"Piston Head" Turns Cars into Sculpture for Art Basel Miami Beach
By Michael Slenske
In the past year Adam Lindemann’s energetic Venus Over Manhattan gallery has exhibited Jack Goldstein paintings of lightning, explosions, and aerial bombardments; partnered with legendary chocolate shop Confiserie Schiesser, in Basel, Switzerland, to pay sweet homage to William Copley; and, most recently, teased out the shadows of Alexander Calder sculptures. Now the mega-collector turned gallerist has focused his flair for creative installation on a Miami parking garage—a fitting backdrop for his latest exhibition, “Piston Head: Artists Engage the Automobile.” “I love car shows and I love art,” Lindemann says. “So I thought, Why not make an art-car show?”
Among the auto sculptures on display are a Dodge Challenger with every panel custom painted (and patinaed) by Richard Prince; one of French sculptor César’s car compressions; a 1963 Buick sedan painted by Keith Haring; and a vintage Mini Cooper with a Damien Hirst spot-painting scheme. At last night’s opening, L.A.–based artist Joshua Callaghan created a rubbing on a canvas draped over exhibition patron Ferrari’s new LaFerrari supercar.
“It’s kind of like a Japanese rubbing of a stone, like you’d rub a hieroglyph, to get an impression of the car,” says Lindemann, who anticipates Piston Head serving as a framework for a larger, more encompassing art-car exhibition. “It’s not an elitist show. I think it’s a nice intersection for people who like cars and people who like art.”