Includes Limited-Edition Surfboards, Skateboard Decks, and T-Shirts
Words and Images Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art
The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (Virginia MOCA) announces the launch of limited-edition surfboards, skateboard decks, and hand-printed t-shirts designed by internationally-renowned contemporary artist and Virginia Beach native Ryan McGinness, who worked in collaboration with legendary surf and skate company Wave Riding Vehicles (WRV) to produce these limited-edition objects. The surfboards, skateboard decks and t-shirts will be available on waveridingvehicles.com starting October 15, 2021.
The limited-run assortment provides an opportunity for art-lovers, skaters, and surfers to collect McGinness’ work while supporting Virginia MOCA, an accredited, non-collecting contemporary art museum rooted in the community where McGinness grew up. While making significant cost cuts to weather the pandemic, Virginia MOCA enhanced its support of the local creative community and now will be the beneficiary of this collaboration to help insure its future.
“Celebrating local creative production is in our DNA,” said Gary Ryan, Virginia MOCA Director & CEO. “There is an incredible depth of talent in our area. We are honored to partner with two local icons whose stories are intertwined with ours.”
Founded in 1967 by Andrew Fine, Morris Fine, and Harry Snyder, in a building not far from where Virginia MOCA sits today, WRV has grown into the largest surfboard manufacturer on the East Coast. Owned and operated by the Shaw family, the surf shop’s logo, unchanged since its creation, is a subtle sign of surf cool that can be spotted around the world.
“I obsessed over the overlapping dolphins that make up their logo,” said McGinness. “Branding those dolphins on anything increased the perceived value of that thing. Their logo had transformative, magical powers. Working with Virginia MOCA, my hometown museum, and WRV, a brand I grew up coveting, is a dream opportunity.”
McGinness created his first skateboard with Supreme in 2000, marking the first instance of an editioned, artist-designed skateboard. “Walking into a skate shop and evaluating decks based on the graphics is the same aesthetic experience as walking into a museum and appreciating oil on wood panels. The paintings I make today are still influenced by the surf and skate graphics I grew up admiring,” said McGinness.
“The opportunity to couple the WRV brand and core items of our assortment with McGinness’ artistic vision and deep appreciation of surf and skate culture in support of Virginia MOCA is incredible and has us stoked,” said LG Shaw, WRV Operations Manager. “We are gearing up for what will certainly be a quick sell-out situation. Don’t wait!”
Virginia MOCA has included McGinness’ work in two past exhibitions: a monographic survey of his work, Ryan McGinness: Studio Visit (2015), and Contemporary Magic: A Tarot Deck Art Project (2013). Ryan McGinness joined the Virginia MOCA Board of Trustees in 2019.
ABOUT THE TEAM
RYAN MCGINNESS (American, b.1972) is an artist known for meditative paintings, installations, and screen prints. His work brings a graphic sensibility into a high art context and explores how contemporary iconography can communicate personal meaning. Born in Virginia Beach, VA, McGinness studied fine arts at Carnegie Mellon University while working as a curatorial assistant at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA. Influenced by Pop Art, graphic design, and the Rococo style of the 18th century, McGinness creates fantastical networks of imagery borrowed from corporate logos, plant life, and fairy tales. McGinness’ work is held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Saatchi Collection in London, the Taguchi Art Collection in Japan, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
VIRGINIA MOCA is an ever-changing museum where neighbors, strangers, students, families, communities, and cultures are invited to explore our shared humanity, through locally relevant and nationally resonant, contemporary art that’s exceptional—in all of its timeliness, restlessness, and beauty.
At WAVE RIDING VEHICLES, the love of surfing and board building is at the heart and soul of what they do. Quality and performance have distinguished their surfboards, shops, and clothing for more than fifty years. Their locations offer everything needed for surf, skate, SUP, and snow lifestyles.