DEAD END.

Curated by William Strobeck.

Featuring work by: Larry Clark, Mark Gonzalez, William Strobeck, Dash Snow, Ryan McGingley, Earsnot Irak, Ari Marcopoulos, Julien Stranger, Dave Schubert, Tobin Yelland, Jonathan Cannon, and Spike Jonze. 

Filmmaker and photographer William Strobeck spent a good part of his teenage years on the Everson Museum’s Community Plaza during the 1990s. It was here that he discovered a skateboarding crew populated by “weirdos and outcasts” who, in turn, introduced him to a global diaspora of creative individuals with a similar DIY ethos and punk rock spirit. Living in the pre-digital age, Strobeck and friends poured over coveted VHS skate tapes and magazines, recognizing themselves in images of like-minded communities all over the world. Skateboarding offered them a sense of identity and belonging unlike anything else available at the time.  

Fast forward thirty years and Strobeck is now considered one of the key chroniclers of skate culture in the 21st century. He first started capturing Syracuse’s skate scene in the 1990s but now travels internationally making videos and images that transcend the mere physical gymnastics of skating. His work stands out for its beauty, emotional nuance, and psychological introspection.  

For DEAD END., Strobeck was invited to curate an exhibition that spoke to the Everson’s history as a hospitable venue for skateboarding, which the museum has always considered a creative enterprise. Strobeck’s exhibition, while including a few of his own works, focuses on the artists and events that indelibly shaped him as a burgeoning artist. Strobeck’s vision is fundamentally about youth and its uncertainties, boundaries, possibilities, and essential limitlessness. In unguarded and casual images, these subjects point to skate culture’s influence on the popular culture of today: handheld skate videos are today’s Tiktok and Instagram reels, while the microcultures of Substack, Reddit, and Tumblr echo the DIY skatezines of the past.  

The participatory and egalitarian nature of DEAD END. is intentional, emblematic of the free-for-all nature of skateboarding, a worldview built on repurposing the built environment for its own purpose.  Similarly, a new sculpture by artist (and professional skateboarder) Mark Gonzales will be installed as part of the Everson’s collection and as a new obstacle for skaters who still gather in the Everson’s Community Plaza today.