You’re invited to a Robt. Williams Warehouse Party on Saturday, April 20th, at 3PM and it’s FREE FREE FREE! Join @robertwilliamsartist and @bradbowman for the release of a limited run (100 numbered & signed) “Chopper Girl” collab decks! Get there early because these decks are first come, first serve. Meet Robt. and Brad and have them sign your deck in person. Check out live performances by Roman’s Weirdos & TV Party, and there will be a Skate Demo as well as a Tattoo Pop Up by @Kaleb_ressler. This once-in-a-lifetime gig goes down at 12822 Simms Ave, Hawthorne, CA 90250.
The Godfather of “Lowbrow Art”, Robt. Williams, and legendary Skateboarding Hall Of Fame pool rider, Brad Bowman, come together on a classic popsicle shape, measuring in at 8.25″ x 31.75″ with a wheelbase of 14.125″. The nose is 7.13″ and the tail is 6.88″. They are made by Schmitt Stix and are AVAILABLE NOW at https://linktr.ee/automoto.ent.
On 4/20, the bigger shaped limited edition BB X Robt Williams skateboard will be available, measuring in at 9.125” X 31.625” with a 15.375” wheelbase, and nose at 5 3/8” and tail at 6 7/8”.
Brad Bowman had this to say about collaborating with Robert Williams….
“I have been a lifelong fan of Robert Williams’ artworks. In the 1970’s I used to hang out in head shops and read all the underground comics for hours. I still can’t believe they allowed a 12-year-old kid in the door, but those are my people – hippies, open-minded thinkers, deadheads, people full of love for all inhabitants on earth. These were the people that helped shape the future world and bring us smart phones, internet, etc.
Robert Williams and his peers works were featured in all those shops as well as motorcycle and hot rod shops all over my home grounds of Southern California. I had several of Robert’s posters on my wall as an early teen and was pulled into the Custom/Rod/Biker culture very early in life. One might say that this is the reason I was compelled to race motocross as a ten year old, and the fact that all of my neighbors were petrolheads of some sort – cars, bikes, trucks and buggies. The smell of oil and petrol were too strong to escape! It was an incredible start to my own petrolhead journey, largely courtesy of Robert’s art and my inclusive biker neighbors that shared their knowledge with a soon-to-be teenager.
When my friend Scott from AutoMoto, called me up with a concept, I generously thought of others to refer them to for the project. Then I realized how it was I that should be the one doing it, not handing it off to others as I have many times in the past. Scott and I stoked each others fires with ideas as opiates and thus began our relationship with Robert and the long road to production.
Now here we are, releasing our first deck collaboration on April 20th (4/20 day as well as Independent Record Store Day!) It’s funny how the universe works if you let it. Music also has played a major role in my life as my father was a very accomplished and published singer/songwriter/drummer. There was always a record playing in my early childhood, which carries forth today. I will always put on music first, then all seems to follow the soundtrack. For the record, Robert has also contributed his art to Guns n Roses for their “Appetite for Destruction” LP, to this day, one of the top 50 Rock LP’s ever recorded.
I am honored to be part of this project with Robert Williams and AutoMoto to give our friends and followers a unique piece of art to ride or hang on the wall and view something so cool every day. It’s my childhood all over again only this time it’s on a wood surface! I look forward to presenting this deck to the public very soon.”
ABOUT ROBT WILLIAMS:
ROBERT WILLIAMS
Master Oil Painter
In the late 20th and 21st century diverse forms of commonplace and popular art appeared to be coalescing into a formidable faction of new painted realism. The phenomenon owed its genesis to a number of factors. The new school of imagery was a product of art that didn’t fit comfortably into the accepted definition of fine art. It embraced some of the figurative graphics that formal art academia tended to reject: comic books, movie posters, trading cards, surfer art, hot rod illustration, to mention a few.
This alternative art movement found its most congealing participant in one of America’s most opprobrious and maligned underground artists, the painter, Robert Williams. It was this artist who brought the term “lowbrow” into the fine arts lexicon, with his ground breaking 1979 book, The Lowbrow Art of Robt. Williams. It was from this point that the seminal elements of West Coast Outlaw culture slowly started to aggregate.
Williams pursued a career as a fine arts painter years before joining the art studio of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth in the mid-1960’s. And in this position as the famous custom car builder’s art director, he moved into the rebellious, anti-war circles of early underground comix.
ABOUT BRAD BOWMAN:
BRAD BOWMAN
LEGENDARY SKATEBOARDER
Brad Bowman is widely recognized as one of the most stylish skateboarders of the late 1970s. His appearances on the pages of Skateboarder magazine ripping backyard pools and skateparks comprise some of the most memorable and beloved photos of that time period. Brad’s first metal-wheeled skateboard ride–in Indiana in the mid-1960s–lasted less than 10 seconds and ended with a bloody elbow and a hipper. A few years later, living in Corona Del Mar, California, Brad passed a toy store window display containing a clay-wheeled Super Surfer inlaid with beautiful exotic wood. Soon thereafter, he talked his mom into getting him one.
Although Brad loved riding the streets and hills of Corona Del Mar, his mother got a job that moved them up to the San Fernando Valley. There, Brad fell hard for motocross and BMX, and skateboarding briefly took a back seat. But soon enough, he met a pack of local skaters who became his crew at daily sessions in the valley’s numerous ditches, banks, and pools. Another move to Reseda accelerated Brad’s skating career, as his new school was located just three minutes from the Skatercross, which became his second home and advanced stomping grounds.
For more info, please visit AutoMoto: https://linktr.ee/automoto.ent.
