A Street Plant “Jumbo” Mark Gonzales skateboard deck personally skated by Mark Gonzales in 2021, sourced directly from his studio and sold as Lot 73078 in Heritage Auctions’ “Skateboards, Objects, and Multiples from the Studio of Mark Gonzales: Pop Culture Showcase Auction #46157” (August 25, 2024). This deck is a genuine artifact of personal use — not a signed display piece or production sample, but a board Gonzales actually skated.
Historical Context
Mark Gonzales — universally known as “The Gonz” — is the godfather and primary architect of modern street skateboarding. His innovations in skating style, trick vocabulary, and board graphics throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s redefined what skateboarding could be, and his influence extended far beyond the culture itself into fine art, fashion, and popular culture. He was a foundational figure in the Bones Brigade era, co-founded Blind Skateboards (home of Video Days, 1991 — one of the most influential skate films ever made), and later launched Street Plant with Mike Vallely.
Gonzales’ relationship with alternative music culture runs deep. It was Gonzales who gave Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth a copy of Video Days after a show, which Gordon showed to director Tamara Davis — directly leading to Spike Jonze directing the skateboarding sequences in Sonic Youth’s “100%” music video (1992), featuring a then-unknown Jason Lee. That video, and the cultural connections it forged, is documented in Lot 63 of this auction.
By the turn of the century, Gonzales had established himself as a globally exhibited artist whose work across painting, zines, video, and clothing collapsed the boundary between skate culture and contemporary art. His collaborations with Adidas and Supreme brought his uncompromised visual language to mainstream audiences while he continued to produce art — much of it given away or sent to friends — from a series of studios and storage spaces.
Artist Use
Per the Heritage Auctions catalog entry (Nick Halkias, theSkateboardMuseum): “The items in this auction were all collected from storage units and studio spaces that he’s maintained throughout the course of his life… every piece is a unique facet of that which he has come to be known for… Mark simply sheds these objects and ephemera and moves on, constantly creating and never looking back. These hand-touched artifacts… are all too special to be merely discarded. They are honest to god fragments of skate history worthy of collection, preservation, and display.”
This deck was skated by Gonzales in 2021.
Specifications
· Brand: Street Plant
· Model: Jumbo Mark Gonzales Deck
· Year skated: 2021
· Graphic: Teal ground; “Street Plant” and “Mark Gonzales” text; abstract collage of black, pink, yellow, and orange geometric shapes and figures; two Bones stickers affixed to deck face
· Dimensions: 31.75 x 11 x 0.5″
Condition
Good — heavy active use wear throughout consistent with personal skating. The top surface shows significant scratching, grip tape wear, and areas of graphic loss from skating use. The deck face graphic retains strong color in unaffected areas. Edge wear and nose/tail chips consistent with use. Honest skated condition.
Provenance
Sourced directly from Mark Gonzales’ studio by Nick Halkias (theSkateboardMuseum) over an eight-year period of working with Gonzales’ material. Sold as Lot 73078, Heritage Auctions “Skateboards, Objects, and Multiples from the Studio of Mark Gonzales: Pop Culture Showcase Auction #46157,” August 25, 2024.
Nostalgia Bandit Letter of Provenance
This lot will be accompanied by a Nostalgia Bandit Letter of Provenance — a document printed on official Nostalgia Bandit letterhead, signed by Nostalgia Bandit’s principal, and affixed with the official Nostalgia Bandit embossed seal. The Letter of Provenance reproduces the complete final auction description for this lot in full, memorializing all provenance documentation, attribution, supporting evidence, and condition details as presented herein. It is designed to travel with the lot through all future ownership transfers as a permanent, platform-independent physical record of the item’s documented history.
Shipping & Measurements
FIRST AND THIRD PARTY SHIPPING OPTIONS AVAILABLE. Contact Nostalgia Bandit for a shipping quote: shipping@nostalgiabandit.com
» Item: 31.75 x 11 x 0.5″ · 3.54 lbs.
