Fulcrum Arts is pleased to present, Sam Shoemaker: Mushroom Boat, featuring works developed around the artist’s August 2025 crossing of the Catalina Channel in a kayak made of mushroom mycelium.
Alongside the mushroom boat itself, the exhibition features large-scale projections, time-lapse videos, and soundscapes that immerse visitors in Shoemaker’s journey over 26 miles of open ocean, where he passed through turbulent water, encountered wildlife, crossed a commercial shipping lane, and battled headwind.
Visitors will also witness the artist’s process of constructing the mushroom boat.
“Shoemaker’s work explores the potential of sustainable materials in unprecedented ways,” remarks Patrick J. Reed, curator at Fulcrum Arts. “His crossing of the Catalina Channel in a boat made of mushroom mycelium prompts us to recognize that innovative creative practices can guide our efforts toward ecologically responsible modes of inventing, exploring, and living our lives.”
Additionally, Shoemaker is releasing an open-source compendium detailing his mycological research and methodologies. A hard copy will be exhibited and a digital version will be freely accessible. Shoemaker releases this document with the hope that others will carry his research forward, using fungi—an organic, versatile, and renewable resource—to pursue responsible technical and creative innovations.
Mushroom Boat marks the first major exhibition held at Fulcrum Arts’ new headquarters in Pasadena, California.
About the artist
Sam Shoemaker is a Los Angeles-based sculpture artist whose work is a collaboration between himself and species of mushrooms. Shoemaker’s work has been shown at Craft Contemporary, Armory Center for the Arts, Vielmetter, David Horvitz’s Garden, Make Room, Emma Gray HQ, and OCHI, among others. He was also included in World Without End: The George Washington Carver Project at the California African American Museum, an official exhibition of PST ART: Art & Science Collide presented by Getty. Shoemaker has been featured in many publications and news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, Galerie Magazine, W Magazine, Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles, and Graphite. He lives and works in Los Angeles and is represented by OCHI.
www.samkshoemaker.com
Sam Shoemaker: Mushroom Boat is made possible with the generous support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Pasadena Art Alliance, the Perenchio Foundation, and the Pasadena Arts and Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division.
Select Press
The Guardian:
“He crossed 26 miles in a kayak made from mushrooms – and lived to tell the the tale”
“Shoemaker met Patrick Reed, the lead curator of the Pasadena-based arts organization Fulcrum Arts, in December 2023 through mutual friends. After a studio visit, Reed was blown away by everything that the artist had to show him, fondly remembering their conversation to be “incredibly exciting and stimulating”. It aligned with Fulcrum Arts’ mission to support artists pursuing social change at the intersection of art and science, and the pair entered into an official collaboration in early 2024.”
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KTLA:
“Man Crosses Catalina Channel in Mushroom Kayak”
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KCRW:
“In a kayak made of mushrooms, LA artist Sam Shoemaker crosses the Catalina Channel”
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Orange County Register:
“In a mushroom kayak, Sam Shoemaker crossed the Catalina Channel. See it in Pasadena.”
“Shoemaker safely landed at San Pedro’s Cabrillo Beach 12 hours after he departed on the same day. And Shoemaker’s boat appears to have found an appropriate docking place at Fulcrum Arts. The gallery’s mission is to bring artists and scientists together to collaborate toward positive change.”
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Pasadena Now:
“Artist Crosses Catalina Channel in Mushroom Kayak: Fulcrum Arts Debuts ‘Mushroom Boat’ Exhibition in Pasadena”
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Los Angeles Times:
“30 Bob Ross paintings to be auctioned in support of L.A. public television: arts and culture this weekend”
“Ever heard of a boat made out of mushrooms? Neither had I until someone told me about an exhibition at Fulcrum Arts in Pasadena called, ‘Sam Shoemaker: Mushroom Boat.’ As the title implies, the artist built a kayak out of mushroom mycelium. He then proceeded to use the unusual vessel to cross the Catalina Channel – a total of 26 nautical miles. He chronicled his journey the whole way, and the results of that work are on display alongside the boat. It includes large-scale projections, time-lapse videos, and soundscapes from his sometimes wild and turbulent journey.
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KALX Berkeley:
“Off the Dome with Frontal Lobe”
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