On the first exhibition of the year in Germany the Hamburg Motorcycle Days a lot of visitors showed up. For me it was the première of my new project for the "Hanse-Weekend" Bikefestival in the city of Stade. It will be the second Bikerfestival under the brand name of  "Hanse-Weekend" in Germany. Already for the first event in Lubeck one of my paintings were force behind it. The painting for the city of Stade is a homage between the historical and the new age.This is tapestried by Vikings on one of  their conquer trips also to the region were today the city of Stade is located. Here they are riding with cultured bikes into the old-fashioned fort "Grauer Ort". The viking statue at the entrance with the Star Spangled Banner will be the symbolic sign for the unification of the old and the new world. The seagulls circling in the sky are a symbol for maritime atmosphere.

The moderator of the show, Frank Sander, insist on getting me up on stage to explain the paining to the audience. The result was a crowdy booth and the posters printed exclusively for the show were out in a very short time. For those who are interested in painting technics, this painting was made in old fashion manner, only with canvas, brush and acryl paint. The motorcycle models on this theme are mainly grafted Harley-Davidson bikes. This painting fits perfectly to the region around the city of Stade.

Beginning of June, from June 1^st until the 3^rd there will be a great Bike-Festival called "Hanse-Weekend" not far from my homeplace.For that reason I got inspired to paint a poster theme with a historical background. In the first century this region not far away from the Northern Sea and the  Atlantic Ocean was controlled by the "Northmen". Scandinavian tribes better known as the Vikings. They moved to different places here conquer foreign land to earn honor and power. Even today this tribe has a kind of mystic corona and there are a lot of storys and saga about the Viking people.The journeys with their ships so called "longboats" took them all across the Atlantic ocean to North America which is today the land of Harley's and custom bikes. So thats why I tried to build a link by creating this picture. A link between pre historical background and modern art of motorcycles. That's why the bust above the main entrance and the Star spangled Banner grows together to a symbiotic message between the new and the old things - the past and the present. This picture will be annonced the first time on the Hamburg Motorcycle Days, the HMT 2012 from January 27^th until January 29^th at the exhibition halls near Dammtor station in Hamburg.

Michael , represented by Segal Fine Art U.S.A.

Michael Knepper | Official featured Artist by OCC

Fantastic news from the US: Now, I'm proudly present that I became the "Official featured artist by OOC" and therefore I'm  the only artist who is allowed to paint the bikes of Orange County Choppers!For a long time already,I'm not an unknown in the biker scene. As a dedicated biker I spend  a good deal of my  leisure time on my Harley Davidson "Fat Boy".

Therefore, it is not surprising that I'm  deeply inspired by that scene resulting in dozens of biker paintings over the  last years. That is how the idea for my  "Out of Hell" calendar evolved as well. It consists of 12 artworks displaying national and international customizer together with their Bikes in a unique symbiosis between Bikes and Bikers (such as Habermann Performance, Marcus Walz, Aykut, NLC, Russel Mitchell, Paul Cox, Keino etc.)

I've been on numerous exhibitions in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Italy  and- of course- last but not least in the US.

In Sturgis  I got to know  my  American art dealer Ron Segal from Segal Fine Art who has been presenting  me  for over 4 years now in the USA and helped  me  to gain extensive publicity and fans through plenty  exhibitions in New York, Miami, Washington, Daytona Beach, Sturgis etc.

As a result I will now immortalize the bikes of Orange County Choppers on canvas- for all their and my  fans and customers.

I will be present at the Hanse Weekend Luebeck this year again and possibly will show  my first OCC painting. For sure, part of the exhibition will be my own "Out of Hell" Chopper, which  I  recently designed and  built together with Anatol Egbuna from "Custom Metal".

All of my  paintings are available as posters and/or Fine Art Canvas Prints on  my website-  HYPERLINK "http://WWW.MICHAELKNEPPER.DE"WWW.MICHAELKNEPPER.DE as well as originals. I  also have multiple private customers who I  painted together with their bike. (Prices on request)