Skateism’s first exhibition back in 2015 featured the colourful world and shady characters of Eloise Dorr’s work on broken skateboards, and from then on we’ve been fond followers of her work.
Now we’re very pleased to announce that from the end of January her latest work will be invading Hamilton House in Stokes Croft, Bristol for a solo exhibition, inspired by skateboarding in San Francisco.
‘3rd St.’ will consist of Eloise Dorr’s paintings, each one in some way influenced by a trip she took back in 2013 to the skateboarding mecca of San Francisco.
“Some of the paintings will be clearly painted of San Fran’s architecture, and others will be loosely inspired by the weather and colour themes.”
Tell us a bit about how long you’ve been working on this show, and what pieces you really love (maybe you have a photo of one or two of the pieces)?
I have been working on this show for probably about 10 months now. I started making the pieces for the show before I even really had a concept. But, I always had San Francisco in the back of my mind whilst painting the pieces without really realising it. I was thinking back to the weather of the city whilst choosing colour schemes, and always I’m always wanting to reference the architecture. My favourite pieces are probably the ones I have done of backyard pools. This is because David Hockney is a massive inspiration of mine and he is obviously partly famous for his pool scenes, so tying that in with the Californian tradition of skating back yard pools seemed completely natural to me.
Why San Francisco?
The whole place seemed like another world in terms of colour. Maybe because I went in November so it was abnormally sunny for what I was used to at that time of year (coming from England), so all the colours were illuminated in my eyes. Since that trip I’ve always come back to painting San Francisco architecture. I love the shapes and colours of the houses. And obviously skating there is a whole other experience coming from the UK, as well. The other reason I chose San Francisco is because that’s where I first fell in love with David Hockney. I went to ‘A Bigger Exhibition’ at de Young Museum, it completely changed everything in my life to do with looking at art. I can’t really begin to describe how it changed me completely! So, all of these aspects put together have created this exhibition as much as I have.
Eloise’s website features her skateboarding silhouettes, and also showcases their movement on clothing. This exhibition, which runs from 27th Jan until 1st Feb, will be the next step for her – we can’t wait to see what comes of it.
If you’re in Bristol or nearby, head on over to Hamilton House and check out her exhibition.
