Forget paint canvases, substitute skateboards

By Kristen Peterson

Published Friday, June 19, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Updated Friday, June 19, 2009 | 10:51 a.m.

Don’t let the name fool you.

The skateboard exhibit opening tonight at the downtown Henri & Odette gallery has everything to do with skateboards and nothing to do with skateboards.

One hundred artists have turned skateboard decks into art, or “art,” for “LVSK8 III,” a show that merges the lowbrow and highbrow. Skateboards are not the theme, merely the medium.

Expect stylized tattoo imagery, abstract works, conceptual designs and even a little sculpture. One artist affixed a computer that emits light to a skateboard. Another turned her skateboard into a dominatrix’s spanking paddle.

Danielle Kelly, Stephen Hendee, Elizabeth Blau and the Ripper Jordan guys are part of the lineup, along with about 50 tattoo artists.

The show runs through Aug. 7. It’s a bit of a change for the gallery, a little something fun for the summer that will get people through the doors, says owner Jennifer Harrington, who Wednesday was still deciding where to hang the decks in her 600-square-foot gallery.

“I want people to come to the gallery and sometimes you can’t get them to come for conceptual art,” Harrington says. “It’s easy. It’s fun. It’s accessible. The show doesn’t have anything to do with skateboards. It’s more about giving artists their 2-foot space in the world where they get to do whatever they want.”

PHILHARMONIC GOING TO EXTREMES

Nothing screams “pops” quite so much as Beethoven, the Beatles and an artist who paints upside down onstage. But this is summertime and things get a little wacky, folks let their hair down, roll up their sleeves and the Las Vegas Philharmonic offers something a little extra special, courtesy of the city of Henderson.

“Las Vegas Philharmonic Goes to the Extreme ... with Artist Jean Francois” will be presented at the Henderson Pavilion on Saturday night.

The performance includes Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet,’ Mendelssohn’s “The Hebrides” (“Fingal’s Cave”), Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Beatles hits and movie scores.

All the while, Jean Francois Detaille will be painting away on a large scale canvas at “warp” speed.

CHOREOGRAPHER LOOKS BACK AT 30 YEARS OF DANCE

A retrospective of dance by choreographer, dancer and instructor Kelly Roth opens Wednesday at Onyx Theatre.

The multimedia presentation opens with “Mozart Duet,” an homage to Roth’s mentor, Murray Louis, and the first piece presented by Kelly Roth & Dancers in 1979 in New York City. The program also includes a short video play, “Cafe Mahleria,” about the life and obsessions of composer Gustav Mahler; Roth’s 1998 black comedy “Mein Kampf,” which pits Hitler against a Chaplin-like character; and “Sentience,” a performance on the five senses between Roth and Middle Eastern dancer Angela Palmeri-Davis. A nostalgic work, “Songs My Mother Taught Me,” features Roth and his wife, Leslie.

Roth heads the dance program at the College of Southern Nevada.