SVA presents “Art Brewer: Surf Evolution,” a retrospective celebrating the work of legendary surf photographer Art Brewer, who has spent four decades documenting and shaping surf culture around the globe. On view at the SVA Gallery, 209 East 23 Street, New York City, from June 8 – 30, the exhibition is presented by the Arts Abroad Program at SVA, where Art Brewer teaches a course in Action Surf Photography in Rincon, Puerto Rico.
Often described as “the court painter” for the world’s surfing elite, Art Brewer is known for his mastery of the numerous technical and physical challenges involved in surf photography and the strikingly expressive quality of his images, which some have described as “portals to a vastly improved universe.” Photographer C.R. Stecyk (Dogtown and Z-Boys) explains in his essay accompanying the exhibition, “Art has thoroughly examined the sport of surf riding with an unparalleled sensitive ferocity…an underlying introspection is seamlessly incorporated into his works via a technical mastery which comes across as easy and elegant.”
Curated by photographers Malcolm Lightner and Michelle Mercurio, the exhibition will include over 150 images from Brewer’s archive, made from the mid-1960s to the present, including many never-before-exhibited works. The selected work ranges from intimate portraits of surf legends like Corky Carroll, Tom Curren, Wayne Lynch, Marc Occhilupo and Kelly Slater, to evocative landscapes and waterscapes from around the world, to the dynamic images of surf riding for which Brewer has achieved international renown. The exhibition draws out Brewer’s pivotal role within the changing culture of the sport over the last 40 years. As C.R. Stecyk remarks, “Brewer functions as both the initial creator of objects of desire and as an authoritative recorder of the negative aftermath of a culture in transition.”
A reception for the exhibition will be held on June 14 from 6 – 8pm at the SVA Gallery, 209 East 23 Street. For more info, visit sva.edu.
