Photographer Sunny Bak brings Beastie Boy's show to Malibu

On Saturday, December 5 Malibu Contemporary Art Gallery will be home to photographer Sunny Bak’s iconic images of the early days of the Beastie Boys.

“When I first met the boys in the early 80’s, I was already an established fashion photographer and they were friends of my assistant, David Scilken from their band called the Young and the Useless before they were the Beastie Boys.” recalls Bak. “They liked coming to my studio to meet the models, and we’d hang out at night time in the Village or Limelight, MilkBar, or the World, ”

Bak went on to shoot the License to Ill gatefold picture and some publicity shots for them, but most of her own photos of them ended up in boxes in a closet.

Bak moved to LA with the Beasties in the 80’s, and was soon busy shooting celebrity portraiture for magazines. The Beastie Boys fell off her radar for years.

As the Venice Art Crawl prepared for their first ever community art event in 2010 Bak stumbled upon some long-forgotten boxes of photos and began printing select images for a intimate show at her open studio.

2019 & 2020 brought a resurgence of interest in the Beasties photos with the release of the Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz official bio, Beastie Book, and director Spike Jonze’s, Beastie movie. Before then Bak decided to print a line of 3 skate decks.

COVID-19 delayed the planned debut of her first line of Limited Edition “Beastie” skateboards but didn’t stop sales. The “Boys on 18th St board” sold out immediately to devoted fans. The second board is a tribute to Adam Yauch “MCA with a sandwich” board which will be available in Malibu exclusively at Malibu Contemporary Art. The “License to Ill” board is available for preorder directly though Bak at sbak@mac.com.

The opening reception will be from 12:00 to 6:00PM on Saturday, Dec. 5. Malibu Contemporary Art Gallery located at Malibu Lumber Yard 3939 Cross Creek Rd. D160, Malibu, CA 90265