CHRIS VERBICK
A crowd gathered in front of the large red ARTCRANK chainring banner.
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ARTCRANK

A poster party for bike people — brought to the UK and Europe.

  • Events
  • Art
  • Screenprints

ARTCRANK LONDON · EST. 2013 · A POSTER PARTY FOR BIKE PEOPLE

STATUS
ARCHIVE
FOUNDED
2007
ROLE
Organiser — Europe
SECTOR
Live events & art exhbitions
LOCATION
London, UK
TEAM
Local artists & volunteers + Charles Youel, Nicki McCracken, Chris Verbick

ARTCRANK is a show of bicycle-inspired poster art — original, limited-edition screenprints from local artists, priced so anyone can take one home. Started in Minneapolis, it grew into a travelling party for bike people. I brought it to London for the first edition. After that, I brought the show to cities around the UK and later Europe.

Through the shows, I worked with hundreds of artists, several top-tier brands, and raised thousands of pounds (£) for charities and not-for-profits.

Two-tone green screenprint of a road bike, signed VERB.

Community, 2011 - VERB.

// THE POSTERS

Art that loves bikes

Every artist got the same brief — make a poster about bikes — and total freedom on the rest. The result was a wall of wildly different work, from peloton illustrations to bears on unicycles, each one a small-run screenprint you could actually afford.

ARTCRANK London 2010 poster: a tallbike with massive drivetrain drawn in silver line work on near-black.
London 2010 — Look Mum No Hands, Old Street - VERB
ARTCRANK London 2012 poster: overlapping wheels and chainrings in red, orange, green and blue.
London 2012 — Plain Wall Projects, Hoxton - VERB
Screenprint of bicycle parts — fork, chain, pedal, chainset and wheel — in cyan on deep blue.
Muscle Over Metal – strong bike, stronger body — VERB
A bicycle drawn so its two wheels loop into an infinity symbol, white on cornflower blue.
Infinity — the ride that never ends — VERB
A screenprinting carousel set up in the gallery, screens loaded, guests watching from across the table.

The press, running all night.

// THE CRAFT

Shirts printed on the night

The posters came to the show already printed — the t-shirt press came to the party. A screenprinting rig ran in the room all night, pulling ARTCRANK t-shirts while people watched: pick a shirt, watch the squeegee go over, walk out with the ink freshly cured. It turned a gallery show into something closer to a workshop with a bar.

Hands pulling a squeegee across a screen laid over a t-shirt on the press.
One pull, one shirt.
A printer holding up a freshly pulled grey t-shirt with a yellow tandem-bike design.
Straight off the press.
A printer in an ink-spattered shirt holding up a white tee with the ARTCRANK ring.
Ink freshly cured.

// THE NIGHT

A poster party for bike people

ARTCRANK gallery floor lit by string lights, posters pegged to lines above the crowd.
Opening night — the floor fills up.
Back of a denim jacket with the ARTCRANK chainring "A" patch, posters behind.
Our partners, Levi's created custom jackets for the team.
Two guests laughing in a tiled industrial room.
Bike people.
A visitor browsing the poster wall beside numbered price cards.
Every print numbered, every print affordable and ready to go home.
Pouring drinks for bike art lovers.
The bar.
A guest in an ARTCRANK "A" t-shirt mid-conversation.
Running the room.
Two people silhouetted against the "Attack the Pack" poster.
Taking it in.

// GROUND STATIONS

WHERE IT TRAVELED

19 cities across two continents — from the Minneapolis origin to the UK and Paris.

MINNEAPOLISLONDON

  • UNITED STATES [13]

    Minneapolis · Chicago · St. Louis · Des Moines · Denver · Austin · Las Vegas · Los Angeles · San Francisco · Portland · Bend · New York · Boston

  • UNITED KINGDOM [5]

    London · Manchester · Bristol · Oxford · Bournemouth

  • FRANCE [1]

    Paris