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Home - Art
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Nice Wheels
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Peter Lochren celebrates 10 years of turning
old cars into art
by Sean McCarthy
Unless another car is engulfed in flames, it’s safe to say one of Peter Lochren’s cars will be the most eye-catching vehicle you’ll see in a parking lot.
For more than a decade, Lochren has transformed older cars into rolling pieces of art.
Discarded computer motherboards, monster toys and bottle caps have all adorned older model cars that Lochren has used as canvas. This weekend, Lochren celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Central Art Car Exhibit, a traveling gallery showcasing his Art Cars. The exhibit will stop at the Children’s Museum, the Old Market and in Council Bluffs. His vehicles will be in the Labor Day parade in Downtown Omaha.
One of his latest works, “Art Over Violence,” was done with help from Blackburn High School students and Creighton Mentors from Creighton University. Students painted more than 250 metal discs that were later attached to the car. Some discs have anti-violence messages painted on them. A flat screen, attached to the rear passenger window of the 1970 Cadillac, shows a video of students helping decorate the car.
After Labor Day, Lochren plans to use the “Art Over Violence” car as a traveling gallery, going to lower income areas and donating recycled materials to young adults. Lochren said participants could then turn those materials into art and either keep the piece of art or contribute it to his traveling exhibit. Lochren plans to start the program locally, but go on to expand it to other cities, such as Minneapolis.
Lochren calls this method of bringing art to the streets “art cruise.” He and his girlfriend, Christine M. Walker (co-curator of the Central Art Car Exhibit), have driven their vehicles into neighborhoods to not only promote their artwork, but promote art in communities.
“Not everyone gets to go to museums and galleries,” Lochren said.
His studio, located at 16th and Cuming, is a blend of art gallery and mechanic shop. He occasionally opens the studio to private showings and parties, but on a cool summer afternoon last Wednesday, he was assuming the role of mechanic, fixing an oil leak on a 1994 Chrysler Imperial covered in caulk. Walker’s car will eventually become a cake to commemorate Central Art Car Exhibit’s tenth anniversary. Like all the cars Lochren works on, it is suitable for the road.
“I’m going to be driving a cake for as long as it allows me to drive,” Walker said.
The mix of art and mechanics runs in Lochren’s family. His mother, Rita, was an artist. His father, Peter Lochren Sr., was an electrical engineer at AT&T. Lochren said his father would put him under the hood of cars to show how they worked.
Lochren has traveled as far as San Francisco to showcase his work to fellow Art Car artists and enthusiasts. During his trek west, his car (a 1970 Cadillac ambulance that had a alien on the hood) broke down in Wyoming. A motorist from Minnesota, driving a car decorated with corks, stopped. She was en route to the Art Car fest in San Francisco.
The subculture of Art Cars is documented in the documentary Automorphosis. It took 10 years to make and earned the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at this year’s San Francisco Indie Film Festival. The movie is directed by Harrod Blank. In true artistic spirit, the movie is being promoted by the filmmakers, who are traveling in Art Cars and screening the film at theaters in several cities. Hunter Mann, Blank’s assistant, drove into Omaha to meet with Lochren and Walker before going to Lincoln to screen Automorphosis at the Bourbon Theatre.
Mann arrived with two cars: Pico De Gallo and California Fantasy. Pico De Gallo is a 1963 Volkswagon Bug decorated with drumsticks, 8-track recorders and CDs. California Fantasy is a 1975 GMC Van that has more than 5,000 pounds of brass decorations. Less than a minute after parking both vehicles outside Jackson Artworks, 1108 Jackson St., people began photographing them with cell phones and digital cameras.
“It’s almost like a parade on wheels,” Mann said. ,
Automorphosis plays Sept. 2, at 8 p.m. at the Bourbon Theatre, 1415 O St., in Lincoln. Tickets are $5 for 21+, $7 for 18+. The Central ART CAR Exhibit will be a part of the 33rd Annual Septemberfest Labor Day Parade, Sept. 7. The parade starts at 10 a.m. at 16th and Cass and concludes near 10th and Webster. Additional Central Art Car Exhibit events for this weekend can be found at centralartcarexhibit.com.
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