Joel Rea is a 37-year-old skateboarder from the Gold Coast, but he’s better known for his highly technical surrealist paintings. A world-renowned fine artist, Joel takes influences from all over the place, painting the tigers from Dreamworld; the violent waves that he grew up surfing; New York streetscapes; and celebrities like Chris Hemsworth, The Veronicas, and Mick Fanning. One of his most famous works is called ‘Crossroads’, and it features a city street littered with tourists, a tiger, a naked toddler and a mural where Jesus is being crucified on an iPhone. Deep in the back corner, Dylan Rieder is boning a backside flip.
It’s a sunny arvo in late November when I drop into Joel’s place in Tallebudgera Valley on the Gold Coast to ask him about his successes as an artist, his connection to skateboarding, and
