Artist Series 2025 | Zane Colton Lerew

There are some creative people who specialize in their thing, be it painting, drawing, film, architecture, or music.

Then there’s Zane Colton Lerew, a self-taught polymath who’s passionate about them all. 

For Lerew, all the art forms are connected, with each providing inspiration for the others. Music bleeds into his color palettes, forms in architecture and nature inform his integration of hard lines with fluid paint and movement, and his roots in film and design branch into, well, everything.

Zane Colton Lerew takes a moment in the snow.

Wagner Custom is honored to have a new series of topsheets designed by Lerew, which are stunning and psychedelic black-and-white images inspired by sound waves. To find out more about Lerew—and what musical genre he was listening to at the time of his creations—we caught up with him at his home in Denver, Colo. Here’s what he had to say.

Wagner: You’re a Colorado native, right?
Lerew: Yes. I was born in Denver and grew up in Hotchkiss. My parents owned a ranch there, so I grew up skiing all over, in Aspen, Powderhorn, and Telluride. I’m back in Denver now, and I finished school at CU Boulder with a degree in film. I still do some film stuff, and I have become a self-taught artist. I also own a clothing company called Brain Sponge.

Wagner: What did your family raise on the ranch?
Lerew: We mostly sold hay. My dad moved from the city and wanted to be a rancher, so we had a few cows, horses, and chickens, and we’d breed labradors. We always had a bunch of lab puppies running around. On our 40 acres we even had a pond, and we’d build jumps at the edge, so that we could launch ourselves into it on our bikes.

Wagner: So how did you get started with art?
Lerew: My mom probably started it all. Art wasn’t her career, but she always loved to do it. We’d paint together, and she still has some of our pieces we did together when I was 5 or 6. I took art classes all through middle and high school, everything from painting to pottery. I went to Fort Lewis College, and thought I wanted to pursue graphic design, but I’ve always had an interest in film, so I transferred to CU to get my BA in film. But I love all forms of art, and I’ve always been passionate about it.

'Orotund' by Zane Colton Lerew

Wagner: What’s your favorite medium?
Lerew: At first it was drawing in different forms, pencil, charcoal, ink, markers, but it felt very tedious, and I’m such a perfectionist. And then I transitioned into this new abstract form of art, which I found very freeing.

Wagner: Who are some of your favorite artists who influence you?
Lerew: Filipe Pantone, who got his start as a graffiti artist and now he’s got his fingers in everything. Nick Bultman—I found him on Instagram—he does a lot of stuff with pouring paint and incorporates airbrush. His stuff is incredible. I find artists I like and study their style and make it my own.

'Sauce' by Zane Colton Lerew

Wagner: What’s your process like?
Lerew: I enjoy woodworking, so I build all of my frames. That’s the first step. Then I come up with a general idea and a color palette. I use fluid acrylics mostly, pouring puddles out and smushing them with a balloon, so every time you lift it up it’s a different texture.

Wagner: Tell us about the graphics you made for Wagner Custom.
Lerew: They’re inspired by sound waves. They’re black and white and all drawn with a compass. I filled in every one of those squares with a Japanese calligraphy pen. 

'Reverb' by Zane Colton Lerew

Wagner: Why sound waves? 
Lerew: I take a lot of inspiration from nature and the music I’m listening to. I spend a lot of time dancing as I’m painting.

Wagner: What music were you listening to when you created these graphics?
Lerew: Hip hop and metal, which I grew up listening to. Black and white is more metal- oriented, whereas bright colors are more EDM-oriented.

Wagner: With your company Brain Sponge, you put your art on T-shirts, right? So maybe having your art on skis isn’t so different?
Lerew: Yeah, I like functional art. After getting this opportunity, I’m thinking about how I can get my art on other things.

'Liquify' by Zane Colton Lerew

Wagner: You do some commission work, too, right?
Lerew: Yes. My favorite thing about a commission for a client is, they give me a size, and a space, and a general idea of the color palette, then leave me to it, and trust in my process. I love their reactions when I reveal the art to them after its completion.

Wagner: What’s next for you?
Lerew: I’m going to try to get into galleries and travel more for my art. I’d like to show my stuff in different cities. Traveling is one of my passions.

Follow Lerew on Instagram @brainsponge, check out his website, and order his bold graphics on your next pair of Wagners today!

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Article by Kimberly Beekman

Kimberly Beekman is the former editor-in-chief of the late, great Skiing Magazine (RIP), and a longtime editor of SKI Magazine before that. She currently uses the title of “freelancer” as a beard to ski powder all over the world. She lives in Steamboat, Colorado, with her wonderful daughter and terrible cat.