“Emergin’ Virgin” Features Builders New to Motorcycles As Art Exhibit Curated by Michael Lichter

Over the years, the Sturgis Buffalo Chip’s Motorcycles As Art Exhibit has played host to hundreds of custom motorcycle builders. Getting a personal invitation from the show’s previous curator Michael Lichter is one of the highest honors a builder can receive.

For many years, each exhibit had an annual theme that assembled a unique group of craftspeople. Depending on the year, you might find the work of café racer builders or garage builders or a showcase of bikes with no paint. Unlike those years, the Emergin’ Virgin was open to anyone who’s work had never before been in a Motorcycles As Art Exhibition.

Removing any kind of thematic limitation allowed some fantastic new faces and works of art to emerge. Having this freedom gave the Buffalo Chip the chance to offer you a display that showed how truly diverse of the world of custom motorcycling is today.

Those who took a stroll through the dedicated 6,500-square-foot exhibit space came across everything from a custom electric race bike to a customized Vintage 1984 BMW K100RS, a 1972 S2 aluminum Kawasaki, a custom Suzuki Speedway bike, a custom KTM, Panhead and Knucklehead choppers, and so much more.

 

Michael Lichter began photographing custom bikes and the biker lifestyle in the 1970s. Working with Easyriders Magazine since 1979, he has produced over 800 stories for them. Michael is also a regular contributor to 16 other publications around the world, has 11 coffee table books to his credit and exhibits his photographic art in galleries and museums in the USA and abroad.

As a curator, Michael first started creating themed exhibitions with custom motorcycles and art in 2001 at the Journey Museum in Rapid City. In 2009, the annual exhibition was moved to the purpose-built 7,000 square foot gallery at the Sturgis Buffalo Chip where it was given the name “Motorcycles As Art.”

Michael has operated out of the same commercial photography studio in beautiful Boulder, Colorado for more than 35-years.

Find out more about Michael Lichter and see his work here:

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Website: lichterphoto.com