Kingston’s Pollyanna, and Skateboards as an Art Form

By Colin Secore

A new gallery opened up in Kingston just a couple months ago. The space is called Pollyanna and it explores the soulful relationship between art and skateboarding. Sitting at 394 Hasbrouck Avenue in Kingston, NY, it stands out with a large glass garage door that always reveals the creations within. The name, Pollyanna, is what initially drew me to it. The term means a lot to me and I saw the fluidity of its definition within the gallery itself: a subliminal sense of eager optimism and open playfulness.

Pollyanna’s current collaboration is with Jahmal Williams and Joan Barker, two multimedia artists with free-flowing attitudes. Williams is responsible for the sculptures sitting in the middle of the show, brightly colored abstract figures carved from skateboards. He explained to me that he was inspired by random people you might see on the street and the undefined energy one could identify in a passing impression. Williams’ work invokes a familiarity with aura and the colors of the soul. 

Barker’s paintings align with Williams’ work. She paints on expanses of cardboard. Not only painting them but also breaking them apart and putting them together, carving and connecting with intention that rose from the chaos. A FRAYED AMERICA is covered with carvings that remind me of a bench deep in a forest trail, engraved with the various signatures and phrases from people who have passed it across the years, beautiful and almost coherent.

The work of Barker and Williams in Pollyanna’s show is often accompanied by a skateboard with the adjacent art on it. The marriage of art and skateboards is a shining highlight of Pollyanna, an exhibition of that timeless connection and the stylish culture born from it. When considering the term Pollyanna, a thought process which inspired the name of the gallery itself, I imagine a spirited acknowledgment of the wind rushing through my hair with my feet magnetized to a skateboard. The artwork on the underside will always be bound to that experience and freedom. The gallery, Pollyanna, resonates to me with that sense of freedom, peace, and spiritual awareness.

Pollyanna’s show with Jahmal Williams and Joan Barker is on display throughout this March, visits made via appointment by messaging their Instagram account @pollyannaprojects or emailing info@pollyanna-projects.com.

This piece is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Midtown Arts District and the Kingston Wire.



Mid Hudson Arts

This project is made possible in part through support from the County of Ulster’s Ulster County Cultural Services & Promotion Fund administrated by Arts Mid-Hudson.

Kingston Midtown Arts District and its programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.