@artistboardridersclub
Hailing from Queensland’s Gold Coast, the Artist Boardriders Club (ABC) surf and make art on the fringes of the 8th World Surfing Reserve, a 16km stretch of coastline from Burleigh Point in the north to Snapper Rocks on the Queensland/New South Wales border and all the breaks in between. The ABC have exhibited at Metro Arts, THE WALLS and Maverick Artspace, and host monthly social surf meet-ups throughout the year. Counter to localism, their motto is ‘No Postcode’, preferring to surf and make art nomadically.
Current and active club members include John Anthony Forno, Emily Rose Hastie, Andrew Cullen, Dion Parker, Rebecca Ross, Thea Skelsey, Ez Larmor, Byron Coathup, Claudio Kirac, Tessa Bergan and Courtenay McCue. These artists are members of some of the Gold Coast’s most notable Artist Run Initiatives including Mint Art House, Art-Work Agency, THE WALLS and Maverick Artspace. Since forming in the line-up at Snapper Rocks in 2018, the ABC has exhibited over thirty artists in three curated exhibitions: Surf Salon (2019) at THE WALLS and Surf Salon (2018) at THE WALLS/Maverick Artspace. As well as hosting workshops, screenings and artist talks: Surf Break Tours with Artist Boardriders Club, HOTA Gallery, Gold Coast (2022); Dandy Savage, ABC in conversation with Fran Miller (2020); Party Wave, Tessa Bergan (2019); Smiling Bag, Shane Fitzgerald and Dion Agius (2019); Surf Salon Artist Talk, with special guest Tim Baker (2018). In 2021 they presented their first collaborative exhibition Dot Matrix of Humanity at Metro Arts in Brisbane with accompanying text by esteemed surf writer Tim Baker. Most recently their work From Where You’d Rather Be was included in the Outer Space Supercut Billboard Program, and exhibited on the outskirts of Bundaberg.
