Elysian Valley skateboard brand lands in L.A. art exhibit
By Brenda Rees
May 1, 2026
Elysian Valley—When it first happened, Ryan Anderson wasn’t fazed. But when people kept grabbing his DIY skateboard at coffee shops and other spots, marveling at the dozens of circular holes on the deck and wanting to try it, Anderson realized he was on to something.
A decade later, Anderson and partner Russell Hill at Rad Furniture have a famous skateboarding brand on their resume—one that’s literally gallery worthy.
Anderson and Hill grew up in 1980s San Diego as part of the skateboarding and BMX scene, and they founded Rad in Austin, Texas. When they moved their furniture manufacturing business back to LA in 2015 and to Frogtown in 2017, they decided to reconnect with their California roots. So they fashioned a skateboard from a piece of scrap metal.
“It was just intended to be fun, but people really responded to it,” Anderson said. “The attention caught us by surprise.”
The challenge became turning that rough prototype into a product. To make the material more environmentally friendly, they moved from metal to repurposed nylon fishing line. It was injected into the grooves of an iconic skateboard shape, but with an airy, perforated, lightweight twist.
The boards, under the Rad spinoff Lander, are sold worldwide through skate shops and online. In addition to being purchased by fans for decks at $75 and complete sets at $145, they are included in a new exhibit at Craft in America in L.A.’s Beverly Grove neighborhood. The art gallery show “Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard” chronicles how skateboarding evolved from its Southern California DIY roots, which offer clever innovations and artistic interpretations. The show runs until the end of May.
Anderson calls the exhibit the “perfect venue” to tell the story of their skateboard. On display is that first board, welded in 2015, and later prototypes showing the growth of the line.
Anderson thinks even non-skaters will appreciate the exhibit.
“There’s a lot to respect about the craft and ability to skateboard,” he said. “You can be standing up one second and on your back the next. That coolness will never go away—and being on a skateboard is the easiest way to feel like a kid again.”
Original article here.
From repurposed wheels to shag carpet, a new exhibit looks at the origins of skateboards
Spectrum 1 News
By Tara Lynn Wagner
April 10, 2026
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Before they were a 3-and-a-half billion-dollar global industry, skateboards started with the humblest beginnings.
“They’re definitely tiny,” Emily Zaiden said, looking at two small handmade skateboards from the mid-1900s.
Zaiden is the director and curator of the Craft in America Center. Their current exhibit, “Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard,” sees skateboarding as a craft story — one driven not initially by artisans but by kids using repurposed wheels.
“[They] were detached from roller skates and attached to planks of all kinds,” Zaiden said. “Any kind of discarded wood, everything from old furniture that people would break down, and then nail those roller skate wheels onto them.”
Using so many nails.
“Beautifully spaced as far as those nails,” she said. “So there’s some craftsmanship involved in that, certainly.”
Over time, the wheels evolved from metal to clay to urethane. The shape and use of boards changed as Southern California became the epicenter of skateboard manufacturing and culture.
But what never changed, Zaiden explained, is the way skateboards were used as a way to showcase one’s personal identity.
“The idea of decorating the surface of a skateboard is something that was there all along,” she said. “It was this extra canvas, essentially, for expression.”
One from the 1960s, for instance, is actually covered in shag carpet. Zaiden can’t help but laugh.
“The creativity, the humor, the outlandishness and just total fun of what you can do with a skateboard,” she said. “And that was what we really wanted to highlight with the show: the range of creativity.”
Mark X Farina is one artist involved in the exhibit, which, in addition to skateboards past and present, also includes conceptual works of art.
“I think growing up, other than comic books, skateboards were my first intro into seeing art and art that was nontraditional,” he said.
Farina, a longtime resident of SoCal, actually grew up skateboarding in Western Pennsylvania.
“We would just find the largest hill we could and try to survive going down it,” he said with a laugh. “One of my first skateboards had California Dreaming cut out of the grip tape. It was destiny, maybe, that I made it out here to California to live.”
Farina still rides between his home and his art studio on the west side, where he creates what he calls unrideable pieces — attaching wheels to found, often natural materials like palm fronds or coconuts, even tribal art and taxidermy.
He’s not just fascinated by skateboards as objects, but also by the world around them.
“Looking at that culture and looking at the art that came from the streets and into skateboarding is really inspirational,” Farina said.
The free exhibit is open to the public, and Zaiden loves hearing from visitors about their own memories, which they happily share, caught in the nostalgia of the display, which includes many pieces on loan from the Skateboard Hall of Fame in Simi Valley.
What You Need To Know
“Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard,” currently on exhibit at the Craft in America Center, sees skateboarding as a craft story that began with kids using repurposed roller skate wheels
Over time, the wheels evolved from metal to clay to urethane, and the shape and use of boards changed as Southern California became the epicenter of skateboard manufacturing
Besides an array of vintage skateboards, many on loan from the Skateboard Hall of Fame, the exhibit also includes conceptual works of art inspired by skateboards and the culture around them
“Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard” runs through May 30
Original article here.
Craft in America exhibition shows expressive side of skateboards
Beverly Press/Park La Brea News
March 12, 2026
The Craft in America Center presents “Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard” from March 14–May 30.
The exhibition is among the first in the U.S. to focus on the crafted innovations of skateboards, from their inception in Southern California to contemporary, irreverent expressions from artists across the nation. Where other exhibitions have focused on deck art and visual culture of skateboarding, “Vehicles of Expression” focuses on the historical development of the skateboard as a constructed object – from rough-and-ready homemade inventions with lumber, nails and repurposed wheels to contemporary high-tech, ecologically-conscious uses of materials and conceptual works.
Through choices of materials and finishing approaches, artists imbue boards with style and meaning. Some skateboards are made to be cherished as gorgeous objects and others are made for artful performance stunts, departing radically from the sport’s competitive aspect. With skating’s spirit of undaunted exploration and ingenuity, the exhibition celebrates a diversity of approaches. The show expands definitions of craft, art and performance by presenting multiple vantage points on skateboards.
An opening reception with remarks by multimedia artist Abe Dubin will be held on Saturday, March 14, from 3-5 p.m. “Build It and Ride: How Skateboards Began,” an in-person and online talk by Todd Huber, skateboard historian and founder of the International Skateboarding Hall of Fame, will be held on April 11, from 3-4 p.m.
“Skateboarding the Canyons, Plains and Asphalt-banked Schoolyards of Coastal Los Angeles in the 1970s” with scholar Lorne Platt on the evolution of skateboarding environments in suburban developments will be held on April 18 from 11 a.m.-noon. Additional in-person and virtual talks by skateboard historians, makers, artists and performances will take place in conjunction with the exhibition.
The Craft in America Center is located at 8415 W. Third St. For information, visit craftinamerica. org/exhibition/vehicles-of-expression-the-craft-of-skateboarding.
Today on AirTalk: SoCal History: Skateboarding
LAist/Airtalk with Larry Mantle
3/9/26
SoCal History: A look at the origins of skateboard design
Southern California is the birthplace of a plethora of American inventions and innovations, chief among them: the humble skateboard. Four wheels, a plank of wood, and some metal bits to tie it all together, and boom: you have a mode of transportation that’s relatively easy to learn but incredibly tough to master. Skateboarding and skateboard culture began in Southern California back in the 1950s, and took hold of the cultural zeitgeist later in the century. Now, a new exhibit at the Craft in America Center in Mid City is exploring the creative, innovative, and sometimes wonky designs that have blessed Southern California’s sidewalks for decades. Joining Larry this morning for more on this exhibit and the history of skateboard design are Todd Huber, skateboard historian and founder of the International Skateboarding Hall of Fame, and Emily Zaiden, Director and lead curator of the Craft in America Center, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit arts organization founded in 2004 focused on original handcrafted work.
The Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard exhibition is running from March 14 through May 30 at the Craft In America Center in Mid City. More information is available here.
Craft in America announces skateboard exhibition, Vehicles of Expression
Woodworking Network
By Dakota Smith
March 6, 2026
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Craft in America, a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization founded in 2004 to promote original handcrafted work, is hosting Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard. The exhibit will be one of the first museum exhibitions in the U.S. to focus on the crafted innovations of skateboards, starting with their inception in Southern California and ranging to contemporary, irreverent expressions from artists across the nation.
Beginning March 14 through May 30, Abe Dubin, skateboarder and multimedia artist, will address the “why” that fuels skateboard innovation and how the melding of imagination with physical objects (and the altering thereof) is the essence of skateboarding.
Where other exhibitions have focused on deck art and visual culture of skateboarding, Vehicles of Expression focuses on the historical development of the skateboard as a constructed object; from rough-and-ready, homemade inventions with lumber, nails, and repurposed wheels, to contemporary high-tech, ecologically-conscious uses of materials, and ultimately, performative and conceptual works that perpetuate its mischievousness and spirit of continual exploration.
From its very inception the skateboard has been the product of MacGyvering things together, drawing from hockey, roller skating, surfing and go carts. This exhibition will be one of the very first to substantively present skateboards as material culture and as handcrafted objects of artistic expression. In terms of design, material, and construction, skateboards are some of the most common, widespread crafted objects in our world, yet they have generally been overlooked by museums. Skateboards can be artfully made and used for equally artful performative acts. Intended to show wear and tear as badges of pride, these carefully crafted objects exist in a state of potential ephemerality. This show will expand definitions of craft, art, and performance by looking at this beloved and familiar object. Arguably one of LA’s biggest cultural exports, the show will focus on the artistry and history of the handmade, handshaped skateboard.
Some skateboards are made to be cherished simply as gorgeous objects and others made for artful performance—stunts of deconstruction and midair transformation engineered into the boards—in each case, departing radically from the the sport’s competitive aspect.
With skating’s spirit of undaunted exploration and ingenuity, the exhibition celebrates its diversity of approaches—being both trickster and diplomat. Intended to show wear and tear as badges of pride, these carefully crafted objects exist in a state of potential ephemerality. This show will expand definitions of craft, art, and performance by presenting multiple vantage points on this well loved and ubiquitous object.
If you would like to attend, send an email to rsvp@craftinamerica.org
Original article here.
Craft in America Center’s tool exhibition extends through February
The Beverly Press
February 5, 2026
The Craft in America Center has extended the exhibition “Tools of the Trades: American Handmade Implements & Devices” through Feb. 28.
The exhibition is the first of its kind to highlight beautifully designed, hand-crafted tools made by contemporary toolmakers in the United States. It is the first in a series of exhibitions for Handwork 2026, a nationwide semiquincentennial collaboration celebrating the diversity of craft that defines America.
Artists, particularly craftspeople, rely heavily on tools in the creation of their work. Some processes might require implements that are very idiosyncratic to an artist’s process and that are not simply available at the hardware store. “Tools of the Trades: American Handmade Implements & Devices” focuses on contemporary, handmade tools, made by artists distinctly for craft processes with extreme attention to craftsmanship and design. Vintage tools will round out the selection.
Prior to mass production, makers and artists fabricated their own implements as needed. In doing so, they might decide to add beauty to the functional tool with decoration. “Tools of the Trade” celebrates the ingenuity born of necessity and the special narratives in the hand-crafted. The objects pertain to a wide scope of crafts including ceramics, textiles, hot glass, wood working and metal, as well as niche fields within them, such as ironwork or spinning.
Participating artists include Jeff Amundson; Randy Augsburger; Jim Austin, of Alchemy Metalworks; Brent Bailey; Brien Beidler; Bosworth Spindles; Elia Bizzarri; Med Chandler; Saign Charlestein; Dennis Dusek; Dyakcraft; Troy Evans; Janet Fox, of Handywomanshop; Seth Gould; Max Grossman; Spencer Hamann; and Kelly Harris. Also included are Arlen Heginbotham; Indian Lake Artisans; Ben Jackel; Rachel Kedinger; Clark Kellog; Andrea and Chuck Kennington, of NC Black Co.; Jay Burnham Kidwell; Kalia Kliban; Anna Koplik; Will Larranaga; Tom Latané; Terry Lee; Shanna Leino; Robert Liu; Jim Moore; Liza Nechamkin; Potter USA; Douglas Pryor; William R. Robertson; Eleanor Rose; Fabiano Sarra; Reid Schwartz; Michael Sherrill, with Mudtools; Elias Sideris; Randy Stromsoe; Tony Swatton; Dossain Valencia; Watanabe & Co.; and John Williams, of Guildwerks.
Craft in America is located at 8415 W. Third St. For information, visit craftinamerica.org.
Beverly Press: Craft in America Center opens colorful exhibit on paper art
9/12/24
Original post in the Beverly Press here.
The Craft in America Center is holding “Erik and Martin Demaine: Puzzling with Paper” from Saturday, Sept. 14, through Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025.
Father-and-son Martin and Erik Demaine are featured in the upcoming Craft in America episode, “SCIENCE.” The duo has a stimulating generative practice that blends disciplines from math to zoology.
They fold pieces of paper by hand along geometrically derived lines and transform flat sheets into intricately curved constructions. The works at the same time prove math theorems. They plot out the pattern of a sunflower’s face, improvise pathways of hot glass on paper, extract Shakespeare’s words and write programs that generate threedimensional and animated fonts.
The Craft in America Center also presents “Lorraine Bubar: Papercut Perspectives” from Sept. 14-Jan. 4. Bubar creates lush imagery reflecting the hierarchy and intricate patterns of nature through the cutting and layering of fine Asian colored papers.
Summer 2024: Building Blocks, Woodworking, and Family Fun!
Summer’s here and school’s out! Even while our Craft in Schools program takes a short summer break, our Craft in America Center team is hosting all kinds of eclectic crafting workshops, artist-musician events, and talks – not to be missed!
Drop-In Fun: Summer ‘24 Family Activity Sheets
We welcome young creatives, their friends and families to come enjoy our AC alongside this summer’s Building Blocks: Process & Wood exhibition (all free of charge). We’re excited to host some creative and fun activities, suitable for youth ages preK-8th grade; with past times that will entertain young visitors with (pictured below):
- a drawing/coloring station
- a playful scavenger-hunt through our exhibition
- an intro to woodworking ideas
- short technique-video clips on how craft artists make their art in studios
- & small surprise prizes!
For more explorative crafters and learners, we encourage taking an inspirational dive into our PBS Craft in America docuseries: full episodes, and artist storytelling shorts. In between summer adventures and much needed rest ~ we hope you’ll drop by and connect with us soon!
Woodworking Network: Craft in America Announces New Exhibition
April 26, 2024
Original post by Dakota Smith on Woodworking Network here.
LOS ANGELES, CA — The Craft in America Center has announced Building Blocks: Process and Wood, a group exhibition highlighting Southern California woodworkers who use tradition to create contemporary interpretations.
Craft in America is organizing an exhibition of woodwork and furniture-based sculpture made by the artists who were consulted and filmed for the new Craft Video Dictionary (CVD) definitions. The exhibition will consist of approximately two dozen recent works made by six artists in the field who are based across the Los Angeles basin. Ranging in styles and perspectives, these artists are unified by formal innovation coupled with a unique understanding of materials and techniques.
The Craft Video Dictionary is a new digital tool for understanding how objects are made. Launching in early 2024 with an initial exemplary array of video definitions that span media, material, process, and discipline, the CVD will continue to expand and develop over time. New, additional video definitions will be added at later intervals in 2024 and beyond. Especially for those who are not makers or artists, the CVD provides a chance to gain awareness about the crafting of objects, in real time. These educational videos are intended to clarify, elucidate, document, and explain craft techniques.
Participating Artists: Reuben Foat, Martin Alexander Hernandez, Ryan Taber, Lauren Verdugo, Larry White and Maxwell Wilson
Urban Glass: John Luebtow and Stephen Edwards return to Los Angeles
4/23/24
Read the original article by Kinshasa Peterson on Urban Glass.
John Luebtow and Stephen Edwards return to Los Angeles for an exhibition and discussion at the Craft in America Center
The Craft in America Center in Los Angeles, which is exhibiting a dual-artist exhibit entitled “Between the LInes” through May 25, will host a conversation with the artists John Luebtow and Stephen Edwards on Saturday, April 27 from 3 PM to 4 PM PST. Both in-person and streamed on Zoom and Facebook Live, the talk will bring together two prolific creators who shaped a legacy of glassmaking in Southern California, and who are regarded nationwide as influential educators and artists. Moderated by Craft in America curator Emily Zaiden, the discussion will provide perspective on the major retrospective of their work now on view at the museum.
Luebtow and Edwards both create artwork at differing scales, from intimate forms to powerful works in the public sphere. In addition to their artistic careers, Luebtow and Edwards are both well-known educators who have a shared passion for glass with generations of students in California and New York State, where they established programs for learning in the medium, respectively. Their first meeting, in fact, came when Luebtow was Edwards’ high-school teacher, and the two formed a bond that has spanned decades.
Excerpts from Luebtow’s recently published monograph, Glass: A Lifetime of Creating, were featured in the Spring 2024 issue of Glass: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly, on sale at newsstands and online. The article can be purchased along with our digital edition.
The accompanying exhibition, Between the Lines: John Luebtow and Stephen Edwards, is on view at the Craft in America Center through May 25.