skateboard art show my ass

my friend does graphics for a not huge but very well known and connected skateboard company. He found out about a big "skateboard art" show in NY near him that they were sponsoring and asked to be a part of it. They got him in, so now that its up and running, he sent me the link.
Most of the artists are good and are more or less graffiti artists with a career now. It pisses me off almost half of them are just design companies or clothing companies or highly paid graphic artists that don't really need the exposure. One entry is by KRINK. a graffiti ink and pen company. WTF are they doing in there?

Mike Giant and Shepard Fairey are big names in counter culture, graf, tatt and actually do skateboard art and their boards for this are kind of lame .. maybe its in protest to how shitty this pathetic excuse for an art show is.

and the real hide chapper.... Theres a fucking POET and a god damned WRITER for a magazine?!!!!!!!!!!!!! who the fuck's dicks did they suck to get in there? they arent even artists let alone skateboard artists. who the fuck gave them a deck to draw on?

Theres a million real ACTUAL ARTISTS that they could have got (like me!) and they put a fucking Poet in? yes a poet and her "skateboard art" is a handwritten poem on the board. what a fucking insult. the magazine writers deck is half red and black with letter stickers you use for your mailbox you get from the hardware store.
its just a huge cocksuck capitalizing on skate culture. these people arent skateboard artists. theyre just assholes.

I dont want to downplay the quality of all of these people's work or products. They do what they do very well, it just seems like an excuse to pimp out skateboarding not as an art form or a sport but as a backdrop for a commercial. this art show, to me, has nothing to do with skateboarding or art and is using skateboarding as a kichy jumping off point to promote something else. In a way i almost feel like my buddy's stuff is there just to promote the company he's designing for.

I'm really irritated by this. maybe its partly because i'm jealous or bitter but I think there are a lot of great artists that they could have included in leu of poets, phototgraphers, ink companies, magazine writers, punk singers, and clothing designers. maybe i'm talking out of my ass. i dont know who most of those people are but this is just my kirknoggified knee jerk reaction to this.

if your in the area go check out my buddy Alex Dukes stuff. toilettown.com
if the show has a cover charge dont go. email Alex and send your money to him or buy his art directly.