Levi Hawken

Levi Hawken, born in 1975, is a New Zealand sculptor, graffiti artist and skateboarder who was a professional skateboarder for Blue Tile Lounge, Boom Skateboards and Sector 9 and has been involved in skateboarding for over forty years, particularly known for hill bombing in the Auckland scene. As an artist he began making graffiti street art in the mid 1990s, worked as a graphic designer for streetwear brands in the early 2000s and then moved into concrete and glass sculpture, with work characterised by a Brutalist and Modernist design language and influenced by his experience of urban environments while skating. In 2011 he was the subject of a viral internet meme known as the nek minnit video, after a clip of him from an independent skateboarding film.