Art cars to rev up and roll into Oakland this weekend

Harrod Blank in his Camera Van in St. Louis, 2009 Harrod Blank in his Camera Van in St. Louis, 2009 Photo: Alicia Pena Photo: Alicia Pena Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Art cars to rev up and roll into Oakland this weekend 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

To see one art car on a city street is a novelty. To see a traffic jam of art cars on a city street can only mean the ArtCar Fest has rolled into town.

This is the 20th year of ArtCar Fest, and 50 or more artists are driving their sculptures and paintings in from across the country and Canada. On Friday, Oct. 7, the art on wheels will appear at Oakland First Fridays, forming a convoy on 23rd Street, between Telegraph Avenue and Valley Street.

On Saturday, Oct. 8, ArtCar Fest will hold its own event with live music, DJs, art car films and an ArtCar Fest Fashion Show at NIMBY, a warehouse space on Amelia Street.

“It’s a celebration of this whole art medium,” says Harrod Blank of Berkeley, co-founder of ArtCar Fest and undisputed king of the art cars.

Blank, 52, will be driving “For the Birds,” a 2004 Prius that belonged to his late father, the famous filmmaker Les Blank. Harrod Blank is also a filmmaker and put art cars on celluloid with “Wild Wheels,” a 1992 documentary in which he drove a ’65 Volkswagen Beetle, with a shot-up TV on its rooftop, around the country looking for friends.

By 1994, Harrod Blank had enough of them to form an Art Car Camp at Burning Man, with 10 cars. By the next year he had built his “Camera Van,” a 1972 Dodge van covered with 2,750cameras, 10 of which were wired to take pictures from a shutter on the dashboard. From “Camera Van,” Blank filmed art cars for his follow-up film, “Automorphosis.”

In 1997, Blank and Philo Northrup hosted the first ArtCar Fest at SOMArts in San Francisco. It has grown every year, with all ticket proceeds returned to the artists.

“We have a caravan coming from Houston of five or six cars,” says Blank, who is building an Art Car Museum in Douglas, Ariz. “ArtCar Fest has endurance and gets good gas mileage.”

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Instagram:@sfchronicle_art

ArtCar Fest 2016: 5-9:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7. Oakland First Fridays, Telegraph Avenue at 23rd Street; 6 p.m.-1 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 8. NIMBY, 8410 Amelia St., Oakland. $15 in advance, $20 at the door. (510) 366-3713. www.artcarfest.com