Hit The Deck

Check out the following video of the United Trade Show, including the art show.

Hit the Deck at the United Trade Show went down last week in Las Vegas at the Alexis Park Resort. We arrived the day before the show to set up. The art show portion of United didn’t have the walls up yet, so we waited until about 4pm to hang the decks and ended up staying until 3:30am finishing it up. The show ran from Tuesday, February 13th to Thursday, February 15th with spectators coming in and out of the art room at their leisure. Hit The Deck was made possible by our sponsors, Draven and Ultimate Ears.

Next to Hit The Deck was a few of Dandelion Black’s Flesh series, an Abide Visuals section, and an exhibition from Blood is the New Black’s amazing squad of artists. We had the pleasure of meeting and hanging out with Blood is the New Black’s Travis Millard, Jeremy Relph, Patrick Jilbert and their ringleader Mitra Khayyam who are good people.

We ended up selling 12 of the 60 decks that were exhibited, some of which were arriving as late as Thursday. There are three more showings of Hit The Deck that are in the works. We will keep everyone posted on the progress of these opportunities to raise more money for The Global Fund.

I have randomly cleaned up a few of the decks from the exhibition after the jump. More to come as soon as I can clean up more of the images.

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Dear Dap One,
We really want to see pictures from the hit the deck show! all of them!
xo,
Matt Loomis and Aye Jay
(aka thosetwobusters)

As promised, here is another sneak peak of a pretty popular piece. We have been getting a lot of traffic due to a Grammy winning artist coming on board to create a deck for Hit The Deck.

While I don’t really listen to platinum recording artists, Linkin Park or Fort Minor, I do think Mike Shinoda is a pretty dope artist. I will especially be open to change my mind on their music after hearing the next Linkin Park album, which drops this March, is executively produced by Rick Rubin.

Read the rest of Hit The Deck’s blog posts

Shipping out Hit The Deck’s medium, blank skateboard decks, was a bitch. We had over 70 boxes from UPS which were assembled then filled with skateboard decks, that were individually protected with bubble wrap. Decks then had to be taken to the UPS store to have return shipping included. The UPS home team wasn’t happy when I brought a four page list of over 70 different artists for them to create labels for. But in the end, I think they sort of enjoyed working on a slightly bigger project for a great charity rather than the norm of slightly older people coming in to use their fax machine or send a box of socks to their grandchildren.

It has been a busy week so far with a lot of decks coming in. Hit The Deck is shaping up to be a great show.

What is so unique about Hit The Deck, is that its not just an exhibition of fine art, its also a combination of artists that wouldn’t normally be involved in a project together, showcasing their styles collectively. We have art directors such as Jesse Raker at SoCity, freelance designers like Aaron Winters at Abide Visuals, to fine artists that exhibit regularly like Josh Taylor and graffiti artists Downtimer and Chachi Arcola to clothing designers like the crew at Homeroom Clothing all creating originally designed and painted skateboard decks for the exhibition to raise money for The Global Fund.

People might not have heard of any of the previous mentioned artists and may not be too motivated to see pieces from artists that aren’t the most prominent in the art game. Sometimes, even unconsciously, getting caught up in hype can lead viewers astray. In order to reign in and keep people grounded, we have added many well known artists such as Cope2, David Flores, Haze XXL, Jermaine Rogers & Emek, B+, Mike Shinoda, and George Thompson (Ewok AWR/MSK) to be displayed mixed in with lesser known, up and coming artists. After all, innovative new artists are what keeps the avant-garde movement thriving.

To get viewers familiar with some of the artists participating in Hit The Deck at United Trade Show, check out the following sneak peaks of decks we have recently received:

Aaron Winters:

SoCity:

Josh Taylor:

Downtimer:

Celebrating Synthesis’ big One-O, artist Alex Pardee (CBS, Lords Crew, Bunnywith) graced us with his illustration of Definitive Jux label head/rapper El-P, whos album I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead drops mid March. Head over to Alex Pardee’s blog for a peak into more info on what hes been up to and what hes going to be up to.

Alex Pardee will also be creating a piece for Hit The Deck art exhibition at the United Trade Show located at Alexis Park in Las Vegas February 13th-15th.

The United Trade Show is not just a forum for independent brands to showcase and sell their upcoming lines, but also gives attendees a chance to learn and interact with the different activities United is hosting. Unlike other trade shows, United is bringing it back and catering towards educating and making sure viewers leave having had a good time.

With a home recording studio, expert panel discussions on all angles of the clothing business, parties and even golf lessons, United encourages attendees to participate. There are also three art shows at the venue. Blood Is The New Black has Cupid’s Noose art installation with live art by Travis Millard and a photography booth from Dan Monick. Abide Visuals also has a group installation with many Exit Strategy magazine’s artists showing their work. All of these artists will also participate in Hit The Deck presented by Synthesis.

Hit The Deck is a skateboard art exhibition using skateboard decks as the medium. This installation is unique because it combines graffiti writers, graphic designers, studio-artists and clothing designers together in one show to raise money for an amazing charity, The Global Fund. The Global Fund provides medicine to economies across the world that cannot afford the treatment and prevention of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Artists from Cope2, Emek, Haze, Blake Marquis, Mike Shinoda and B+ will be exhibited next to designers and clothing companies such as Miskeen, 3Sixteen, Mishka and Homeroom, that have created decks. These decks will be sold at United at affordable prices as artists are excited to be participating to raise money for a world renown charity.

“My favorite music, like skateboarding, is all about originality and pushing limits. I’m excited to be a part of Hit The Deck, an event that celebrates that spirit.” - Mike Shinoda, Linkin Park and Fort Minor frontman.

Hit The Deck’s centerpiece is a collaboration between artists Aye Jay, Chachi, Matt Loomis and Dap1. Chachi is a well known graffiti writer from Chicago, but has pieces that can be seen across the US and with his crew DC5. Aye Jay created the “Gangster Rap Coloring Book,” and is now working on the “Heavy Metal Fun Time Activity Book,” with a forward by Andrew W.K. which should drop Fall ‘07. Matt Loomis is an amazing illustrator and works at a think tank factory that is in charge of designing graphics for the clothing lines of over 10 licensing clients world wide. Dap1 is curating Hit The Deck on top of his full time job of Creative Director at Synthesis. The collaboration between these four unique artists was a tribute to old school skate graphics, representing the origins of the streetwear culture.

The Hit The Deck buzz has been slowly spreading. With artists blogging, posting myspace bulletins and updating the news section on their websites, traffic on our Hit The Deck website has been blowing up…kind of. Apparently, we are huge in Moscow right now.

Today we received decks from Jason Brunson, Downtimer (myspace/downtimer) and SoCity. Sneakie peekies coming next week.

Synthesis presents Hit The Deck, an original art showcase of artists from around the world using skateboard decks as the medium. Hit The Deck will be held at the Alexis Park Resort Hotel, during the UNITED Trade Show, February 13th through the 15th from 11am to 7pm. Synthesis will curate Hit The Deck, bringing together clothing designers, graphic designers, graffiti writers and established fine artists for an opportunity to show and sell their original skateboard deck art to raise money for a world renowned AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis treatment charity, The Global Fund.

Artists include Aaron Turner, Alone, Aye Jay, B+, Jeben Berg, Bishop, Jason Brunson, BUE, Freddi C, Cartel NYC, Robert Carter, Aden CatalaniChachi, Milano Chow, Cope2, Downtimer, Jared Eberhardt, Emek, Ethos, Jesse Ewing, Exist1981, Faydog, David Flores, Jennifer Garcia, Maria Gillespie, Steve Green, Justin Hampton, Maya Hayuk, Haze XXL, Homeroom Clothing, Jib Hunt, Alvaro Ilizarbe, Indie, Joseph Israel, Patrick Jilbert, KOA One, Ben Kwok, Aaron LaCrate, Greg LaMarche, Mathew Landon, Tara Laura, Matt Loomis, Madsaki, Travis Millard, Elisa Millier, Miskeen Originals, Amanda Lopez, Madsaki, Tiffany Malakooti, Blake Marquis, Rob McBroom, Mishka NYC, Dan Monick, Garrett Morin, Munk One, Alex Pardee, Pastime, The Pizz, Jesse Raker, Jeremy Relph, Keren Richter, Alfred Rodriguez, Jermaine Rogers, Romanowski45, Safari, Isabel Samaras, Seizer One, Andrea Shear, Mike Shinoda, Keith Shore, Skinner, Siana Sonoquie, SPRFKR, Josh Taylor, George Thompson, 3Sixteen Clothing, TRACY168, David Trumpf, Alex Turan, Barry Underhill, Arien Valizadeh, Sophie Varela, Arien Walizadeh, Porous Walker, Aaron Winters, Z-Boys, and Z-Man.

Hit The Deck will also have on-site artists painting, interacting with Hit The Deck viewers. All this is made possible through our sponsors, Draven Shoes, Ultimate Ears and Fiji Water.

Stay tuned for sneak peaks of the deck art as they come in.