Description
Native Angeleno C.R. Stecyk III is a multimedia artist widely acknowledged as a major influence within the genres of graffiti and street art. Stecyk was involved with the founding of the Zephyr surf shop in Santa Monica, California, where the boards he painted helped to establish the graphic styles of both surfing and skateboarding. A surfboard shaped and painted by Stecyk resides in the permanent archive of the Smithsonian. Other boards were presented at MoMA in New York, the White House in Washington, D.C. and the Olympic Village in Rio de Janeiro. He created numerous iconic symbols of surfing and skateboarding, such as the Lance Mountain skull logo, the “Vato Rat,” the Dogtown cross, and the “Skate and Destroy” marks. He was a writer and production designer on the Sundance award-winning documentary Dogtown and Z-Boysand is one of the founders of Juxtapoz magazine. Stecyk has written and photographed extensively on the topics of art, surfing, skateboarding, custom car culture, and obscure California history.
Glen E. Friedman, universally considered to be one of the most prominent photographers of his generation, is most well known for his influential images of rebellious artists from classic skateboarding, punk and hip hop. His photographs of key figures such as Fugazi, Black Flag, Public Enemy, Run-D.M.C., Beastie Boys, Ice- T, Bad Brains and Dead Kennedys, as well as skateboarding originators Tony Alva, and Jay Adams, among many others, not only cemented the importance of these radical subcultures at their beginnings, but have become the definitive graphic documents of them today. Friedman’s ubiquitous presence in the early stages of such significant movements allowed him a platform to capture the intense spirit of progression and angst that defined an era. His approach, more incendiary than documentary, is, according to Henry Rollins, furthered by the fact that he was,”…there at the beginning of so much cool stuff in so many different areas it’s not funny.” Friedman’s work is included in a number of notable international collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Smithsonian Institution.