Summer of Love meets Isle of Man ... and London’s Ace Cafe

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It’s been 32 years since the Summer of Love, but that cultural touchstone is alive and well in the work of artist Adam Berry.

Berry, 27, wasn’t even a glimmer in his parents’ eyes when the hippies converged on San Francisco. He’s never been to California. But the left coast’s psychedelic sensibility has somehow found its way across the Atlantic and landed in Berry’s art, which melds the come-hither vixens and melting typography of this long-ago, far-away era with the iconography of his home country, the Isle of Man.

The small sovereign nation in the middle of the Irish Sea is best known for its TT – the 102-year-old motorcycle race that’s run on real roads by unsung racers who whiz within inches of stone walls and spectators at speeds approaching 200 mph. It’s the sport bikes and island checkpoints they pass at a blinding pace that have settled alongside the ‘60s vixens to create a sort of biker pop art in Berry’s work.

Never mind that Berry doesn’t own a motorcycle.

‘Being Manx, the TT is a part of your life from the get go,’ Berry said by phone from the Isle’s Sayle Gallery in Douglas, where he is an artist in residence.

As for the ‘60s, ‘I’m a massive Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix fan,’ he said.

As for fusing the two sensibilities, it was only natural.

‘In bike artwork, I’ll try to get a girl or some hair or words to make it more aesthetically pleasing rather than just, ‘here’s a bike and a background.’’

During this year’s TT, Berry’s artwork was shown alongside a mods and rockers exhibit put together by London’s famous Ace Cafe – another motorcycle-centric, British Isles venue – and one that has expressed interest in showing Berry’s work next year.

-- Susan Carpenter