Upper Playground opened here in Sacramento almost a year ago, and has hosted a lot of the great stuff you expect from them since. If one local artist was due for his minute in the sun, it's Skinner. Dude's about as big as it gets on the art scene in Sacramento, having pretty much done everything there is to do, whether it be here or blowing up galleries all up and down the state.

When he got the venue lined up, Skinn knew he'd have to bust ass and elevate for himself and to "raise the bar" for other locals. I've watched him working on the pieces in this show over the past few months, turning out more in a week than most of us will in a year. So when the evening of Saturday, July 12 finally rolled around, I knew shit was gonna go down.

Apparently I wasnt the only one. I got there around 9 to a crowd spilling out all over the sidewalk, which led into the sweating-room only space. A friend who'd gotten there hours before said the same... hundreds of people packing the place in shifts for hours. Unheard of for Sacto.

When the crowds thinned for maybe 30 seconds at a time I saw pretty much the entire skate and art community had turned out. Gus from Goodtimes/Bloodwizard had come down from Grass Valley and Jay Howell, Matt Revelle (Juxtapoz) and Gabe Scott (111 Minna) had made it over from the bay, while the Smash Hit team and Tank Theory heads lurked about.

Looking past all the face-value "monsters and gore," the body of work is actually a gnarly critique of the stupidity and racism of capitalist culture.

The rest of the work spoke for itself, with new pieces on canvas installed on one wall over some of Skinn's trademark Lurkers. These paintings show his more psychedelic/fantasy/D&D/metal side and is really his best work.) I know dude had at least a dozen more of these burners still left back at the studio.

To contrast the acrylic tech-steeze on one side, Skinn built these "puppets" and HAND-FUCKING-WELDED these swords from scratch to build this nice little "Portrait Of An American Family"-type installation just inside the store window.

The rest of the place was packed wallpaper style with these small framers... some altered photos, some "just funny as fuck left untouched" portraits and other small paintings and collages. These walls totally dominated the space and made the packed house seem less hectic in comparison.

As a bonus, UP hooked Skinn up with two tshirt designs. I think they may only be available in the Sacramento store, but worth tracking down. -Aaron Winters {moscomment}