Sterling Ruby and OTW by Vans’ skatewear-inspired collaboration

American artist Sterling Ruby and OTW by Vans’ have revealed their much anticipated and teased collaboration.

The project marks the first time Sterling Ruby who lives and works in LA has officially collaborated with Vans and its launch, on the eve of the opening of Frieze Los Angeles was backdropped by a specially constructed skate park.

Ruby has been known for drawing endless inspiration from the city’s physical and conceptual landscape and continually pushes the boundaries between artistic mediums. Sterling Ruby’s work engages with issues related to autobiography, art history, and the violence and pressures within society. Employing diverse aesthetic strategies and mediums—including sculpture, drawing, collage, ceramics, painting, and video—he examines the tensions between fluidity and stasis, Expressionism and Minimalism, the abject and the pristine.

He has exhibited in New York, London, Berlin, Los Angeles, Paris, and Tokyo, and has collaborated with designer Raf Simons for brands including Calvin Klein, Christian Dior, and Simons’s eponymous label.

Built using Skatelite in collaboration with California Skate Parks the bright ‘pollen’ yellow was intentionally chosen to complement the shades of Sterling’s sneakers.

The open air event and epic installation also featured performances with guest artists Paris Texas and Salem.

The collaboration manifests as a new skate shoe titled ‘Clash the Wall’, a mash-up of four Vans icons: the Old Skool 36, the Authentic, the Mid-Skool 77, and the Sk8-Hi. Its two acid colour-ways – luminous orange and vibrant green – feel reminiscent of Ruby’s often unnerving use of colour in his works, which span sculpture, textiles, drawing, collage, ceramics, painting, and video.

Photography Credits: Atiba Jefferson & Jack Bool