MIDLAND, TX.- The Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas is putting its pedal to the metal – and NASCAR racing metal on display – with a new solo exhibition by American artist Steve Maloney. The artful exhibit will highlight 22 of Maloney’s mixed media, wall-mounted works and free standing sculptures from his This is Where the Rubber Meets the Road series. The exhilarating salute to racing created from actual NASCAR automobiles that roared to life on the track – and have the dents, scrapes and tire marks to show for it. The exhibition runs May 15-August 31, 2007.

The This is Where the Rubber Meets the Road exhibition marks the West Texas debut for Maloney, who hails from Rancho Santa Fe, California. A lifelong race enthusiast and aficionado of Americana, Maloney created the “modern sculptural collages” as a vivid visual paean to NASCAR, which has 75 million fans and counting. With his innovative use of color, transformed advertising logos and twisted car parts, Maloney intended the series to be appreciated by art connoisseurs as well as racing fans – the latter of whom can delight in spotting parts from their favorite racers; the former of whom will just be left breathless.

The exhibits highlights works like Boogie Woogie No. 1, created from strips of NASCAR metal and acrylic paint, High Octane, incorporates a NASCAR fuel can and sheet metal in a free standing sculpture, and the colossal Maloney 500 installation of six NASCAR front ends combined with aluminum, copper tubing, and splashed on acrylic paint which are practically racing at the viewers.

“Abstraction does not have to exclude reality,” noted Maloney, who was a three-time driver in the Baja Mexican 1000. “My work in This is Where the Rubber Meets the Road combines them by using actual objects to convey visual images and slices of Americana. In this case, it’s God Bless America, Hail the Checkered Flag, and hand me another can of Bud, please!”

With 40,000 square feet of exhibits and a single-minded focus on what drives America, the Petroleum Museum is an ideal environment for Maloney’s eye-grabbing work. “We’re very excited about welcoming Steve to West Texas and exhibiting his This is Where the Rubber Meets the Road series,” said Kathy Shannon, Executive Director of the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum. “Such exhilarating work goes a long way toward revealing the intriguing diversity of the exhibitions the museum has to offer.”