Anselm Reyle for Mekanism Skateboards

Mekanism Skateboards gave carte blanche to German artist Anselm Reyle for its latest collaborative project. Taking on his signature approach, Anselm Reyle applied several thin layers of spray painted neon pink and added two different mudstone colored paints, before the boards were covered with a two-component lacquer, giving it a shiny surface. In these works, the boundary between the slickness of the neon pink and the roughness of the brown paints – resembling mud, sand or dirt – is blurred by the lacquer. Glossy and matt, flashy and dark, slick and rough are now inextricably intertwined. But beyond the contradiction of colors and textures, the artist is contrasting our prospect of neon pink as a color used for posters of the punk and the psychedelic scene in the 70s and 80s with the mudstone colors applied in post war gestural abstract paintings, notably in Abstract Expressionism and Art Informel. Only 50 editions were produced, with 10 artist proofs, all signed by Anselm Reyle.