Le Tour d’Art: Bicycle as Art, Art as Journey, debuts on May 5

Minneapolis bicycle shop, One on One Bicycle Studio, hosts "Le Tour d'Art" exhibition of Wisconsin artist Gregg Rochester's unique hand-painted bicycles and paintings. "Le Tour d'Art" opens May 5, 2006, and runs until June 6, 2006.

Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) April 29, 2006 -- Remember the days when riding a bike was for kids? Did you put streamers to your handlebars or clip on playing cards so the spokes would fan them for a clippity-clop sound?

Well, so much for nostalgia. Today’s cyclist is often a white-collar professional who’s given up running for the low-impact exercise bicycling affords. Bikes are totally high-tech, made of lightweight carbon-fiber and titanium these days. You can spend $5000 or more without breaking a sweat.

Today’s bike is a custom rig, not only in components but in how it looks. Many high-end riders are opting for personalized paint jobs costing at least $2000. So it comes as no surprise to learn that the nationally renowned artist Gregg Rochester has put his paint brush to the bicycle and transformed it into art.

Rochester, also an avid cyclist, has put together a show of his hand-painted bicycles and paintings that he’s dubbed “Le Tour d’Art,” which opens at 7:00 PM Friday, May 5, 2006 at the One on One Bicycle Studio in Minneapolis. Gene and Jen Oberpriller own and operate the Studio, which is a bike shop, coffee house and gallery all rolled into one. Gene was drawn to Gregg’s bikes-as-art, and together they decided to mount this show of both paintings and bikes. The show runs for one month.

“I love bikes, so it was only natural to visit Gene’s incredible bike shop,” says Rochester, who lives, paints and rides in Amery, Wisconsin. “We got to talking and I showed him some photos.”

“I was blown away,” says Oberpriller. “Custom paint jobs are nothing like Gregg’s bikes. These are art on wheels.” Designs include African trade beads, marbles, reptile skin; a night and day theme is painted on either side.

While none of the bicycles on display for the Le Tour d’Art show are for sale (the paintings are), Rochester says he would consider turning a cyclist’s bike into an objet d’art. “I think of painting someone’s bike in the same way as commission for a painting,” he says. Rochester’s work, which hangs in homes and offices from Europe to Asia, recently exhibited in New York and is represented by a number of galleries. His Web site is www.greggrochesterart.homestead.com where both paintings and painted bicycles can be viewed.

Formerly the home of such diverse enterprises as a machine shop, artist colony, punk band studios and a sauna, the One on One Bicycle Studio is known as one of Minneapolis’ coolest bike boutiques. It is located at 117 Washington Avenue N. in the Minneapolis Warehouse District, phone 612 371 9565, and on the Web at www.oneononebike.com

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