Lexi Pendzich's latest event puts her love of art, skateboarding, and do-it-yourself culture into the hands of the community.
The free event, SKATE WORLD at Canora Courts, takes place on July 12 at the namesake skate park on the grounds of the Canora Community League. It is a drop-in art project and outdoor photo show that centres on skateboarding. The name comes from Pendzich's ongoing series SKATE WORLD. The series tells the stories of the skateboarding community in the region, especially women and LGBTQ+ individuals, using photography, video, graphic design, built objects, and a podcast.
Pendzich exhibited SKATE WORLD last year at the Art Gallery of St. Albert after she was the artist-in-residence for hcma, an architecture firm, in 2023. Much like what Pendzich did during the residency, event attendees can design their own Tech Deck (miniature toy skateboards) and build skateboarding obstacles from clay.
"I want to get people inspired by DIY cultures, like the one at Canora Courts," Pendzich told Taproot. "I hope that by bringing new people there, this project kind of invites people to get excited and think about how they can use their creativity for placemaking."
Pendzich is exhibiting a portrait of Nick Steinhubl, the non-binary founder and coordinator of Canora's DIY skate park at the SKATE WORLD event. Steinhubl works on community clean-ups, making sure the courts are welcoming, and coordinating the homemade skate obstacles on site.
Pendzich said skateboarding is becoming more inclusive, and pointed to the Tigers Skate Club for women, girls, and people of other genders, as an example. The club holds lessons and meet-ups, and created its own branded skate deck in collaboration with The Source Snowboards & Skateboards. Tigers is one of the hosts of a skate meetup at a temporary downtown skate park that will celebrate both National Indigenous Peoples Day and Go Skateboarding Day, which both fall on June 21.
Canora Courts is also focused on inclusion and safety, and it is one of the partners for the June 21 event.
Pendzich received $2,000 as part of the second round of projects funded by We Belong in Jasper Place. (Taproot covered the first slate of projects in March 2024.) The funding means she's able to keep admission free, serve refreshments, and provide art supplies.
"It's definitely incredible to be backed by funding because producing work and printing stuff is not cheap," Pendzich said. "I think making things accessible is crucial to creating community and bringing people together in ways that they can express their ideas."
Artist Lexi Pendzich will exhibit her skateboarding-centric photography during an event at Canora Courts on July 12. The event features an outdoor photo show, art-making activities, and refreshments. (Lexi Pendzich)
Pendzich said she traces the origins of her artistic practice back to the time she moved to St. Albert from Edmonton during junior high school with her mom, step-dad, and younger brother. She was quickly drawn to the city's Woodlands skate park. As a skateboarder, inline skater, and cyclist, Pendzich said she started to see the world in new ways, from the vantage point of wheels. (Pendzich was also part of a successful lobbying effort to add bike racks to buses in St. Albert.)
"Some of my passions are discovering communities and travelling — my mom took me travelling at a fairly young age," she said. "I think I've just always been fascinated with landscapes, nature, cities, and people."
Pendzich's mom is Eva Polis, the executive creative director of TBWA\Canada. Pendzich said her mom was a major influence on her creativity. By the time she was in grade six, Pendzich was reading fashion magazines like i-D and spending her allowance on other fashion magazines.
"Growing up with her was amazing," Pendzich said of her mom. "I'd always wear her hand-me-down styles to school, and maybe get in trouble or get made fun of a little bit. She is always stylish, and she would tell me to be myself, be bold, and wear the cool things." (Polis and Pendzich's brother, Zach Polis were named among the most stylish people in Edmonton in 2020.)
Pendzich said it was around this time that she would draw herself as a skateboarder to help her visualize it into reality. She was mostly inline skating at the time, and didn't see many other girls skateboarding.
She said one of her SKATE WORLD video subjects, Krista Kohuch, told her she has seen the diversity of gender identities grow significantly since she started skating in the early '90s in Edmonton.
"She even acknowledged now that with different clubs coming together, skateboarding culture is so much more welcoming," Pendzich said. "I think it's come a long way, for sure."
When she's not skating or making art, Pendzich does freelance marketing for clients such as art galleries. She also hoops, and she recently came second in the 10 miler category in the St. Albert Road Race.
Pendzich is a dog lover, too. She said she has organized fundraisers for animal welfare agencies like the Second Chance Animal Rescue Society (often called SCARS) and plans to do more of them in the future.
Lexi Pendzich poses at an unknown date in the 1990s in front of an artwork depicting someone walking two dogs. Art and dogs eventually became some of her greatest passions. (Supplied)
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the names of Krista Kohuch and the St. Albert Road Race.