East LA Lowrider Bike: Hydraulic Graphics
A print that doesn't sit still. Stripes of color bend, turn, repeat, and ripple out behind the bike, and the back wheel rolls right off the edge of the image. Call it hydraulic graphics: it bounces. It performs. It keeps moving outside the frame.
Why East LA. Rafael Esquer grew up in Sonora loving flat color and the giant stripes of 1970s supergraphics, long before he knew there was a word for them. In his early twenties he moved to Los Angeles and found lowriders, placa lettering, hand-painted signs, and Chicano murals: design made on the street, not in schools, and better for it. East LA Lowrider Bike is a tribute to his Mexican roots, and to everyone who, like him, left home and found a new one on the road.
🎨 TWELVE INKS, PULLED BY HAND: Screenprinted one color at a time in Mexico City by Maestro Arturo Negrete at Taller 75 Grados, a workshop printing since 1984. Its name is the angle a squeegee should hold as it pulls ink through the screen: 75 degrees. Watch the print come together, ink by ink, in the video above.
🚲 MADE FOR A BICYCLE SHOW: Created for Chain Reaction, an international bicycle print show by Colossal and the Design Museum of Chicago in 2018, held alongside the museum's exhibition Keep Moving: Designing Chicago's Bicycle Culture. Featured on Colossal.
✍️ SIGNED AND NUMBERED: A limited edition of 50. Every print is signed and numbered by the artist and comes with a Letter of Authenticity.
🎁 A MEANINGFUL GIFT: For someone who grew up in Los Angeles, a cyclist, a lowrider fan, or anyone starting a collection of screenprints.
♥️ OUR GUARANTEE: Not fully satisfied? Reach out within 30 days and we'll make it right.
🚚 SHIPS FROM OUR STUDIO: Ships from our studio in Harlem, New York, rolled in kraft and tissue paper inside a sturdy tube with protective end caps.
🌍 ORDERING FROM THE EU OR UK? This print ships from New York, so your country may charge VAT and a carrier handling fee on delivery. Our Etsy shop collects VAT at checkout instead, so nothing is due at your door: [order it on Etsy]([Etsy listing URL]).
*Important note*
The frames in the pictures are for display only; the poster does not come with a frame.
© Alfalfa New York – this is an original design of Alfalfa New York. Purchase of this artwork does not transfer commercial reproduction rights.
Ownership and copyright of all images and intellectual property remains with Alfalfa New York LLC.