LUSTER Exhibition

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The Evelyn Burrow Museum at Wallace State Community College will host the Alabama Cable Network car show, and a cruise-in open to all collectors and enthusiasts to kick start its new exhibition “LUSTER: Realism and Hyperrealism in Contemporary Automobile and Motorcycle Painting.”

“With such a wonderful collection of paintings featuring cars and motorcycles, we decided to pair the opening reception with a car show. We welcome the community to come out and see the real-life automobiles there and then see the life-like paintings in the exhibit,” said Kristen Holmes, administrator of The Evelyn Burrow Museum. “The realism in these paintings is amazing; you would think you were looking at a photograph, not a painting.”

The So-Cal Streamliner, the first hot rod to break the 200 mph speed limit at the Bonneville Salt Flats, will be on display during the LUSTER Exhibition.

In the museum, throughout the run of the exhibit, the first hot rod to run more than 200 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats will be on display to accompany the LUSTER exhibition. The So-Cal Streamliner was built by Alex Xydias, founder of So-Cal Speed Shop, and driven by Dean Batchelor. It broke two speed records at Bonneville, 196 mph in 1949 and 210 mph in 1950. Keeping with a Bonneville theme, a Triumph Bonneville motorcycle will also be on display.

“LUSTER: Realism and Hyperrealism in Contemporary Automobile and Motorcycle Painting” is on exhibit from Jan. 26 through Feb. 11. The traveling museum exhibition features more than 50 paintings in a range of media and size by 15 realists and hyperrealists who specialize in automobiles and motorcycles as their primary subject of choice. Hyperrealism emerged in the 1990s as a new generation of artists began producing an impressive, collective body of work that extended photorealist automotive painting.

A list of exhibiting artists includes: A.D. Cook (Las Vegas, NV), Randy Ford (Easthampton, NJ), Allan Gorman (West Orange, NJ), Marc Jones (Loveland, CO), Cheryl Kelley, (Fortuna, CA), Richard Lewis (Los Angeles, CA), Lory Lockwood (New Orleans, LA), Sherly Luxenburg, (Ottawa, ON, Canada), Robert Petillo (Hardyston, NJ), Kris Preslan (Lake Oswego, OR), Joseph Santos (Buena Park, CA), Ken Scaglia (Weston, CT), Guenevere Schwien (Portland, OR), Brian Tull (Antioch, TN), and Harold Zabady (Camp Hill, PA).

LUSTER encompasses a broad range of cars and motorcycles from vintage vehicles to classics of the 1940s and after. The exhibition is curated by David J. Wagner, who earned his Ph.D. in American Studies and served as a museum director for 20 years.

It is co-sponsored by The Evelyn Burrow Museum and Wallace State’s Automotive programs.

For more information about The Evelyn Burrow Museum, call 256.352.8457 or email burrowmuseum@wallacestate.edu.