A free-wheeling tour of SoCal galleries
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According to Josef Bray-Ali, “You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a 35-year-old mother beating down a burning pinata.”
And he should know. For the last two years, Bray-Ali (who runs Bike Oven, a repair shop/art gallery) has conducted Spoke(n) Art, a biking tour of Northeast L.A.’s art galleries. Largely conceived as an exercise in fun -- think after-parties with flaming pinatas -- Spoke(n) Art regularly attracts eclectic groups of 60 to 70 people every month. But it’s far from the only cycling gallery tour to be gathering speed. Somehow, it seems, bikes and art just go together.
“Bikes can go where cars can’t take you,” says Alex Amerri. A recent Sci-Arc grad, Amerri created RIDE-Arc with some schoolmates in July 2005. Designed with advanced riders in mind, RIDE-Arc follows the architecture -- distances and exotic locales (Watts at night!) be damned. Thoroughly researched, and featuring expert speakers (from halfway house residents to academics) and unique themes (e.g., “The Sex Ride,” “As Seen on TV”), Amerri’s tours attract around 100 people every time. “It’s really a dialogue about how all these design elements are related,” he says. On a bicycle, these connections become apparent: “You’re constantly being stimulated by everything around you.”
Whole cities are getting in on the action. Next week, Shay Sanchez and Liz Elliott are reprising Pasadena ArtRide, a five-gallery sampler of Pasadena ArtNight, the biannual extravaganza featuring the city’s many theaters, museums and galleries. The duo -- co-directors of Cyclists Inciting Change thru Live Exchange, or C.I.C.L.E. -- have made a point of designing a scenic, leisurely paced itinerary. Putting people on bikes, they’ve found, freed strangers up to mingle. “Cycling is about engagement,” says Elliott. “Art does something to you emotionally, it enlivens you, wakes you up. And that’s what this ride does.”
And participants can take that engagement to whatever level they’d like. “Last month I rode in [to Spoke(n) Art] on a rickshaw with sound bending equipment,” says Bray-Ali. “We’re part of the art show.”
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-- Mindy.F[email protected]
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SPOKE(N) ART RIDE
WHERE: Meet at the intersection of York Boulevard and North Figueroa Street, Highland Park
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Sat.
PRICE: Free
INFO: www.bikeoven.com/ spokenart; www.nelaart.com
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RIDE-ARC
WHERE: Location and theme TBD
WHEN: 9 p.m. Fri.
PRICE: Free
INFO: www.ridearc.org
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PASADENA ARTRIDE
WHERE: Meet at One Colorado Courtyard, Pasadena
WHEN: 6 p.m. March 14
PRICE: Free
INFO: www.cicle.org
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