Fos Art Show in Portland
Skating in the northwest has always been a challenge, especially the weather. After a wet winter, an unpredictable spring follows with unexpected rain despite the forecast alluding to clear skies. A day of eighty degree temperatures can then drop into the sixties the next. This Go Skate Day was no different. The weekend was plagued by rain as if the northwest still had to remind its citizens what the region is about. A jam at the newly constructed Q-Side DIY was postponed to the next day. Luckily, Tactics still provided an indoor event displaying Heroin Skateboards’ Mark “Fos” Foster’s original egg artworks the brand is known for.
The art show was held on the second floor of One Grand Gallery on East Burnside. The original sketches, prints, and a collaborative collection between Tactics and Heroin were available for purchase. The collection features a hat, t-shirts, hoodies, an Eggfoot plushie, and two boards: a 9.125 egg shaped board and the infamous 14.0 Eggzilla shaped board. Fos hung around talking to fans bringing their new or ridden boards to receive signatures.
“We want to work with brands and people that we’re really hyped on,” Noah Smith, photographer and brand manager for Tactics, said. “We all love the art, we all love the shapes, and Fos is an amazing person.”
The gallery was the opportunity Fos had been looking for since 2020. In a video documentary by The Platfrm, Fos presents a sketchbook with the original egg drawings and mentions wanting to have an art show with it. The original egg was drawn in 2016 for Daniel Shimizu’s board. Since then, multiple iterations of egg boards and drawings have come out, but the sketchbook remained dormant in Fos’ house for years. The gallery finally allowed the eggs to free themselves from storage as if they were miners coming out from a cave after carrying nothing but loads of coal.
“These guys have been packed in old sketchbooks in my house for years,” Fos said. “It’s really nice to show them all in one place rather than just have them sat there and doing nothing.”
Though the brand has become known for its egg shape introduced in 2016, the brand itself has existed for almost thirty years—a feat for any company, especially in skateboarding. The secret to keeping a brand last that long? Don’t mention it.
“People think Heroin is fresh; they think it’s a new brand,” he said. “It was a conscious thing for me not to celebrate 25 years because people are like, ‘Oh this is that new thing.’ So I just let people think that.”
In addition to Heroin, Fos has done artworks for other brands such as Toy Machine, Primitive, Deathwish, Element, Zero, and many more. And despite all the years and sketches he’s done, Fos still sees himself improving in his art. The gallery was a great display to showcase his progression.
“I like people being able to see the continuation of the artwork. If you look at the first ones, it’s a little sketchy, and then you look at the latest ones… it’s like you get to see the evolution of me as an artist, I suppose.”
The Tactics and Heroin collab is exclusively available through Tactics. Thank you to Fos for making his way from Los Angeles and taking the time to answer a few questions. Another thank you to Noah and Sam at Tactics for helping to make this happen!
