THE ART OF SURFING

From its earliest days surfing has offered the opportunity for self expression, by riding waves, shaping surfboards and personalizing equipment, through decorating them in a meaningful way. Art on surfboards is a significant way surfers have expressed their culture and connection to their craft over the years.

Over time the decoration of surfboards has evolved from carved initials or painted names on solid timber surfboards to geometric shapes and club colours on hollow plywood boards. In the ‘60s pigmented resin panels and stripes gave way to fully airbrushed works of art on highly developed hydrodynamic shapes.

In Australia in the 1970s Martyn Worthington , Shane Egan and Jim Davidson were at the top of their game producing spectacularly detailed art on surfboards. Worthington was inspired by breaking waves the cosmic and metaphysical, Egan by the ocean and fantasy themes like The Lord of the Rings, while Jim Davidson was inspired by natural elements, the ocean, waves, wind , the sky, the sun and surfers at play. Caught somewhere between low-brow and high art this group created beautiful aesthetic objects that could be surfed, surfboards as art!

“The Art of Surfing” exhibition celebrates and explores the stories, work and techniques of these outstanding surfboard artists, it features dazzling examples of their work and tells the story of how it has inspired contemporary artists Christian Chapman and Willy Nicholls to carry that creative torch forward, to continue the tradition of The Art of Surfing. The “Art of Surfing” exhibition runs at the Australian National Surfing Museum from August 2022 until the end of July 2023.