“I’ve been following [Italian racer] Valentino Rossi for 15 years. He was a teenage phenom and he’s stunningly rich now and still cute as a button, and he’s ridden for Honda and Yamaha and just signed with Ducati, and it’s such a brilliant thing,” notes Bengston, who used to race BSAs in his prime. “So what I said is, ‘Why don’t we paint them in Ducati colors?’” Translation: he’s base-coating one of them white with some Day-Glo green to match Rossi’s “eye-busting” signature leathers; the other will be grounded in Ducati red with a white top coat to represent American racer Nicky Hayden’s colors. Read More »
Further extending the West Coast vibe around town, the curators took the party to Campo San Polo on Saturday night, for Works in Motion, where skate legends Steve Olson and son Alex installed two quarter pipes in an otherwise tame square. As the sun went down on a humid night, the duo created a spectacle that the Bienniale, and no doubt the Venetian city hadn’t ever seen, with the soundtrack provided by the Santi Balor Band with Ty LeBlanc. The event could be a hint as to what audiences will see at the Olson’s upcoming collaborative exhibition opening July 1 at Nyehaus Gallery in New York. Then again, they could present something entirely different: when asked what they will create for the show both replied nonchalantly, “I don’t know.” Read More »