In this article, I speak with international artist about his time in New York City, being friends with Andy Warhol and the magical essence of his Cosmic ‘X’ art.
(The Life of Luxury)
Also included, Armstrong features two legendary motorcycle artists: John Britten and Allen Millyard to a new generation that will appreciate their legacy.
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Guggenheim Museum in New York ran a very successful art exhibition called in 1998.
The Britten V1000 is a hand-built race motorcycle designed and built by John Britten and a group of friends in Christchurch, New Zealand, during the early 1990’s.
Britten Motorcycles were the brainchild of John Britten from New Zealand, where these astounding motorcycles were built. These incredible machines were hand-built by John & his team & why the Brittens look like ‘rolling’ art.
The never-seen-before engineering that went into the Britten V1000 earned it the name of the world’s most advanced motorcycle from Cycle World. It baffled major factories, who couldn’t understand how a handful of people in a small New Zealand workshop could out-smart teams of engineers with the financial resources of leading motorcycle manufacturers.
The Britten V1000 recorded 39 race victories and 12 further podiums between 1991 and 1999, as well as an impressive list of top speed records. In particular, 1993 was a special year for records, with the V1000 setting the fastest top speed at the Isle of Man TT, it took the New Zealand Grand Prix title, set the world record for the flying mile in the 1000cc and under category at 188.092 mph, the world record for the standing start 1/4 mile (1000cc and under) at 134.617 mph, the world record for the standing start mile (1000cc and under) at 213.512 mph, and the world standing start kilometer record (1000cc and under) at 186.245 mph.
It’s safe to say that the Britten V1000 will forever be one of the most iconic and innovative motorcycles ever built, with an equally iconic story behind how it came to the fore of motorcycling in the 1990s. John Britten truly was one of history’s motorcycling mavericks and it is a great shame that we would never get to see the true potential of his ideas. He died from cancer, aged 45, in 1995.
Turning a motorcycle into art includes the back story and the story is as much art as the motorcycle itself. Brittens now sell in excess of £1,000,000 each. Seven out of fourteen Brittens are on public display.
John Britten & his V-1000 (Photo: Jack Armstrong)
Allen Millyard is an artist, residing in this story alongside Andy Warhol & Jack Armstrong, The Guggenheim Museum & Britten Motorcycles. Millyard created rolling sculptures which are works of art and fully functioning motorcycles, that are wildly different from production models & shaped like prototypes.
In the early 1970’s Kawasaki brought out the H2, a two stroke 750cc three-cylinder motorcycle known as the “Widow Maker”. Allen decided he would make four and five-cylinder versions of this iconic classic motorcycle in the mid to late 1990s and that’s what started his incredible journey.
Incredible Machines.
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Since those early days, Allen has built a range of incredible machines which have earned him his own section of the Barber Motorcycle Museum in the United States. He built a Kawasaki Z900 and grafted another complete bank of cylinders onto it, creating a V8 1600cc machine. He accepted a challenge to build a Kawasaki Z1300 six-cylinder, increasing it to twelve cylinders and 2,300cc. That was more than a challenge, as the task was almost impossible, due to the engine design, but Allen didn’t let that stop him.
Since then, he has made six-cylinder Kawasaki Z900s, a four-cylinder liquid cooled two stroke Kawasaki with Yamaha liquid cooled barrels grafted on for a top end and numerous other machines. The way his creations ride is far more than the sum of their parts, which is surprising and enchanting in equal measure.
Kawasaki Z1300 (Photo: Jack Armstrong)
Millyard Viper V10 at the Essen Motor Show – Photo: Wikipedia – By – Own work, ,
(Photo: Jack Armstrong)
There are few artists with greater pull on the desire of art collectors than Jack Armstrong. He was friends with Andy Warhol, Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring in the 1980s. He taught David Bowie, Freddy Mercury and Michael Jackson to paint abstract and created his own style, Cosmic ‘X’.
His art has become the most expensive art in the world by a living artist and is hunted down by the greatest heavy weight art collectors. Jack Armstrong created and painted his Cosmic Starship Harley-Davidson twenty years after a conversation that inspired the idea with Andy Warhol himself. You can read about it here, featured on
Cosmic Extensionalism, or Cosmic X is a new and unique style of art created by Armstrong himself. What is Cosmic Extensionalism? How did Jack create this new way of expression? What does this have to do with motorcycles as art? Read on and have faith.
(Photo: Jack Armstrong)
Cosmic Firebird – $120 Million
A phoenix rising from the ashes of his own work, Jack founded Cosmic Extensionalism, or Cosmic X in 1999. He vowed to create a new style of art in 1994 when he repurchased all of his NYC art and burned it. Cosmic X is a genre of modern art created by Jack, five years after he burned his previous works. He is the art while he creates it. It’s about the loss of self/ego. This is evident in all spirituality. Buddhism teaches us that everything is one and nothing simultaneously. In ancient Greece acting was a spiritual practice making actors revered at that time. The hyper real acting movement of The Method encourages the actor to transform into their character while playing the role.
The art and the artist are one. As such, the viewer/perceiver of that art becomes the art and the art becomes the viewer/perceiver of that art. This is not some “spiritual waffle” just look at The Observer Effect where the existence of things changes when they’re observed.
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(Photo: Jack Armstrong)Cosmic Starship ‘Motorcycle’ As Art: Over 600,000 Views
Armstrong’s DNA is present in every painting and object he creates. When you buy an Armstrong artwork, you are certainly also buying a piece of the artist himself. He leaves a piece of hair and fingerprints present in all of his paintings and works. This gives Cosmic X art the ultimate provenance as it makes his work impossible to forge, unlike many other famous forgeries of artwork, as you can see here.
His Cosmic X series consists of only one hundred pieces and it’s a conversation with the universe. He is the antithesis of Warhol’s Factory – his work is a universal process, as he channels each brushstroke. Armstrong is in dialogue with the universe and it expresses itself through him and his work. Many great artists, actors, writers and musicians explain their work as getting the ego out of the way to channel something magical through themselves and this is clearly how Jack works.
Armstrong with actor Rick Mora & the Cosmic ‘Starship’ Harley-Davidson (Photo-Jack Armstrong)
The Cosmic Harley was swapped for a high value painting by Jack himself. After the sale in 2012, Jack remained in contact with the owners of the Cosmic Harley. They had fallen in love with his artwork and were especially keen on a painting he called Star Key #733. The painting was a $50,000,000 piece and Jack was wanting to bring the Cosmic Starship home again. So he swapped the painting for his favorite sculpture and the prodigal artwork returned home to Jack Armstrong.
(The Life of Luxury)
I asked him why he swapped a $50,000,000 painting for the Cosmic Starship Harley-Davidson and he told me that “it’s the Mona Lisa of Motorcycles.” He felt for such an iconic motorcycle, known in countries all over the world, he wanted it to be on display in a private collection or to be seen by the public. The Cosmic Starship had the bodywork removed and had been languishing in a vault for ten years and Jack couldn’t bear it not being on display. He said, “How can the Mona Lisa of motorcycles not be displayed?”
Cosmic Star Key #733 – $50 Million
Jack Armstrong is the first artist to have been involved in a two-year Digital Retrospective of his artwork on giant screens in Times Square NYC. It was shown every fifteen minutes, twenty-four hours a day between 2018 and 2020. Millions of people around the world viewed it.
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Alice Walton (Walmart Heiress) owns two Armstrong pieces, valued at $50,000,000 each. There is no other artist alive who fires up art collectors like Jack Armstrong. Everything he touches attracts global collectors, who desire the world’s rarest modern art.
Cosmic Harley and Actress Gretchen Rossi (Photo: Jack Armstrong)
No other artist has expressed themselves on such unusual media as – cowboy boots, the most valuable handbag on earth, a bicycle and the iconic Harley-Davidson V-Rod. These works are magical creations and are walking, cycling and “rolling thunder” works of art. These are among the rarest Jack Armstrong 3D objects with a purpose and not simply paintings, but true art as these objects become his canvas.
Jack’s work speaks to collectors and his personality clearly matches his work. He is currently ‘Celebrating his 50th Anniversary’ as an artist and digitally sharing his work as the world takes notice. Armstrong’s 100 Cosmic X Paintings – become more valuable each year.
(The Life of Luxury)
Cosmic Starship Harley-Davidson. A rolling Jack Armstrong painting or a Jack Armstrong sculpture?
Clearly, the Cosmic Starship Harley-Davidson is the most famous example of the motorcycle as art. This piece has been featured worldwide in many, many publications in South America, all over Europe, the USA and the Arab nations. The bike has been featured in The Life of Luxury.
(The Life of Luxury)
Even Damien Hirst could not achieve anything close to the $3,000,000 that Jack Armstrong achieved in 2012, which makes this the most expensive example of the motorcycle as art. Armstrong’s tenacity to do business his way, without using art dealers or auction houses, only working directly with buyers …. seems to have paid off.
Armstrong is a brilliant self-publicist who always gravitates towards the least ignorable route to publicity, as you can see in this short video of his launching of the Cosmic Starship Harley-Davidson.
It assures the buyer that they are buying a genuine piece from the artist and he issues a certificate to prove the provenance. The motorcycle has been featured in the Dupont Registry Magazine and has recently been featured on the front cover of Ultimate Motorcycling.
(Ultimate Motorcycling)
The Warhol connection is well documented. Armstrong used to ride his Harley-Davidson around New York with Warhol on the back in the mid 1980s. During this time, Warhol was producing a lot of work featuring motorcycles. They seemed to be springing up at every opportunity, both in his work and consciousness. After a ride through the city, Warhol asked Jack what he was going to do and he replied, “I am going to create a Million Dollar Harley.” Warhol replied: “You’ll become the Last Wizard of Art”. Warhol’s words became one of Jacks most iconic paintings.
The Last Wizard – $120 Million
(Jetset Magazine)
Only twenty odd years later did Jack bring that dream into reality by creating the Cosmic Starship custom Harley-Davidson motorcycle. It was always conceived as a space craft, something moving through the universe and it became his canvas. It’s as much a piece of art as his paintings, some of which sell for over $100,000,000. Except it is the only motorcycle he has ever painted. Warhol bestowed “The Last Wizard of Art” title on Jack Armstrong because he respected him and he sincerely respected Jack’s work.
Andy Warhol’s soup can and Jack Armstrong’s Harley-Davidson have a lot in common. You can see in this article by the Huffington Post.
(Huffington Post)
This Harley-Davidson is Jack Armstrong’s Campbell’s soup can. It’s his canvas and his painting that rides and rolls. No other living artist has lit up the world with such a real and yet ethereal piece of work as the Cosmic Starship Harley. It is the realization and manifestation of a dream that came directly from a conversation with Andy Warhol himself.
As Freud said, “Only the realization of a childhood dream can bring happiness”. I’m sure Jack Armstrong doesn’t care whether the Cosmic Starship is a childhood or adult dream he realized. It’s the realization of a dream. Whoever owns this piece of Armstrong is buying the realization of a dream cooked up directly from a conversation between Andy Warhol and Jack Armstrong.
Armstrong sets his own values for his paintings, as he doesn’t use dealers or exhibit as such. In 1984, he turned down the opportunity for a solo show of his works. It was offered to him by the renowned art dealer Leo Castelli, the most powerful art dealer in America.
Armstrong has always represented himself and set the values of his artwork. Setting his own values rather than being told what they’re worth, is entirely faithful to the Cosmic ‘X’ mindset. Jack Armstrong clearly dances to his own tune and trusts his work like no other living artist trusts their own work. Or is he trusting the universal presence he experiences when he works?
Armstrong is currently on the January 2025 cover of Elite Luxeliving Magazine (Dubai Edition)
What is Cosmic Extensionalism, or Cosmic X? It is a new style of art founded by Jack Armstrong in 1999 in Los Angeles.
Cosmic X is a genre of modern art styles, as are the famous genres of “Cubism” by Picasso or “Pop Art” by Andy Warhol. It was originally founded as an organic art movement and is singular by comparison. Cosmic X requires the artist to become the art itself. This requires a unique state of mind to be reached, connecting to a universal presence which Armstrong believes exists in each being. It is this connection which creates the art, not the artist.
Jack Armstrong produces the most expensive paintings by a living artist, as you can see in this The Life of Luxury article.
(The Life of Luxury)
His Cosmic Starship Harley-Davidson certainly represents the most expensive Harley-Davidson ever sold when it went for $3,000,000 in 2012. However, Jack’s art has seriously increased in value since then. This Harley is a rolling Jack Armstrong painting and is unique. There is nothing else like it in the world. Warhol never created a motorcycle – which could be setting record prices today. Jack Armstrong beat him to it, making him ”The Last Wizard of Art.”
(Photo: Jack Armstrong)
The Cosmic Starship is a rolling Jack Armstrong painting and also a sculpture that rides. Jack opted to keep the Harley-Davidson V-Rod standard, because his work is enough. There is no other rolling Jack Armstrong motorcycle in the world.
If Warhol had painted a car that’s for sale, or a motorcycle, what value would they have today? Would either one sell for more than his $195 Million “Marilyn” painting?
(New York Times)
In closing, many believe that Armstrong’s ”Cosmic Starship Harley” will sell for more than $200 million in the near future. In the future, his ‘Warhol Naked‘ painting is destined to become the world’s first billion dollar artwork.
(USA Art News)
In closing Jack Armstrong mentions his famous relative, astronaut Neil Amstrong and says,
‘Nothing is impossible when you communicate with the universe.”
Photo Montage from the “Cosmic Starship” Harley-Davidson Red Carpet Event
