“Emergin’ Virgin – Coming out Custom,” as the name of my Motorcycles as Art exhibition at the Sturgis Buffalo Chip this year, may have confused some. “Virgin,” as I used it, simply refers to the one thing each of the custom bike builders and artists in the show had in common. None of them had ever been in one of my preceding 21 exhibitions.
Starting with a “condition” was a different approach from past years in which a strong theme came first. This was true with exhibitions like “Eternal Combustion” (2010), in which builders were displayed in relevant pairings, “Naked Truth” (2015) in which there could be no paint or finish on any of the bikes, or “Passion Built” where the artists/builders couldn’t make a living from their craft. But then, as I began working on Emergin’ Virgin over a year ago, an unintended consequence became evident. This exhibition would offer an aerial view of our world of custom today. Some of the artists and builders included haven’t been at it very long, while others are long established, having chosen to fly under the radar (or perhaps our paths simply never crossed.) The amazing thing is just how varied this group is. They represent many different styles and work with various platforms and media.
As such, this exhibition has come to be about how the world of custom bikes, the culture it lives in, and the industry built up to support it has moved to new levels of inclusion, diversity, and acceptance. The quote banners that hung down from the gallery ceiling stressed the new level of openness we are seeing today. It’s not only who is building the bikes, but the kind of bikes they are building and how they fabricate them. Upon entering the gallery, you couldn’t help but notice the renewed interest in racing, history, antiques, traditional mechanics and crafts, and more. And I can’t stress enough the impact younger people have had on bringing this about.
The art on the walls created a warm and enveloping environment for the custom bikes in the gallery. The range of style and approaches of the four photographers, two fine artists, and ten painters that specially painted the Bell Helmets for the show offer a quick glimpse into how this world is changing and what the exhibition was about. Rob Nemeth’s paintings with oils, watercolor, ink, and various mixed media came from his experiences on the road and events like the Race of Gentlemen. His work has an impressionistic feel as it captures a moment in time while focusing on a bike, a person, a part, or a scene. Tony Morgan’s work is less rooted in reality and of a more fantastical nature. His screen prints have choppers flying through the night or a ravens resting on the top of a Shovelhead engine, images right out of his imagination.
The four photographers represented included one that is no longer with us. Pulsating Paula (Paula Grimaldi-Reardon,) passed away in 2019 but left a trove of photography behind from when she documented the bike world in the 1980s and 1990s. Fortunately, her close friend Marjorie Kleinman, aka “Shadow” the moto-journalist, has been going through and scanning thousands of negatives to show and preserve her work. The imagery is slice-of-life real-time depiction of what it looked like back in the day. Three other photographers, Canadian-born Bryan Helm, Jerimiah Smith of Alabama, and Liam Kennedy of Tennessee, each had more than twenty large prints of their contemporary work carefully sequenced and smartly displayed. Each of these photographers puts down a lot of miles on their bikes as they capture their vision of the motorcycle world. And each has a unique style and approach, not only to photography but also to motorcycling.
Admittedly, the motorcycle portion of my exhibitions has often skewed toward custom Harley-Davidson choppers. They were well represented here as well, however this year, there were eleven different marques on display (counting the one-off electric bike), with styles ranging from antique, bobber, cafe, and chopper to performance bagger, road racer, speedway, and street-tracker. A dozen bikes had apparent ties to racing and seemed to embrace technology right off the track. Take Alex Maslin’s single-cylinder Buell Blast, for example. It looked like it should be on a race track, as I am sure it was indeed headed after the show. Is anyone other than this Romanian-born (Transylvanian-born, to be more accurate) character willing to put so much time and effort into an underpowered platform to prove that he could build something this incredible? At the other end of the spectrum was bikes that embraced racing rooted in history, like Doug Stedman with his 1960 Velocette Venom cafe racer, with which he strived to evoke the spirit of Velocette’s past speed trial efforts or Heath Reed’s Triumph T140 hotrod street-tracker tribute to David “Doc” Bennett,” an AMA Pro Flat Track racer from 1968-1975. Brian Cox also looked back with his raw metal 1972 Kawasaki that showed off his perfectionist metal shaping skills while Terry Heydt had a more contemporary interpretation of a speedway racer with his 1997 Suzuki Savage.
Larry Curik recalled the first bike he built in 1972 as he put together his perfectly proportioned dual front-head 93 cubic inch Shovelhead tracker. Then there were two other trackers that took a more contemporary approach, Garett Wilson’s super clean and nimble looking garage built 2001 KTM 640 Duke and Kully Millage’s 1960 XLCH Ironhead in a custom-made Titanium frame with unique rear torsion bar suspension. Mitch Witkamp built a very modern looking 1995 BMW K1100LT racer that incorporated LED panels cut into the raw aluminum all throughout the bike. What you hardly noticed by day, became Vegas by night!
Two racing-style extremes were positioned beside each other at the center of the gallery. On the vintage side, there was Rick Dozer’s 1916 Model J Harley racer that melded the look of board-trackers from the day with vintage aerospace design. Dozer handmade this bike from aluminum alloy except for the engine and the wheels. Then on the modern side of this display were two versions of the same full custom (yes – even the custom single-cylinder engine) from Chris Cosentino of Cosentino Engineering. His Hypermono Naked was shown in both race and street dress. From the unique engine design to the Chromoly steel tube frame, one-piece cast aluminum swingarm, and every other custom piece on them, they demonstrate Chris’ philosophy in motorcycle design of ‘Less is More.’
Several performace customs derived their pedigree from the track, like MotorWitch’s Danny Wilson with his Swordfish 2022 Softail that he built from a brand new 2022 Harley-Davidson Softail Standard and Maggie Holt’s V-Twin Visionary “GRRRL Scout” modified 2020 Indian Scout Bobber. Another Indian came from Go Takamine, the builder known for coining the name “Brat Style” to describe his style of customizing, which has become so popular that Brat Style has become its own genre today. Go applied his style to a 2022 Indian Chief Limited with its all-new redesigned steel-tube frame. While I’m on about Indians, Toce Performance’s Dan Toce fits right in here with his long “Michael Michael” chopper built around an Indian Bottle Cap engine. From the Denvers Springer up front to the Pan Am wheels fitted with perimeter brakes, the Baker 6-in-4, and TEK Cycles drivetrain, he utilized the finest components throughout
Daniel Heman took a more radical approach as he applied his performance genes to a chopper for which he built the single down-tube stainless steel frame that holds a custom Evo engine built up with Sputhe Cases by Bacon over at DC Choppers.
The remainder of the bikes in the exhibition bikes I would put more in a show bike category. However, this may be misleading as most also consider performance, and many will be daily riders. The remaining brand outlier is Anthony Robinson’s Gasoline & Coffee beautiful and meticulous 1951 6T Triumph. Appropriately named “Monarch,” he fit it into the tiny and tight package he has become known for.
These last bikes are built from Harley-Davidsons, and most I would describe as choppers. The only Knucklehead was Franklin Lussier’s 1940 bare metal creation that showed off his ability to form metal into beautiful shapes. This was his first full custom build, and he knocked it out of the ballpark. The years he put in working with Cristian Sosa are evident in this long curvaceous rigid with its Denver Springer leading the way. Four Panhead choppers were on display, with each being unique and distinguished. There was J Ryan Anderson with his 1950, Dan Starkey and his 1952, Jeremy Valentine’s 1956, and Joe Marshall’s 1965. There were even more Shovelheads with five being represented. They weren’t as consistently long as the Panheads, as there were two shorter bikes; Ray Llanes 1972 “Blue Me” that he capped with cast aluminum tanks and Gayden Mansir’s 1982 “Kraken” cone Shovelhead that utilized two front cylinders and heads. From there, it went to a short chopper, Mike Mormon’s “Nervous Breakdown” split rocker with more of an East Coast feel. Then there were two long bikes, Dustin Werner’s that utilized a RKB springer ahead of its single down tube chromed frame and Sam Rapschutz’ drop-seat frame with its long Denvers springer.
Two of the builders weren’t content with a dedicated engine model, so they mixed theirs up! No School Choppers Sean Gallagher built his chopper in the mountains of Colorado with a Pan/Shovel powerplant, and then Brock Bridges powered his chopper with a Shovel/Evo engine.
There was one more builder that couldn’t be categorized: Randy “Detroit” Hayward. Known for historical bobbers and period-correct restorations, Randy did something with an eye on the future and the past. His “Dirty Diana” aka “Lady Marmalade” 1929 Henderson KJ Streamline electric conversion looks like a ratty old bike, but its guts are all forward-thinking. Housed inside is a ME1507 Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor powered by 420 Molicel with p42A batteries.
Our world is changing quickly, and motorcycling is changing with it. I like what Robert Pandya, the Chief Operating Officer of the Sturgis Buffalo Chip, said recently; “Emergin’ Virgin” may portend what is coming as this era of Baby Boomers comes to an end.” He explained how by the time the 85th anniversary of Sturgis rolls around in 2025, the Baby Boomer generation that pushed the meteoric growth of the Sturgis Rally through the 1990s and 2000s will start aging out. They will be 60 years old on the younger side and 79 at the other end, so with each year’s passing, we will see less and less of them in the hills as Gen-Xers and Millennials bear the torch. The openness of these younger generations concerning life, and motorcycles specifically, is refreshing and impactful on most, if not all of us. And so a song keeps repeating in my head, “the times they are a-changin'” (by Bob Dylan, 1964).
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’
(Bob Dylan, 1964)
Many thanks to the 16 artists and 32 builders who have given so much time and energy to create this exhibition, our 27 incredible sponsors for their support, and the Buffalo Chip for hosting this endeavor. Marilyn Stemp, Rod Woodruff, Robert Pandya, and Ron Meyer (with his gallery crew) have each been particularly helpful. And I couldn’t have done it without my son Sean, with whom I work side-by-side daily, and my wife Catherine, who has somehow put up with my crazy hours and escapades for over 40 years!
In 1979, Easyriders started to publish some of Michael’s motorcycle photography. He photographed a number of smaller events and features specifically for them, proved his abilities and then was off on his third trip to Sturgis in 1981, now on assignment for Easyriders, for whom he has returned there ever since. Also in 1981, after a solo exhibition of his work at the Gallery of Photography in Dublin, Ireland, which was boycotted by the League of Decency, Michael became disillusioned with the “art world” and again changed course. He stopped publicly exhibiting his photographs in favor of publishing his motorcycle work in Easyriders and simultaneously began developing his career as a commercial advertising and corporate photographer. By 1982, his studio was open in Boulder, Colorado. It wasn’t long before he developed a clientele that included companies like IBM, Sun Microsystems and Kraft Foods.
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