Thrasher Magazine

BARRY MCGEE, THE HOLE NYC AND FRIENDS TAKE OVER A 99-CENTS ONLY STORE in LA for a weeklong blowout of skate, street, graffiti and undefinable weirdo art excellence. Also included: an exclusive interview with skate curator Mike Kershnar. Open through March 1st!

The flyer and the scene out back

But first … set-up day with some friendly faces, Mike Kershnar and GT

And … done!

This place was HUGE

Heavy skate presence. Where have I seen that QP before?

Mixed media, I think they call it

Q: Is that an insulation-foam orgy? A: Who’s asking?

Amazing, part 1

And 2

These toilet-paper Presidential portraits were incredible

Big-league shit

Yes!

My humble grouping

Love it

Masters of craft: Barry McGee and Steve Olson

Is that a duct tape Ezra Pound?

Aha! A few more art lovers. Great to see you!

Kevin, I present … the competish

Tight

Do you have any coupons today?

The homie Razy’s section … ready to rip

Too much magic

Brett Sube with a banger!

High brow, low brow, I see you Elissa

Pick your fave

Is it time to skate or what?

Behold!

First try. Would have been hard to make it any sketchier

The face after hitting the plate glass window at full speed and not breaking it

Grasser?

Nah, sir …

And the indy bomb to make it good


ASK AN ARTIST — MIKE KERSHNAR

What’s the official name of this show?
I think it’s just 99-Cents. Yeah.

How would you explain what’s going on here to someone who knows nothing about this stuff?
I would say there's a major, internationally renowned, beloved artist named Barry McGee, who's from SF like the Mag, who came up as a skateboarder and a bike kid and a graffiti kid, and has risen to the cream of the crop in the art world. And he's such a beautiful soul that he shares it. And he shares it like, really freely. It's like, insane, like, all your favorite skaters, all the favorite graffiti writers, like playing around, doing tags with Barry. It's like, a high water mark for this kind of thing.

And it’s in an actual 99-Cent store, right?
Yeah, I guess it's an iconic one on Wilshire and Fairfax, right across the street from the Academy of Motion Pictures, and it's been abandoned for a little while. They didn't know what they were gonna do. And this is like LA art week, and Jeffrey Deitch this big producer dude asked Barry, because he's really the only guy with the juice to do this. If you asked anyone else, Can you fill this fucking huge-ass store, top to bottom, in a week? it wouldn't happen. You'd have a corner or maybe one aisle. But that’s the magnetism of Barry. This is literally the size of grocery store. And it's a real mix who's involved. So Barry normally works with heavy graffiti legends. Important graff guys in Barry family include Amaze, Slaughter, KR, Reminisce, Grey, Nemel, Espo, Deej, Supe, Adek, Sace, MQ, Saber, Revok, Norm, Panda Sex, Air Force One, and most importantly to the skateboard/graffiti/SF connection, the dearly departed ORFN. Graffiti is this big, weird, extended family. I've known Barry since the Chili Bowl at Potrero Park in 2013 and we've been buddies since then. And this was the first one of his events, which I've watched my whole life, like Beautiful Losers era, where you can see that's like the first one when Barry's crashing cars in Tokyo with art budgets. He's, like, a subversive genius, like hilarious, you know? And that's what he wanted to do that here, and everyone came. He told me, Mike, bring the skate fam. And so first text was to Grant Taylor, because Grant and I share love of the letter game. And then Ducky is super into it, and Cody is super into it, and Cookie, and it's been a really high vibe. And we have all the way through Sunday, and I feel like, you know, Alex Olson's here, Steve Olson's here. Clips are coming out. It's just a magic thing that I feel really honored to get to bring in the skate fam, because there's a lot of people who maybe don't like what they think of as tough-guy graffiti or surf-guy graffiti or hipster graffiti, but skaters fucking love to roll and Aisle Five, where I got to curate all the skating —it’s like cracking at all times. There's four or five little obstacles, little wedge ramps. They're all painted. And at all times there's children moving around in there and like laughing. And it's the only zone in the place that's like that, which is super sick, too.

Mike’s epic wall

Yeah, I was gonna say, this isn't some white wine, fancy art affair, even though there are some big time artists, and you can see some celebrities circulating around. You've got people actually skating inside the gallery.
Yeah, Barry brings the Peter Pan and the Lost Boys type of vibe. it's been insanely cool, because this is the opposite of normal, real life in here. The prison guards are the inmates. You know what I mean? Like, we have the keys to the castle, and it's like, really Neverland. Ducky even rode down the conveyor belt, level to level. Any other artist, that shit’s not happening. Barry is really into like, bring it, smash it, destroy it, build it again. Like, none of it matters. All of it matters. It's like, a beautiful dichotomy that exists, and somehow it's existing so beautifully, the amount of respect. Thousands of people have visited already, and even though there's been lots of tags caught and this and that it's to be expected, and nothing important was stolen or damaged. You know, someone stole one of my completes on the first day, and I brought four more to offer. Like, someone needed a free board. Cool, take it, but it's gonna be like killing hate with love. I brought all my personal best boards. And I'm like, If they go, they go. None of it matters, and all of it matters, and it's precious, and it's not precious, and it makes you reflect on value.

There’s so much stuff in here. Are people actually selling things? Is some of this for sale?
I’ve been making little sales here and there. Definitely, when I'm at the booth, it gets cracking. Jacob Rosenberg, who made my fucking favorite skateboard video growing up, Virtual Reality and Secondhand Smoke and Questionable, rolls in and asks me, Who shot that Gonz photo at EMB? And I was like, That’s me! And he’s like, Why haven’t I seen that? And ,full circle, dude bought my photo at full price. And he was a childhood friend of ORFN, legendary skater, graffiti writer, crossover king, who's passed away, and I’ve got to give him some ORFN art I had, because this is his childhood buddy, and he had nothing when the dude died, you know? And he was, like, looking to buy shit online. I'm like, Bro, like Steve Olson says, they fucking owe, like you are owed for all the beautiful photos you've given the world.

No haggling from Rosenberg

What else can you tell us? It’s still going on, right?
Yeah, through Sunday (March I, 2026). I would come with your board. Be ready to skate. All the big hammers happen in the evening when there's not like women and children walking around the aisles, but little kids are kickturning all day, every day. It’s kind of kickturn play land during the day. Saturday we’re gonna barbecue out back, skate jam vibes.

Why is this event important? Why is it important to you?
It's important to me, because my life's work has been the combination of skating and art inspired by guys like Barry, Gonz and Ed, those three, really. And then when I saw Beautiful Losers then the graffiti guys, equally inspired me. Espo, such a fucking king. Like, what a genius that guy. You can't say enough. So I was in a room with all the guys who, like, I would cherish a sticker from them my whole life, or to get to meet them or shake their hand. And they were like, tagging the ramps, like a fucking Twist launch ramp. You kidding?! That's been the high vibes, over and over and over, day after day after day, like, skater after skater after skater, and, yeah, it's rad. Come get some!

Well, thanks so much for inviting me. I feel honored to be included.
Yeah, I feel like it was really rad for the kids to see. And I feel good to be able to extend the invite. You know, Evan Smith, he’s a great friend of mine. His whole thing on Instagram, forever was Everybody in. And I thought that was such a beautiful sentiment. And when you come to this show, you'll see it's like, Everybody in! Like, every skater, you skate, you're in, like, you’re into art, you're in, you're a weirdo, you're freak, you're punk, you're transgender, like, you're in. You’re all in!

And now … OPENING NIGHT

Healthy crowd brewing

Hyped to make it in! Many folks were not so lucky

Bulky? Don’t worry, he’s always on the list

You said it, cool vest

Fan fave, no doubt

Speaking of … James Franco held court all night

Frankie and her dad

Landau, up to something

Meet your heroes — Dawes and Tobin

Buddy and the Nguyens

They invented everything: Cassimus and Friedman

Excellent grouping

Heroes part 3: Bill Daniel (not shown)

The view from inside Bill’s movie hut

Elegant types abound

Where does the art start? And end??

Heavy real estate

Dawgs

Hey! See, I know people!

The Kovacs and Co

Ducky’s slot, sick AF

Airbrush is not a crime

The big cheese goes screen on screen

Probably my favorite piece in the whole show

These were excellent too

Speaking of ART …

The kind of effortless elegance most of us can only dream of

At least six

AND photography

Video artists … everywhere

Beat me to it

Watch your Alpine stereo around this dude

Next after next

Solid!

I should probably be filming all this shit

Recycle or die!

Johnny holding strong. Good to see you!

Yeah, I’m not sure why she’s shaking either

The rising legends

Kindred spirits. See y’all again soon!

Someday, even this outfit may appear foolish

Find you a Tori Amos girlfriend and hold her tight

Giant trunks and boogie art — approved!

Is that Gisou?

My friends from the Orthodox Camera Club. Carry on

Trust me, dude, READ the record contract he’s offering you BEFORE you sign it!

Frogwise!!!!!

The Z Allens! This was a rebate from the other night

Neck kept trying to tell me this was Henry Winkler

Smashing!

The printed word? Yes, please!

One of several musical acts, Creakbed was clearly the best

And then it finally came down … EVERYBODY OUT!

Out front, with the REAL show

Like coming out of Rocky and immediately punching everything in sight. Vibes were high

Nobody wanted to leave

Note to self: more Earth tones

Sup

Yep

Everyone’s a Captain Kirk

Crowd shots, part 66

This one’s called Elegant Lady with Vomit. Actually, let’s hope that’s just nacho cheese

Calling it

And finally, this woman was at the very end of the line that wrapped around the building and into the parking lot after they had already shut it down… and she wasn’t even mad about it. I like your style, lady

Thanks to Mike Kershnar, Barry McGee and the organizers of this excellent event