and it’s a really fun way to collect art!” Many of her clients buy these skateboard decks for their children’s rooms. Created in limited editions, it’s real art their kids can relate to, that’s still collectible too.

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Jeremy Koreski photographs surfing, among other outdoor sports, but he doesn’t take pictures in warm sunny locales. It’s cold, wet, and sometimes snowing where he is, but the subjects in his photographs never seem to mind. They’re too busy having fun. Bundled up and in wetsuits — with hoods, booties and gloves – they’re all smiles taking advantage of the natural playground their surroundings have to offer.

Koreski grew up in Tofino, British Columbia, a town on the west coast of Vancouver Island, about a 1½ hour ferry ride from Vancouver. There wasn’t a whole to do there other than watch TV or play outside. Koreski and his friends opted for the latter. Surrounded by water, surfing and fishing were the activities of choice. At 13 he picked up a camera and started shooting, documenting their outdoor adventures. Koreski still calls Vancouver Island home and his work showcases the lifestyle and culture of the Canadian coast and Pacific Northwest. The landscape is the star of his images, given perspective by the subjects in it.
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RUTH ORKIN IN 1947; THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT PHOTOGRAPHED BY ORKIN IN 1939

In 1939, a 17-year old girl living in California decided to embark on a monumental bike trip across the country. The World’s Fair in New York City was her destination. That girl was award winning photojournalist and filmmaker Ruth Orkin (1921-1985).

Orkin grew up in Hollywood in the 1920s and 1930s, and at the age of 10, received her first camera, a 39¢ Univex. She began by photographing her friends and teachers at school. Obsessed with traveling after three cross country train trips with her family, she took a job as a teenager at a travel agency in 1937. When a pamphlet for American Youth Hostels arrived in the mail one day at work, offering cheap lodging and cooking facilities for travelers journeying by foot or bicycle, the call for adventure was too great to resist.
 

PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY ORKIN AND PAGE FROM THE SCRAPBOOK SHE MADE DOCUMENTING THE 1939 BIKE TRIP. ALL CAPTIONS HANDWRITTEN BY ORKIN

 
At 16, Orkin took her first Youth Hostel trip to San Francisco, and the following year somehow convinced her parents to let her bicycle across the country. Multiple newspapers carried the story of this 17-year old on a cross country tour of U.S. Youth Hostels. While she had actually hitchhiked from LA to Chicago, and then Chicago to New York – equally adventurous and kind of crazy — Orkin later wrote in her book, A Photo Journal, published in 1981, “The bicycling was done while I was sightseeing in each city: Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Boston. I also biked the smaller distances between the four eastern cities and while hosteling through four New England states. All in all I biked a total of 2000 miles during those four months!”
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