Description

This online presentation of videos by Trevor Shimizu stems from the artist’s 2013 video series, The Lonely Loser Trilogy. On October 2, 2025, EAI invited the artist to transform our office into a dynamic environment for video and socializing. The event was held in tandem with Shimizu’s solo painting exhibition and EAI’s residency at 47 Canal, which featured videos from Paul McCarthy, Carolee Schneemann, and Bruce Nauman, selected by the artist. This showcase will be available starting Monday, November 24, through December 7.

Shimizu presented a selection of short videos including his 2013 piece, The Lonely Loser Trilogy: Skate Videos. Shimizu frames the compilation through his evolving sense of physicality as an artist, skater, and eventually, parent. He contrasts the sedentary lifestyle of his younger years—including his tenure as Technical Director for EAI—with the balance, poise, and athleticism of inspirational figures including Nauman and the skateboarder Jerry Hsu. Clips showcasing Shimizu’s musical collaborations with Cass McCombs, re-recorded skate videos and advertisements for skating equipment, and Shimizu’s Google Glass footage highlight the fluid relationship between being a viewer and maker of art.

From Shimizu: “Sometime around 2003-2004, I recorded and toured with Cass McCombs. We recorded an album called PREfection. A few songs were used in some great skate videos. I was completely unaware of skateboarding at the time, having stopped about 10 years before. I came across Jerry Hsu’s part which features a song from the album and I was just completely blown away. Sometime around 2013, I bought the DVD on eBay, played it off a CRT monitor and used a 4K camera to record. I used to say that this was my greatest life achievement before getting married and having children.

While watching daytime television, I saw an advertisement for a remote controlled cylinder going around some obstacles at a skatepark. This came out around the time Google Glass came out. So I used the Google glasses to record my skate video browsing. I was thinking of skating more frequently again and saw these videos by the Welcome Skateboards team. They were really amazing and inventive, but also made me feel so old and as if I were Encino Man, waking up to the new world of skateboarding.

I remembered Mark Gonzalez from when I was a child and saw this clip of him skating many years later. After our daughter was born, I saw him as a role model—great skater, artist, and dad.”

Image: Music credits from Bag of Suck (2006) by Enjoi Skateboards.