BLAISE ROSENTHAL PROFILE

Blaise Rosenthal is a Santa Cruz, California-based artist, who first shot to prominence in the late 1990s as a pro snowboarder. Raised around Lake Tahoe, Blaise’s first board was given to him by Bob Klein – an early snowboard halfpipe pioneer, and riding buddy of Terry Kidwell. Blaise’s parts in such films as Destroyer and the winter seasons he spent filming with 411 Video Magazine made his name as a rider, and his on-snow skills and graphic design acumen made him an incredible asset for every team he rode for. “I’ve always been someone that wanted to be using my creative capacities as well as any riding or athletic capacities that I have,” he said in a recent Bouloco interview. “I tried to put myself in positions where I was able to have a say in how the company went.” After years of designing products and riding for companies such as Aurora, 916, Silence, M3 and Planet Earth Clothing, he has made a smooth transition into the role of professional artist whilst holding down the job of Creative Director at Artec Snowboards.

“I thoroughly enjoyed being a professional snowboarder,” said Blaise in a recent interview in Huck Magazine, “But there was always a part of me that felt like I don’t want this to be the only thing I do in my life.” Moving into the art world, Blaise relocated to Santa Cruz, and embarked on a series of acrylic on canvas works, often featuring geometric shapes, or grand themes layered over and under drips and corrosion, that have been the focus of regular gallery exhibitions. “As a painter I have developed a deep aesthetic appreciation of the materials I use and the phenomena that occurs when they are subjected to nature’s forces,” says Blaise. “If snowboarding has had an influence on my art, perhaps it’s that abstract human experience that riding helps you access that I try to represent in a painting.” Not that he sees the link between his snowboarding and art being intertwined, describing his paintings as “not just simply pictures – they are objects.”

Above: The Opposite if Fear, by Blaise Rosenthal, 2010, 10 x 8 inches, acrylic and charcoal on canvas.

We at Looking Sideways are exceptionally proud to have Blaise exhibiting and making an appearance in person at Wängl Tängl in Austria March 17th-23rd 2012. “I’ve not been doing any snowboard-related art shows,” Blaise told us, “but I was talking with someone recently about snowboarding, and we got discussing the old days, and I put on some of my old films, and I started to reminisce a little. And right at that point, you guys called, so it seemed like it was a good fit. And it sounds like it’s going to be a fun show.”