Rockaway Beach has got a fun little wave today -- three- to four-foot and mostly clean. The Atlantic is a little warmer than it should be in mid June. When the air warms up a bit this afternoon you can probably trunk it.
But realistically, high tide is this evening at 5:45, which means it will probably turn off before the evening session. That gives you plenty of time to get on the A Train and get into the city for the opening reception of Art Brewer: Surf Evolution, a fine art photography show celebrating his 40 years behind the lens.
The show is at the prestigious School of Visual Arts Gallery at 209 East 23 St., New York City, which is a two-block walk from an A train station downtown, as if you needed a reason to go. But frankly, the reason to go is that Art Brewer is simply a living legend of surf photography. A former photo editor at Surfer Magazine in the 1980s when it was unequivocally the "Bible of the sport," he has shaped the entire visual medium of not only surfing, but wavescapes in general.
"Art has thoroughly examined the sport of surf riding with an unparalleled sensitive ferocity an underlying introspection is seamlessly incorporated into his works via a technical mastery ... which comes across as easy and elegant."
And that comes from Craig Stecyk III, of Southern California surf/skate/street art royalty.
The exhibition will feature some 150 pieces from the 1960s to the present from Wayne Lynch to Kelly Slater.
"It's an honor to have been invite to put together this retrospective by the School of Visual Arts in New York," says Brewer. "I've spent 40-plus years taking pictures of surfing, and usually it's just surfers that see them, but to be able to put so many of my images in front of a different audience, and hopefully inspire the next generation to do something creative, it's a real treat."
The show is curated by Malcolm Lightner and Michelle Mercurio. Lightner, a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts, has worked with Brewer doing surf photo workshops in Puerto Rico and Nicaragua.
The show runs through June 30.
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