Let Me Ride

This past weekend marked the closing of the Queens Museum of Art's Q14 group exhibit. The museum, just a stone's throw from the temple-like CitiField, hosted eye-catching pieces by young artists living or working in Queens, from the superb photographer Justine Reyes, who showed part of her ongoing "Guayabera" portrait series, to Ryan Humphrey, whose "Fast Forward" (2009, DCKT Contemporary) featured 100-foot bike ramps mounted inside the museum and real bike pros doing demos on them, as well as artfully painted dirt bikes hanging on the facing wall like fine art.

Because the QMA knows how to throw a party on a sunny day, there was food, drinks, Mister Softee, and free bike and boat rentals. Of course, I had to get on, but not before stopping to admire the fresh bikes (a mini garden, a stocked pantry, and gleaming chrome were just a few of the attractions built onto bicycles). And the Indo-Caribbean bike gang from Richmond Hill, parked on tricked-out lowriders and giving the gangster glare? Not so menacing once you realized they were packing bike locks not heat. If you're one of those people whose mantra when it comes to art is, "Brooklyn Everyday," you should hop the 7 train soon.