Pedaling good art

WHAT: ARTCRANK
WHEN: April 12 – May 1
WHERE: One On One Bike Studio
TICKETS: Free

You wouldn’t think a city covered in snow five months out of the year would be ranked the most bike-friendly city in the United States, but it’s a pleasant reality, according to Bicycling magazine. The bastion of all things bike recently listed Minneapolis at the top of their annual list, effectively toppling the smug tyrants of Portland, Ore. The news came as a shock to the people of Portland (their mayor even addressed it, bitterly, some would say), but had they seen the legion at ARTCRANK, the self-proclaimed “poster party for bike people,” they would not have been surprised.
The doors opened at 7 p.m. and the mob of cyclists and art fans in attendance flooded the narrow spaces of Northeast Minneapolis’ Shelter Studios , leaving plenty of runoff to slowly trickle in. Thirty-nine posters — a collection of bike-centric pieces by Minneapolis’ most talented artists — were strung along the stark walls.
There are always a few stragglers in a collection this big, but ARTCRANK’s pieces were, for the most part, unique and accessible. None of the artists in question bogged down the simplicity of the bike with concepts of high art; instead, their works exude a childlike sense of fun and wonder … “funder,” you could say.
Amy Jo’s “Ride ‘em Cowboy” shows a cartoon cowboy gleefully riding his bike, and Brian Hartley Sago’s “Lunar Cycles” presents a man brazenly riding his old timey bicycle on the moon. Scott Neff’s “Cycling Weapons of Mass Destruction” rounds off the boyish fantasy set with a nefarious bike standing against a post-apocalyptic backdrop of red.
But to some extent, the event said less about the art being exhibited and sold and more about the community that gathered around it. In the broader culture, biking has come to connote solitariness, and “fixed-gear” has become increasingly equated with the word “hipster,” but ARTCRANK showed cycling enthusiasts coming together to form a both plentiful and diverse crowd. Sure, there were more than a few heavily bearded, cutoff capri-wearing fellows in neon Wayfarers. And yes, Animal Collective did loop out of a stereo system as people tumbled from the cozy studio. But the collection of patrons and casual gawkers in attendance were not easily pegged. There were middle-aged women sporting tacky, shoulder-padded blazers, there were Dockers -wearing dads hanging onto their squirming kids, and there were even those too heavy to conceivably ride a bike at this stage in their lives.
As ARTCRANK’s opening night closed, it was the event’s communal showing that resonated most strongly. More than a few people exited with a poster under their arms, but they didn’t simply bail upon completed transaction. They chatted with their fellow bike aficionados, compared purchases and shared a little firewater before pedaling back home.