Chad Muska “Transitions” at New Image Art: Urban Light and Space

Chad Muska, professional skater, artist and entrepreneur launched his first show Saturday June 1, 2013, at New Image Art Gallery.  Using cement, steel, and litter, Muska has created an urban response to Light and Space, one that reverberates not off the sea and sky but the city’s concrete surfaces and asphalt streets. This is a transition from his early work with wheat paste posters and graffiti, art forms more traditionally associated with skate art.

The title of Chad’s  show, “Transitions,” is a word that not only stems from the curved surfaces skateboarders ride on in pools, parks, and ramps, but also a reference to the skateboard lifestyle which is defined by movement from place to place, and from one state of mind to the next. Chad explains:

The show represents a lot to me. It’s about the struggles I’ve been going through in life and what’s next after being a pro skater, something that I’ve done my whole life. Transition is a universal idea that everyone can relate to whether you skate or not, but it’s strongly connected to the roots of skateboarding which is about bending the world to your will and making it ridable—a world without transition is a world that is dull and flat.

Skateboarders, look at metal and concrete already as objects of artistic expression. It’s like a canvas. And now the mediums that I’m using are metal and concrete. It’s so funny, but that’s why I think I’m attracted to these materials: because I’ve spent my entire life looking at the concrete sidewalk that I’m riding down.

Chad Muska, “Transitions”
New Image Art Gallery
7920 Santa Monica Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA 90046
Tel: (323) 654-2192
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 1pm – 6pm or by appointment

New Image’s Marsea Goldberg with Chad Muska

Photos: Luis Ochoa