Linus Coraggio (20th Century). Asymmetrically Barred, Shaft Drive, Suicide Shifter Chopper, 2023. Welded steel and plast...

Description

Linus Coraggio (20th Century)
Asymmetrically Barred, Shaft Drive, Suicide Shifter Chopper, 2023
Welded steel and plastic
19 x 48 x 12 inches (48.3 x 121.9 x 30.5 cm)
Signed and dated on back wheel: LINUS CORAGGIO 8/2023

Linus Coraggio is an American sculptor whose motorcycle-based works have been exhibited in New York City galleries for decades and featured in Outlaw Biker magazine. His sculptures were included in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's influential traveling exhibition The Art of the Motorcycle, positioning his practice at the intersection of contemporary sculpture, industrial design, and American biker culture. Since 1986, Coraggio has produced nearly 200 one-of-a-kind welded motorcycle sculptures ranging in scale from intimate tabletop works to full life-size constructions.

Coraggio's work has also been the subject of documentary film. The Motorcycle Art of Linus Coraggio premiered at the Nice Motorcycle Film Festival in France in 2019, where it received an award, and examines his creative methods and artistic philosophy. A second feature-length documentary, US Route 66, scheduled for release in 2027, devotes an extensive segment to Coraggio, including interviews and performance-based outdoor footage. His collectors include Ringo Starr, who's manager commissioned an "art chopper" incorporating drumsticks, a Gretsch bass drum pedal, and torch-cut steel peace symbols to commemorate his twenty-seventh wedding anniversary.

Coraggio's early fascination with motorcycles began in childhood and was later reactivated through his engagement with Italian Futurist art of the 1920s. This influence encouraged an approach centered on exaggeration, asymmetry, and the transformation of found objects into expressive sculptural forms. His artistic development was further shaped by his nine-year studio residency in a former gas station on Manhattan's Lower East Side, where proximity to custom chopper builder Indian Larry and a local Hells Angels chapter provided a sustained immersion in biker aesthetics and design innovation.

The imaginative scope of Coraggio's practice is exemplified by works such as his 2023 Asymmetric-Ally Barred Shaft-Drive Suicide Shifter Chopper, a sculpture that deliberately defies mechanical plausibility while asserting a coherent visual logic. Beyond motorcycle sculpture, Coraggio works across painting, printmaking, photography, film, performance, and sculptural furniture. He is also recognized for pioneering "3-D Graffiti" in the early 1980s and for founding the Rivington School, securing his place within the history of New York's downtown art scene.


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