When skateboards become art

In addition to exhibiting more than 200 skateboard decks from the 1970s to the 2000s, “Skate It or Hang It!?” features engaging elements like a touch screen that allows visitors to watch a video demonstration of key skate moves. It’s a clever way to bring life and energy to the show’s essential contradiction: a static exhibit on a very active theme.

A brief tutorial on skate deck construction shows how wood veneers are sandwiched and glued together to create a sleek, polished board. In the museum’s rear gallery, key players in skateboard design, from Austin-based fine artist Michael Sieben to Los Angeles skating pioneer-turned-artist Wes Humpston, contribute board designs, sketches and interviews posted on wall text.

Not merely a chance to eyeball a variety of deck designs, the show also offers a mini-history of the form, from the early boards silk-screened with images often created in collaboration with well-known skaters. Those original boards illustrated the close-knit skateboard scene in the ’70s and ’80s, when skaters, artists and board manufacturers were often peers. Later, large corporate board manufacturers adopted the heat-transfer method of applying designs, which allowed designs to wrap the entire board, rather than being restricted to the board center.

“It’s much less personal now,” said the show’s curator, Atlanta designer W. Todd Vaught, of the less intimate relationship today between skaters and artists.

A large gallery is devoted to a visual panoply of 148 board designs from the ’70s to the present that demonstrate a visible evolution in board design. Evident in early ’70s-era design is the impact, seen in the work of artists like Jim Phillips, of hard rock and psychedelia on skateboard decks. In the ’80s, the comparable influence of punk rock and new wave is evident in the neon pink and acid green color schemes and graphic, situationist art movement decks of the day.

In recent years, the influences of street artist, graphic novels, Japanese anime and pop-culture references and advertising crop up in board design. It’s hard not to leave the show with an appreciation for the rampant creativity in skateboard design, along with a fresh understanding of the influence of skating on American popular culture.