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

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, Jose Parla to Shepard Fairey – many of the most influential up-and-coming and established contemporary artists have turned the skateboard deck into their sporty canvas. The parameters of its oblong shape create a constant that contained within are playful decks of art, often referencing some of these artists most important works.

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. It’s real art their kids can relate to, that’s still collectible too.

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TOP: PALIO DI SIENA, ITALY, 2016; AMERICA’S CUP, SAN FRANCISCO, 2013

CLICK ON IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEW

Now on view at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery is “Day to Night”, the second exhibition of works on this theme by photographer Stephen Wilkes. The images represent a visual exploration of an iconic location, photographed from daybreak to nightfall, often capturing an historical event from start to finish: Easter Mass at the Vatican in 2016; the Inauguration of President Obama at the U.S. Capital in 2013; and on our Style of Sport beat, the final stage of the Tour de France in Paris in 2016.

At first glance, what is most obvious in these photographs is the light changing as time progresses from day into night. On closer inspection however, which is mandatory, what you see is everything that happened during that time span, seamlessly compressed – literally — into one image. Taken from a single fixed position, Wilkes selects from hundreds of moments captured, putting together all these slivers of time and what occurred within them, into a single image. For his sport photographs, our point of entry, like the Tour de France mentioned, the famous Palio horse race in Siena, or the America’s Cup in San Francisco Bay – we see the start, middle, and finish of the race all in one view.
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CLOCKWISE TOP LEFT: FLOATING SUBWAY MAP, FRANCOISE SCHEIN, 1985; CYCLING UP LAFAYETTE ST; METRONOME UNION SQUARE, KRISTIN JONES & ANDREW GINZEL, 1999; THE WALL, FORREST MYERS, 1973

 
While urban bike sharing programs are great for commuting and tooling around town, they are also the ideal sightseeing vehicle for both tourists and locals alike. Allowing you to go slow enough to take in the monuments, landmarks, and vistas of a city, and fast enough to cover some ground, you can get your exercise in along the way too. Plus with docking stations located all over the city, you never have to worry about locking your bike.

A few weeks ago, on a balmy summer’s eve, your STYLE of SPORT editor was invited by Rapha on a cycling art tour of Manhattan. Rapha is the posh English cycling apparel and accessory brand we happen to love and feature regularly for its blend of sophisticated style and performance. With a recently opened shop in Manhattans’s Soho called the Rapha Cycle Club, the store serves as a hub for the city’s cyclists and starting point for group road bike rides. On this evening, however, it would be an 8-mile city bike — or Citibike — ride through Soho, Chelsea, and a bit of midtown too.
 

RAPHA CYCLE CLUB, NYC

 
The Rapha Transmission Tour, as they call it, was lead by Derrick Lewis, Rapha Communications Manager for North America. Its mission was to show us New York from a new perspective. As a lifelong New Yorker myself, I always welcome this opportunity. This would be a tour of New York City public art — those architectural structures, installations, sculptures, and paintings we see everyday, perhaps never really notice, and often know nothing about.
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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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