Spacejunk Art in motion
The silent pull of artist at work permeates the air. It draws you in, that stench of creativity being rapidly unleashed. So you stand and you gawp at every stroke of paint, every thoughtful mark. Art, they say, can expand the mind. But watching it unfold can blow it wide apart.
The live painting taking place before our eyes is courtesy of Spacejunk, a French-based gallery dedicated to ‘boardsports’ culture. With art centres in Grenoble, Bayonne and Bourg-Saint-Maurice, founder Jérome Catz is a man on a mission. Since 2003, his raison d’etre has been to showcase the private work of artists strapped into the world of surf, skate and snow.
“It’s important to show how talented these artists are, and to promote them as ‘proper’ artists,” says Jérome. “If you’re just known for your commercial work (even if the products respect your original artwork – which is pretty rare), the artist will be identified as a graphic designer and nothing more. Some great artists get most of their work used commercially, and they don’t have the time or energy to produce work just for themselves – so they are not artists anymore.”
The guys here today, however, are artists of the purest kind. They’re standing in commercial city (it’s ISPO 2007, the mother of all tradeshows, and every brand is here ready to see and be seen), yet what they’re throwing on these canvases is coming straight from the heart.
England’s Will Barras and Mr Jago are putting the finishing touches to a collaborative piece. France’s Vinz, Nikodem and Nicolas Thomas are still getting started. The result? A collection of artwork that’s totally commerce-free.
So what exactly is the endgame of all this hard work? “I can see Jérome’s vision of showing our private work to the world,” adds Mr Jago. “They’ve had the website translated into five different languages, including Russian – that’s quite forward thinking. He’s got a very clear plan in his head, and is very driven. So that’s always good, isn’t it? Somebody pushing you in that way.”
It is good, very good indeed.
This story originally appeared in Huck #009,
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