While NASCAR executives cringe when they see mangled metal on the racetrack, they’re enjoying the sight of bent, twisted, and ripped-from-the-chassis sheet metal mounted on the walls of their offices. Steve Maloney, an artist who splits his time between homes in Rancho Santa Fe and Palm Springs, has loaned 15 artworks to NASCAR corporate offices in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C.
Maloney obtained most of the metal for his series from the Internet, though teams provided parts for commissioned works. At the 50th running of the Daytona 500, he created a work trackside from cars that had been driven in the Rolex 24. That work was auctioned for charity, as was a subsequent work made from a collection of pieces supplied by Brumos Racing dating from the 1960s to the present.
A connoisseur of popular culture, Maloney exhibited 1800GadgetsAndGizmosArt.Com, a series of mixed media works, at True Value Hardware in Palm Springs in 2009.