Opening this Saturday in the Mission’s Nowheresville SF gallery is an eclectic group show featuring the paintings, drawings, watercolors and mixed-media creations of several local artists and cyclists including Alexis Knudsen, Chris McNally and Casey Robertson. Works by gallery owner Paul Urich and curator Stevil Kinevil will also be highlighted in the month-long exhibit co-presented by the Colorado-based bicycle company Swobo.
I’ve personally known Stevil for several years, as we frequent the same social circles within the Bay Area cycling community. In addition to his status as a beloved dark horse ambassador of cycling with a wry sense of humor, he’s a prolific writer, artist, and “an unashamed and unapologetic Germanphile” — hence the colorful title of the show: Fahrrad Verrückter Künst. It’s “a continuation of my appreciation for German Expressionism, my wife and her family’s heritage … and because I think anything with an umlaut looks cool,” Stevil commented via email.
Fahrrad Verrückter Künst, which loosely translates to “Bicycle Derelict Art,” has its roots in Stevil’s passion for cycling culture and artists who work outside of the mainstream.
“I spent a few years employed as an art installer. Our clientele included museums, renowned galleries and the Bay Area’s elite. I was dismayed to find that in all of my time employed in that profession, only a few clients (private collectors specifically, as opposed to the museums or galleries) would purchase pieces of art because they happened to genuinely love them.
In all of the other cases, people were buying art that their consultants would tell them to, because the artist was the flavor of the month, or because their neighbors had bought a piece. It was all very “keeping up with the Joneses.” Suffice to say, at least in that regard, the work is ‘outsider art,’ because we’re not on the status quo’s radar, which frankly, after having seen that side of it, I’m perfectly happy with.”
