Online Artist Talk by Conceptual Skateboarder Abe Dubin (Orange Man) and Friends

Abraham Dubin, better known to the international skateboarding community as Orange Man, is a professional skateboarder for the Boston-based experimental skateboard troupe Fancy Lad. Dubin, who is the exhibition advisor to Vehicles of Expression, will speak about skateboarding as a world of pure imagination. Dubin will be joined by fellow artists, performers, and skaters Alice Hixon Kirk and Joe LeDoux who will also discuss their own work.

About Abe Dubin:

As a youth Dubin studied theatre, drawing and painting, and begrudgingly participated in team sports. Upon receiving a fluorescent green skateboard from the used sports store, a shift occurred in which suddenly self expression seemed to harmoniously infuse with rigorous physical exertion. Parking lots became stages for balletic performance, transforming the mundane modernity of suburban life into a playground of limitless potential.

Dubin has exhibited his skateboard artwork and made live demonstrations across the US from the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston to galleries and skateshops in Pittsburgh, PA, Iowa, Las Vegas and Seattle. Abraham has collaborated on video projects for Adult Swim, Vice, Thrasher Magazine and Red Bull and premiered short films at the Vladimir Film Festival in Croatia.

As a husband and father, Dubin’s home studio serves as a woodshop and laboratory for abstract kinetic sculptures the he and his contemporaries refer to as “board manipluations.” Deeply influenced by the Duchampian ethos of the ready-made and Jim Henson’s warm rich world of play and imagination, Abraham’s practice is one of reinterpreting everyday objects and architecture and allowing his skateboard puppetry to organically flourish.

Alice Hixon Kirk is a musician and fabricator based in Western Massachusetts. She creates experimental skateboards to encourage speculation, improvisation, and play. She is passionate about using design to facilitate new strategies for exploring the world. Kirk has engaged with her local skate community through teaching skateboard design and fabrication workshops and fabricating custom park features for Skate Haven at MASS MoCA. 

Joe Ledoux grew up in Hubbardston, MA and received his BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Ledoux is a visual and performance artist who blends his three favorite artforms: sleight of hand, skateboarding, and painting. He is a member of the McBride Magic and Mystery School in Las Vegas and performed with Le Grand David, which held the Guinness world record for the longest running magic show. Ledoux has exhibited at The West End Museum and GBH’s Digital Mural. He performed at The Institute of Contemporary Art and was featured as a Polly Thayer Starr Artist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Please register to join the webinar.