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LES Gallery Allows Skaters to Ride Through (and On) the Art

By Lisha Arino | August 25, 2015 4:12pm
 "All Valid" on view at a new gallery called Chinatown Soup, highlights the neighborhood's skateboarding scene.
LES Gallery Allowing Skaters to Ride Through (and On) the Art
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LOWER EAST SIDE — An art show opening Tuesday night is BYOB — as in, “Bring your own board.”

Visitors are welcome to skate through the art exhibition space — and in some cases, even on the pieces on display — at Chinatown Soup, a new gallery on Orchard Street near Canal Street.

“All Valid,” curated by Leila Samii and Sean Gallagher, aims to make viewers “reconsider New York skate culture” through artwork by more than a dozen artists with ties to the skate scene in the Lower East Side and Chinatown, according to the gallery.

Highlights include two interactive pieces, including a concrete quarter pipe in the gallery’s backyard that was inspired by the “Chinatown Banks,” the curved planters at Chatham Square where skaters performed tricks until the city installed anti-skating measures about five years ago.

Skaters will also be invited to perform tricks on a “picnic table sculpture” covered in multiple layers of paint in different colors. As visitors perform stunts on the tables, the wheels and boards will reveal the layers underneath.

“It’ll actually function as a document of whoever decided to participate,” Samii said.

Other art pieces include skate photography, videos and decorated skateboard decks, as well as paintings, illustrations and other artwork that is not directly related to skating itself, Samii said.

“We really wanted to bring a wide variety of artwork into the space,” Samii said, adding that the curators wanted to show “how someone can be…a very devoted skateboarder and also be creating artwork like this that isn’t necessarily a skateboard photo.”

“All Valid” opens at 5 p.m. on Aug. 25 and will run through Sept. 15. For more information, visit the gallery’s website.