Noah Smith & Sebo Walker, Between Lines

December 9, 2022 - January 31, 2023

Between Lines is the joint exhibition of Portland-based artists Sebo Walker and Noah Smith. The duo first connected through a mutual love of skateboarding and shortly thereafter began making photographs. This natural friendship allowed for a freeform coming together that fed their to approach art-making through multiple avenues. Between Lines melds Smith’s photography with Walker’s painting to build out a vision for their work that is as reflective of them individually, as it is collaboratively.

The collections on the gallery walls are spaced to allow for a natural flow between the respective mediums of each artist. Sebo Walker’s large gridded and color-blocked paintings expand upon the artist’s playful engagement with form and color contrast. Paired in conjunction are a suite of smaller works offering a more focused attention to detail and shape. These paintings are further accentuated by the addition of the hand-painted mural to the gallery wall on which they’re displayed. Swaths of pastel colors provide a fitting background to the canvas pieces, at times intentionally blurring the hard edges of the works and allowing for a broader interpretation of Walker’s artistic range. Noah Smith’s skate photographs move away from the abstract and pull on a deep understanding of light and motion to frame his central figures. The final vision captured is a dynamic control of composition and depth of field—skaters executing tricks, balancing in mid-air, and gliding effortlessly within each image. The deep reds and blues of night photography are made richer by the manipulated bright of streaking lights. A playful use of angles and lenses imbues the works with the classic nostalgia of skate photography.

The heart of this collaboration is friendly and experimental. Hung on the back focal wall of the gallery is a collaged display of twelve images captured by Smith, and subsequently painted on by Walker. Walker’s bold line work and vibrant colors contrast and complement Smith’s photography by interacting with subjects and the world surrounding them. These pieces, alongside several other reworked images, three skate decks and a painted VX camera make up the body of partner work on display. The show title is inspired by Walker’s ability to work with lines to enhance shapes, subjects, and colors beneath and between them. It is also a reference to both skaters' drive to maintain these artistic passions between filming lines and documenting skateboarding through photo and video.

Sebo Walker is a professional skateboarder and artist based in Portland, OR. Sebo’s primary medium is painting, but he is anything but a conventional painter. From creating customized grip-tapes to building-sized murals, Sebo’s signature style is eye-catching and inventive, whether it be a pair of sneakers or a series of canvases. His artwork plays with color and line—using abstract shapes, bright colors, and active line work to create bold, vibrant pieces brimming with movement and energy. Skateboarding and art making go hand-in-hand for Sebo, and he seeks to bring his creativity to all of his work, on and off the board.

Noah Smith is a skateboarder and photographer born in Texas and raised in New Jersey. Currently residing in Portland, OR with his fiancée and their two cats, his work shooting product photography and his love of skating with friends lead him to capture skateboarding through photos and to obsess over light and motion. He embraces the fact that shooting skateboarding can be precise and calculated, or loose and somewhat unpredictable. Noah strives to push his skills and continues to learn with every click of the shutter. 



@sebowalker
sebowalker.com

@bloah
jamesnoahsmith.com

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