PO Box 7230
Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067
T (858) 756-4088
Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067
T (858) 756-4088
MALONEY AT THE GILMORE CAR MUSUEM
Eight pieces from" This is Where the Rubber Meets the Road" to headline museum's exhibit
May 1 - October 30, 2010
May 1 - October 30, 2010
Is there an art to stock car racing? In the hands of American Pop Artist Steve Maloney, there is. The Michigan native turned California artist will exhibit eight works of mixed media from his This is Where the Rubber Meets the Road series at the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan beginning May 1, 2010. Wall-mounted and created from dented, dinged-up and otherwise distressed pieces of actual NASCAR automobiles, Maloney's art will headline White Lightn' & Rollin' Thunder, a special museum exhibit to run through October 30, 2010.
The White Lightn' & Rollin' Thunder show will be a homecoming for Maloney, a native of Kalamazoo less than a 30 minutes drive by car from Hickory Corners. Indeed, the artist spent his first 49 years in "K-Zoo," at one point running an eponymous men's clothing store at the corner of South Street and the Burdick Mall in the Downtown section of the city. While fashion retailing and manufacturing were his callings, automobile racing was always Maloney's passion, which he pursued with amateur abandon both as a fan and a three-time racer in the Baja Mexican 1000 back in the early 1970's.
"I've always felt the only way to capture the combustible energy and chaos of NASCAR is with the very automobiles that make it happen," says Maloney of This is Where the Rubber Meets the Road. The exhibited works will include the grandly scaled Maloney 500 (2005), created from seven authentic NASCAR front-end clips and other mediums mounted on board-backed canvas, and the smaller Snap, Crackle, and Crunch (2005), a combination of NASCAR sheet metal, copper tubing and acrylic on canvas. All the pieces pack a wallop, with the hazards of the NASCAR track brought to life through actual scratches, scrapes, tire marks and the screeching commercialism that reveal the dynamism and danger of automobile racing. "If you look close enough" Maloney says, "you'll discover some of the rubber from the road. Bits of Goodyear stuck in the front grille. I swear these front ends smelled like the race when I first got them."
In the White Lightn' & Rollin Thunder exhibit, Maloney will share the stage with cars driven by the most iconic names of stock car racing, including Ned Jarret, Johnny Benson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Randy Sweet, Gail Cobb, and "Tiger" Tom Pistone. The show will also feature the movie car driven by Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder, and much more.
Maloney's pop artwork celebrates the audacity, exuberance and originality of American culture, particularly in advertising. Some of his inspiration came from artist John Chamberlain but the departure begins when Steve transforms and fractures real racecar parts with today's brands and logos. His 26 piece This is Where the Rubber Meets the Road series has enjoyed wide exposure, with an exhibit at The Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas in 2007 and a first-of-its-kind showing at the 50th anniversary running of the Daytona 500 in 2008, with Maloney stationed trackside creating original works for charitable auction as the racecars ripped around the track.
The Gilmore Museum is nestled on 90 landscaped acres in Hickory Corners, midway between Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Grand Rapids, Michigan. More than 200 extraordinary vehicles spanning more than a century of automotive heritage are tucked in barns and historic buildings, ranging from an 1899 Locomobile to a Tucker '48, a Model T Ford to the muscle cars of the 1960s. The museum is home to the Classic Car Club of America, the Pierce-Arrow Museum, The Franklin Collection and the Tucker Historical Collection. The museum is open daily from May through October. For more details (269) 671-5089; www.gilmorecarmuseum.org
For more information about Steve Maloney, please call (858) 947-8165 or visit http://www.artbymaloney.com.
The White Lightn' & Rollin' Thunder show will be a homecoming for Maloney, a native of Kalamazoo less than a 30 minutes drive by car from Hickory Corners. Indeed, the artist spent his first 49 years in "K-Zoo," at one point running an eponymous men's clothing store at the corner of South Street and the Burdick Mall in the Downtown section of the city. While fashion retailing and manufacturing were his callings, automobile racing was always Maloney's passion, which he pursued with amateur abandon both as a fan and a three-time racer in the Baja Mexican 1000 back in the early 1970's.
"I've always felt the only way to capture the combustible energy and chaos of NASCAR is with the very automobiles that make it happen," says Maloney of This is Where the Rubber Meets the Road. The exhibited works will include the grandly scaled Maloney 500 (2005), created from seven authentic NASCAR front-end clips and other mediums mounted on board-backed canvas, and the smaller Snap, Crackle, and Crunch (2005), a combination of NASCAR sheet metal, copper tubing and acrylic on canvas. All the pieces pack a wallop, with the hazards of the NASCAR track brought to life through actual scratches, scrapes, tire marks and the screeching commercialism that reveal the dynamism and danger of automobile racing. "If you look close enough" Maloney says, "you'll discover some of the rubber from the road. Bits of Goodyear stuck in the front grille. I swear these front ends smelled like the race when I first got them."
In the White Lightn' & Rollin Thunder exhibit, Maloney will share the stage with cars driven by the most iconic names of stock car racing, including Ned Jarret, Johnny Benson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Randy Sweet, Gail Cobb, and "Tiger" Tom Pistone. The show will also feature the movie car driven by Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder, and much more.
Maloney's pop artwork celebrates the audacity, exuberance and originality of American culture, particularly in advertising. Some of his inspiration came from artist John Chamberlain but the departure begins when Steve transforms and fractures real racecar parts with today's brands and logos. His 26 piece This is Where the Rubber Meets the Road series has enjoyed wide exposure, with an exhibit at The Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas in 2007 and a first-of-its-kind showing at the 50th anniversary running of the Daytona 500 in 2008, with Maloney stationed trackside creating original works for charitable auction as the racecars ripped around the track.
The Gilmore Museum is nestled on 90 landscaped acres in Hickory Corners, midway between Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Grand Rapids, Michigan. More than 200 extraordinary vehicles spanning more than a century of automotive heritage are tucked in barns and historic buildings, ranging from an 1899 Locomobile to a Tucker '48, a Model T Ford to the muscle cars of the 1960s. The museum is home to the Classic Car Club of America, the Pierce-Arrow Museum, The Franklin Collection and the Tucker Historical Collection. The museum is open daily from May through October. For more details (269) 671-5089; www.gilmorecarmuseum.org
For more information about Steve Maloney, please call (858) 947-8165 or visit http://www.artbymaloney.com.