Art of the Sole
For the past 20 years, artist Adam Port has been creating pop culture and sports art in incredibly precise detail. His style, more known as photorealism, has always been a strong interest for him going back as far as early childhood. The world of sports has also been quite an inspiration for Port’s work, as an avid sporting event attender and also as an athlete.
Port explains, “From as far back as I can remember, I was always ripping out comic book and Sports Illustrated images, and trying to copy them. I would just be sitting on the couch with my parents, not thinking about any sort of approach, just drawing.”
This was just the beginning for Port, taking his impeccable ability to copy a photograph and turning it into a highly realistic body of work. This includes black-and-white vintage images of Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Lou Gehrig. Collectors can also find football, hockey, boxing and even famous faces from the world of entertainment.
Port has undergone a slight change in theme for his upcoming show for George Billis Gallery, titled Art of the Sole. While still representing his interest in sports, he has transitioned into a more conceptual series involving athletic sneakers, which has become quite the collectible fad.
Some may define “sneaker culture” as a mere obsession with footwear, but others, such as Port, find that there’s a history and connection, not to mention an artistry. “I wanted to explore sneaker culture, celebrate the athletes who wore the sneakers and honor the designers,” he says. “As a ‘sneakerhead’ myself, it’s important to me to capture the likeness of the sneakers and highlight the designer’s form, color and materials.”
Along with his highly realistic results, one could say that Port’s artistic process is also exceptionally thorough. For this new series, he began by compiling a list of brand names he wanted to represent, narrowed it down and then reached out to shop owners and collectors to find re-release or original sneakers (preferably originals).
“I was really interested in getting some 1985 Nike Air Jordan’s and found them in a shop in Brooklyn.,” Port explains. “The owner was very generous and let me take over 500 pictures from different angles. I then sifted through the images, looking for the perfect representation.”
From there, Port projects the images and spends anywhere from 5 to 20
hours working on the pencil drawing. This is still only the beginning as he then refines lines with a brush and acrylic paint, spends another 100 hours airbrushing multiple layers of darks and lights, and finishes by highlighting with colored pencils.
Through April 18, viewers can stop by George Billis Gallery to gawk at the highly detailed splendor.
Port hopes that viewers can “examine the significance and impact of sneakers through their own personal lens and experiences, and to recall their own connection.”