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Martin Vogel has natural talent for invention and
reinvention. Throughout his life he has had several successful careers in
vastly different fields. Vogel loves a challenge and puts his heart and soul
into everything he does.
Vogel’s first career was as a professional motorcycle racer.
He first hopped on a bike at the young age of 5, started racing at 16, and by 20
was a part of the American Motorcycle Association Formula 2 circuit. Amidst his
racing career, everything changed. During a routine warm up on the Infinion
Raceway in Sonoma California, another cyclist collided with Vogel, sending him
across the track and paralyzing him from the chest down. This did not stop
Vogel; it only fueled a lifetime of triumphs.
Only seven weeks out of recovery, Vogel, began his career as
a wheelchair racer, subsequently wining countless of races of various
distances. An inspiration to other paraplegic athletes, he has toured Europe
and North America competing, and is even a 5000 meter and 7 time world champion. In addition, he customizes and races super karts.
At the same time Vogel first hopped on a motorcycle, he
developed a love for creating art. He continued his exploration of art through
private study and college classes at Art Center in Pasadena, California. He
applied his lifetime passion for art when he rigged up an old wheelchair with
devices to apply paint on wheels to canvas. And so the invention of wheelchair
painting began and has since inspired other artists.
Vogel paints elaborate patterns with his wheelchair, some
beautifully symmetrical while others more abstract, but all rich in visual
harmony. To date he has completed over 800 canvases and hundreds of works for
hotels, offices, and restaurants. He has held exhibitios all over California as
well as in Washington, D.C. and Texas. His paintings have been featured at the 2001 Olympics and the Olympic Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as at the Modern Art Museum in Riverside, California.
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