Exhibition Celebrates Surf Art and Culture in Jamestown - Inside Art with Michael Rose

Exhibition Celebrates Surf Art and Culture in Jamestown - Inside Art with Michael Rose

 

In a coastal place like Rhode Island, ocean-based activities can define the rhythms of life. The ways in which these traditions insinuate themselves into the arts are varied. In an exhibition on view at Jamestown Arts Center through August 13, the interconnections between surfing and art are displayed. The show, titled Rising Tide: Reflections of Surf Art and Culture, is fascinating and full of engaging work.

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Rising Tide opens in JAC’s lobby with a large-scale block print by Janie Kinnane. Titled Copius, the piece is a study in the fecundity of ocean life with flora and fauna swirling around one another. Where Kinnane explores what lives in the water, painter Sam Malpass’ Atlantic Blue details a busy shore packed with blue and white umbrellas. These two artworks set the stage for an exhibition that is ensconced in seaside themes.

 

 

Rising Tide was skillfully curated by Jon Baylor, and probes not just art related to surfing, but surf mentality. The show’s description lays out its purpose, stating, “The aim of this exhibition is to shed the lifestyle component and dig into the mental spaces that both surfing and art inhabit.” The mental space in question is what Baylor refers to as a “flow state, a state of unconscious competence.”

 

The sense of ease which a flow state implies comes across in subtle ways in various works on view in the show. A collection of cyanotypes by Chris Coffin chart the artist’s open water swims utilizing GPS technology and the artist’s performance. The series combines themes of mapping with a sense of connectedness to the ocean. A swimmer, lifeguard, and surfer himself, Coffin’s work comes with the point of view of someone truly immersed in surf culture.

 

 

Artworks in Rising Tide also play with scale. While Coffin’s contribution is made up of a visual archipelago of smaller works, a painting nearby by Kris Chatterson is radically larger in size. Chatterson’s Surfy Art Project, completed in 2022 is ten feet tall and, in its scope takes on the grandiosity of something akin to an historical altarpiece or history painting. In the foreground, an upturned surfboard slides into space, while vividly baroque waves of color meander overheard. Executed in acrylic and mixed media on canvas, it is a stunning painting.

 

An exhibition about the nexus between surfing and art would not be complete without the tools of the trade. A lit shadow box at the opening of the show includes a series of four fins by Korey Nolan. Created out of polyurethane and fiberglass cloth, this collection celebrates the craft behind surfing. The four fins are marbled and elegant and could as easily be mid century sculptures. Nolan has also contributed two boards to the show. One, titled Yewwlatta, was created using recycled Dunkin Donuts cups and straws resulting in a noticeable styrofoam look. The other, titled Downeast Soft Top New England, employs reclaimed lobster buoys, shipping crate lumber, teak and mahogany decking, salvaged cork boards, and recycled aluminum. It is the grittier of Nolan’s boards, but one steeped in New England culture. On the other end of the gallery, a surfboard by Andrew Nota is a sleek pillar of warm redwood against the venue’s cool walls.

 

 

One of the most beautiful pieces in the show is a celebration of a watery surface. Alex Weinstein’s Ocean State is a twenty-inch roundel created with polyester resin, oil paint, and fiberglass to mimic the placid facade of the sea. The effect of the piece is startlingly real, with illusionistic qualities that beckon the viewer’s inspection. While Rhode Islanders might think they know the ocean, few have had the opportunity to see it this way.

 

Many of the pieces in the show utilize reused or found objects. Ara Peterson’s Untitled is a set of two stenciled air mattresses that leverage Op Art aesthetics in an unexpected way. Tom Deininger is exhibiting a sculpture fashioned entirely from detritus, mimicking a wall-mounted fish. Looking closely, one can find a bikini-clad doll in the sculpture’s mouth and a Virgin Mary near its eye.

 

 

Rising Tide is an enjoyable show and one that will help non-surfers to appreciate better the ways in which surfing has impacted artists and vice versa. It also includes many frankly beautiful artworks, pieces that are genuinely fun to explore. And in the midst of high summer in Rhode Island, where better to appreciate art than in one of its loveliest coastal enclaves?

 

Rising Tide: Reflections of Surf Art and Culture is on view through August 13, 2022 at Jamestown Arts Center. JAC is located at 18 Valley Street in Jamestown and is open Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 11 am - 3 pm and Thursdays from 11 am - 7 pm. Learn more and plan your visit at jamestownartcenter.org.