Beau Lake x Swim Drink Fish
We are excited to announce that Beau Lake is collaborating with Artists for Water, a Swim Drink Fish fundraiser, to produce a limited-edition surfboard collection featuring the work of renowned artists, Christi Belcourt, Douglas Coupland, Graham Gillmore and Joe Fleming - to be purchased in support of clean water. The boards will be offered in conjunction with the 2023 Artists for Water fundraiser taking place in Toronto on May 18, 2023. Each board will be produced as an edition of five per artist.
The proceeds from these surfboards go towards Swim Drink Fish community-based Water Monitoring Hubs, where recreational water quality samples are collected by community scientists and shared on Swim Guide, a free water quality information app, to provide the public with the information they need to best access clean water.
If you're interested in purchasing a board, contact josette@swimdrinkfish.ca
Christi Belcourt
Title: The Celebration
Description: Metis people are a vibrant people. We love to laugh, to tease, to dance and to celebrate, despite the hardships and all the colonial crap we have been put through.
Biography: Christi Belcourt (apihtâwikosisâniskwêw / mânitow sâkahikanihk) is a visual artist, designer, community organizer, environmentalist, social justice advocate, and avid land-based based arts and language learner. Her paintings can be found within many public and permanent collections across North America. Christi has also organized several large national community-based projects of note including Walking With Our Sisters, the Willisville Mountain Project, Nimkii Aazhibikong and various works done with Onaman Collective. Christi donates the proceeds from her collaborations and awards to Nimkii Aazhibikong, the year-round Indigenous language and traditional arts camp that she, along with a small group of people,
Douglas Coupland
Title: Pacific
Description: In the mid-eighties I went to school on Oahu and got involved in the surf culture there. It was a lovely time in my life. On this board I've applied my personal language onto the board in a way that reminds me of high-tech flowers and sunbursts: pure optimism.
Biography: Douglas Coupland is a novelist, visual artist and designer, who became the voice of a generation with his novel, Generation X and who has expanded his globally respected perspectives on life, art and technology through his voice and visual works ever since.
Graham Gillmore
Title: Gem Spa
Description: The featured art by Graham Gillmore is a selection from his recent series, Oceanica. Freud uses the term “Oceanic Feeling” to refer to the sensation of eternity and an expansive connection to the world around us.
Biography: Through his visual use of language, Graham Gillmore shows us that communication can both connect and distance at the same time. His text often examines conflicting sources of knowledge: science and religion, as well as personal and universal human experiences.
Gillmore’s work is collected by the Museum of Modern Art, the Ghent Museum, Gian Enzo Sperone, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, RCA Records, The Royal Bank of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and numerous other institutions worldwide.
Joe Fleming
Title: Blue Scooter
Description: The sky, the water and sports, Blue Scooter exemplifies that euphoric moment when we get lost in nature and activity. Motion in the ocean.
Biography: Fleming exhibits his paintings worldwide with solo exhibitions in Singapore, Canada and New York. He has lectured at universities in Canada, the US and Southeast Asia.
His work is collected by: BMO Financial, Honeywell Bull, HSBC, the Australian High Commission, Canadian High Commission (KL), The Edmonton Art Gallery, The Museum of Civilization (QC) and The Holocaust Museum (LA).
He has exhibited in international art fairs such as: Art Stage Singapore, FIAC (Paris), Arte Cologne (Germany), Scope (NY & Miami), Papier (Montreal) and Art Toronto, among others.