07262014Sat
Last updateFri, 25 Jul 2014 3pm

Mexican artist shows cycle sculptures in New York

Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are getting a close up view of 122 "bicycle sculptures" created by 82-year-old Mexican artist Gilberto Aceves Navarro.

The orange, red and white bicycle silhouettes have been installed in ten public spaces in Brooklyn and lower Manhattan and are designed to promote healthy living and art, according to the artist.

"Besides being beautiful in their form, (bicycles) are also a great way to bring health and environmental benefits to a world that is in great need of both," says Aceves. "My bicycles are what I call vehicles of happiness and health.

Aceves Navarro is one of Mexico's most well known contemporary artists with more than 200 individual exhibits on his curriculum. A former assistant to famed muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros, Aceves has received numerous awards for his work and his murals can be found in Mexico, Japan, Canada, Brazil and the United States.  

"Las Bicicletas" was first exhibited as part of Aceves' 2008 retrospective exhibition in Mexico City, when 110 bicycle sculptures were presented in the esplanade in front of the Palacio de Bellas Artes and the adjacent La Alameda Park.

Eleven of Aceves' sculptures are permanently installed in the municipality of Tlajomulco, outside Guadalajara.

For more information visit www.lasbicicletas.org.