The Most Expensive Skateboard in the World is a Supreme Painter’s Palette
Supreme might be relishing the comfort of its new (temporary) home on the Bowery (Germania Bank Building), but many in the artist community remain bitter in the wake of its recent ad campaign.
Back in November, the iconic skater brand released a new skateboard video called “Blessed,” then hit the streets to promote. The subsequent flyposting initiative resulted in hundreds of bills pasted around the Lower East Side and angered many in the art community.
Posters were torn down at Spiegel on First Avenue, for instance, and an ejaculating red penis drawn on Supreme’s Lafayette Street doorstep.
Now, artist Adrian Wilson, who employs imaginative art as social commentary on the ridiculousness of modern culture, is taking the message a step further. He’s in possession of the “most expensive” skateboard in the world. A painter’s palette he transformed into the smallest skateboard out there, and branded with Supreme lettering. Dubbed the “Supreme Mundi,” a nod to Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, the deck is fully functional. He listed the piece on eBay with a starting price of $20,000 as a statement against the New York lifestyle brand.
“[I wanted] to create the most supremely artistic and expensive skateboard in the world,” Wilson said, mocking the decades-old brand for exploiting street artists for promotion, but then flyposting promo bills over street art.
Wilson reportedly approached Supreme to authorize this creation, but they wouldn’t allow him inside the store. He remains defiant. “This is the Supreme Mundi skateboard, it is art, not some silk-screened bit of plywood. Supreme uses Richard Prince to shill their mass produced stuff and he is the master of ‘appropriation,’ so by association, they obviously condone this piece of art.”
The skateboard is currently on view, albeit behind lock and key, at the Con Artist Collective on Ludlow Street.
Maybe 17-year-old Carson Guo will buy it. The Vancouver teen purchased the complete archive of 248 Supreme-produced skateboard decks for $800,000 (via Sotheby’s).
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