A Two-Wheel Odyssey into the Heart of the American Artland — May 03-22, 2024

Follow along as four politically engaged artists search for America through its artists, gallerists and curators on a motorcycle trip through the American heartland, from Los Angeles to New York and back, to explore the current state of contemporary art in a time of political unrest and the true swamp of a divided country.  How is contemporary art responding? 


 

SCHEDULE

What is CULTURIDE

In the spring of 2024, four artists - Alanna Airitam, Richard Ankrom, Wayne Martin Belger and Max Presneill - ride their Harley Davidson motorcycles from Los Angeles to New York City, interviewing visual art professionals about the state of America and arts role in maintaining democracy along the way. Seeing the country first-hand and experiencing the myriad ways in which America perceives itself, traveling through the beauty of its landscape and finding solidarity and friendship together, the three artists arrive in NYC to mount an exhibition of their work at Empty Circle gallery, in Brooklyn on May 11, 2024, before continuing the road trip back to Los Angeles. This is CULTURIDE - A two wheel Odyssey into the Heart of the American Artland.

The CULTURIDE Road Trip will be reported regularly on social media and a documentary film produced by the artists will be screened at the Torrance Art Museum, Durden and Ray Art Gallery, and the international TRYST Art Fair in August, 2024.

CULTURIDE ROAD TRIP ARTISTS

Alanna Airitam, driving the chase truck, has garnered recognition and acclaim, with exhibitions at Center for Creative Photography, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. Her work has been displayed in galleries across the United States.

Richard Ankrom, riding a Harley-Davidson Deuce, is an interventionist who reacts to his mundane surroundings, redefining found objects and environments. He is best known for his 2011 Guerilla Public Service where he manufactured and installed road signs on the busy 110 Freeway in Los Angeles to the same specifications used by California Transportation Authority.

Wayne Martin Belger, riding a Harley-Davidson Low Rider S, is celebrated for his 2nd Amendment Photo Project, an intimate study of Americans and their firearms across ideological and cultural borders from coast to coast and everywhere in-between. And he will continue traveling to places with injustice, war and persecution to bring awareness to the myth of Us and Them.

Max Presneill, riding a Harley-Davidson Softail Slim, is an artist and curator based in Los Angeles. An abstract painter, he has shown globally, with works that explore existential drive, class, and political sub-texts, tribalism, sub-cultural iconography, masculine identity, and mortality.

Leave Los Angeles May 3

Las Vegas May 4-5
(Tim Bavington; Matt Kennedy;
Punk Rock Museum)

Albuquerque May 6
(Margaret Fitzgerald)

Oklahoma City May 7
(Exhibit C Gallery)

St. Louis May 8
(Lisa Melandri - CAM St Louis;
Steve Smith - MOTO museum)

Chicago May 9
(Bert Green)

Pittsburgh May 10
(Danny Bracken - Mattress Factory)

NYC May 10-12
(Raul Zamudio; Marsha Pels)

Washington, D.C. May 13
(Smithsonian)

Knoxville, TN May 14

Memphis May 15-16

Dallas May 17
(Ray Beldner)

Marfa May 18
(Vance Knowles)

Tucson May 19-20
(Terry Etherton; Olivier Mosset)

Phoenix May 21

Joshua Tree May 21
(Billy Shire)

Riverside / Los Angeles May 22
(The Cheech Marin Center for
Chicano Art & Culture)