STEVE GORROW X THE SURFERS JOURNAL

 

If Salvador Dali had surfed his work might have looked something like Steve Gorrow’s. In ‘days of

the Strange,’ Christian fletcher launches a giant frontside air over a lineup littered with 

inflatable love dolls. In ‘dead Modern,’ Jared Mell pulls a back ward nose ride across a turquoise

shore break. In the foreground, sprinkled across the beach, a forest of mannequin’s legs clad in 

sheer black pantyhose and root me pumps poke out of the sand, as if being swallowed. In ‘Good 

Morning Pluto,’ Malia Jones is the sole audience member in an underwater movie theatre, complete

with alien-yellow seats. In red bikini, clutching a box of popcorn, she watches Kai Otton’s 

three-finned board slice across the surface overhead.

 

 

Steve’s work includes photography, sculpture, painting, drawing, graffiti, installation, and 

video. His surrealist compositions have won countless awards. In their native australia, he and

his older brother, George, are regarded with “everything they touch turns to gold” awe.

But here’s the interesting part: all of the aforementioned work has been done under the auspices

of Insight, a surf/skate clothing label where Steve has worked as Creative director since 2003.

while commercial art is generally fraught with compromise, Steve’s oeuvre suggests otherwise.

 

“It’s still very calculated,” he said via Skype. “there’s definitely a strong art element in

there. But I’ve also got to keep the company going on the right track.”

 

The second of four boys, Steve grew up in dee why, a coastal suburb on the Northern Beaches of

Sydney. His father was a real estate developer and a surfer; his mother did social work and 

practiced meditation. The Gorrow brothers were beach rats, first riding the shore break on

boogie boards, soon graduating to thrusters and the ledging barrels of dee why Point. Art was

encouraged in their household. Mum entertained her brood with crayons, markers, paints and

brushes. Grandma taught them how to make their own clothes.

 

Steve started writing graffiti at age ten. His first unofficial group show took place that 

same year, with stolen cans of spray paint, he and a couple of classmates let loose on a

series of prominent walls at their school. Their work was lauded by all but the grown-ups.

They were immediately called into the headmaster’s office and issued detentions.

 

In high school he got serious. “Always the art subject was the only one I cared about,” he said.

“I liked dali, I liked street art. I knew I wanted to be either an artist or a graphic designer.”

He studied graphic design at design Centre enmore and fine art at Seaforth tafe, but his lucky 

break came in 1995, when brother George, then the Creative director for Insight, decided to take

a sabbatical. “he goes, ‘I’m going traveling. do you want to take over my job while I’m gone?’ I

just laughed and went, ‘Okay!’” when George returned a year later he found his little brother

thriving. For the next two years Steve worked as an art director for Quiksilver. Then, a shift:

he did a stint working for advertising agencies. But churning out campaigns for brands he

didn’t believe in was unfulfilling. “You kind of feel like a whore,” he said. “It just 

burned me out.”

 

In 2000, George and a trio of paint-splattered surfers, including aerialist Oscar wright, 

launched the fashion label tsubi (later changed to Ksubi). Celebrities like Madonna, Kate Moss,

and Gwen Stefani lapped up their slim fit jeans. Within just a few short years the brand exploded.

Consumed with running tsubi, George stepped down from his position at Insight, once again passing

the baton to his little brother. For the last eight years, under Steve’s direction, Insight has

been a consistent winner in “campaign of the year” competitions.

 

“Steve’s the mad creator, but he uses George as a sounding board,” says longtime friend/Insight

brand ambassador Jesse faen. “I think the fact that George is connected to Insight but also Ksubi

and art and fashion is relevant in that he inspires Steve to look outside the surf world for

ideas.”

 

Steve, 35, bright-eyed, and surf-fit, exudes a mixture of quiet intensity and giggling 

lightheartedness. Residing in the creatively fertile neighbourhood of North Bondi, he says,

“It’s like Australia’s Venice Beach. It keeps you on your toes. Bondi never sleeps.” he surfs

daily, practices meditation, and cites Basquiat, raymond Pettibon, faIle, Blu, and Banksy as

inspirations.

 

I asked him if he ever feels isolated working in australia, as if the creative epicentre of

the world lies elsewhere. “Oh, 100%,” he said. “It’s pretty small here. The inspiration is

definitely always coming from America or Japan or europe. But you also get inspired by your

own pack that you’re in, too. At Insight I’ve gotten to work with all my friends. We raise 

the bar together, and have a lot of fun at the same time.” I asked him where he’d like to be in

five years. “I’m really happy in the surf industry,” he said. “I don’t think there’s an industry

that can suit me better. So I’ll still be doing stuff here. But I’d also like to be doing more art,

just painting freely, but being able to produce it and move it. If I could one day live off

free-flowing art that’d be pretty amazing.”