Skateboarding icon and longtime editor of Thrasher, Jake Phelps has passed away at 56. San Francisco-based Phelps started skating when he was 13 years old, and was a crucial player in the area’s scene—and that of the entire world of skate culture. Phelps began at the publication in the ’80s, after co-founder Kevin Thatcher asked him to write product reviews and box merch. He’d go …
Artist and skater Jeffrey Cheung is defining a new era for skateboarding, pushing the culture to be more colorful and diverse. As a co-founder of Unity Press & Skateboarding, Cheung is creating a zone to represent and support queer skaters—and he has been thriving at this mission. Unity is Oakland-based but Cheung and co-founder Gabriel Ramirez have brought their vibe to West Hollywood’s New Image Art, presenting Pave—a …
This October, MoMA will release a limited run of skateboards (500 each of two styles) designed by the beloved Yayoi Kusama. The designs Yellow Trees (1994) and Dots Obsession (2018) are classic Kusama—all spots and bright colors. Though this isn’t a first for either party (MoMA has released similar pieces based on works by Warhol and Basquiat, and Kusama made a custom Infinity Mirror Skate Deck in 2017), …
