Custom painted Street bikes

For 10 years, Brooklyn-based artist James Terrani features quietly worked as a master finisher for some of the art world’s biggest brands, lending supersaturated color and a hyperreal gloss on works of such artists as Jeff Koons and Urs Fischer. Recently, as a side venture, he's got been pointing their spray guns toward a fresh surface: high-end bikes. Joined by visual designer Alex Ostroy—who has created graphics for journey de France winner Greg LeMond—the two place customized styles on bicycles, melding the painting prowess of Terrani utilizing the playful humor and aesthetic omnivorousness of Ostroy.

Dazzling continuous fades and deep colors tend to be a hallmark, plus sly sources: a BMC model encouraged because of the color-field artist Gene Davis; a bike “wrapped” in faux tape like those favored by street-hardened messengers; as well as the Cervélo S5 for the owner of a high-end New Jersey bicycle shop that blends Rolex and Hermès logos with a Trans Am badge. Going from art to bikes just isn't without a learning bend, states Terrani, whom notes that modern bikes, along with their complex aerodynamic forms, are designed to withstand wind (and paint) at every turn. “You can’t work against that, ” he states.

The set, as PoseurSport, bring panache and character into the rather buttoned-up world of overall performance biking. “Riding a bike is one of the couple of possibilities you need to feel just like you’re a young child once again, ” says Ostroy, “riding around clothed like a superhero.”