Motor Skills | Grayspeed Motorcycle Tank Art Show
by JULIE GARISTO
The Vintage Motorcycles and Apparel Retailer Teams Up with Local Artists to Help CASA.
Last Saturday, prominent Tampa Bay artists revved-up interest in a stylish new downtown retail space and donated their valuable time to raise funds for a more-than-worthy charitable organization.
The Tank Art Show gathered Bask, Tes One, Frank Strunk III, Chad Mize and six other artists (see Daniel Veintimilla’s photos below) to create amazing pieces of art on gas tanks at the new Grayspeed. The exhibit coincided with a vintage car show in the Grayspeed’s parking lot. Its cars and trucks from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s took us back to an era when automobiles were stylish and beautiful machines and didn’t all look alike.
Attendees also got to browse the shop, which combines contemporary decor with vintage 1960s sophistication. The exquisite Triumphs, Harleys and other bobbers and choppers — works of art unto themselves — took us back to the heyday of London mods and rockers.
Grayspeed sells parts and fashionable apparel as well as accessories. Retro bumper stickers, postcards, and other odds and ends in display cases brought a smile. During the art show portion of the evening, a silent auction benefited CASA, a local organization that helps to end domestic abuse. Lowbrow Customs provided the gas tanks.
“I want to build a space that creative people can build and grow,” said owner Grayspeed Jeff Lovelady.
The aesthetically minded presentation of Grayspeed’s bikes and merchandise displays, as well as the shop’s collaboration with the arts community, left us with a positive premonition of how influential art can be in attracting shoppers to brick-and-mortar retail spaces.
