Julie Mehretu Unveils BMW Art Car at Art Basel Hong Kong 2025

BMW presents the 20th Art Car by Julie Mehretu at Art Basel Hong Kong 2025. The vehicle blends dynamic design, 3D mapping, and motorsport performance.

At Art Basel Hong Kong, BMW unveiled its 20th Art Car — a striking fusion of visual art and motorsport. The vehicle was designed by Julie Mehretu, an American artist of Ethiopian origin, drawing on her monumental painting “Everywhen” as the conceptual foundation for the BMW M Hybrid V8. Notably, this Art Car already made headlines in 2024 during its participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

But this isn’t just a painted racecar. Mehretu referred to the project as a “performative painting” that comes alive at speed — a dynamic artwork reaching its full expression on the racetrack. Through advanced 3D mapping technology, she digitally deconstructed her canvas and reassembled it onto the body of the car, incorporating layered photography, bursts of neon, and her signature gestural marks. BMW’s engineers translated this vision onto the car without compromising aerodynamic performance.

The Art Basel showcase also includes miniatures of all 20 BMW Art Cars spanning five decades. Previous artists include Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer, and Cao Fei — the latter having created the 18th Art Car in 2017. American conceptual artist John Baldessari followed with the 19th Art Car, expanding the legacy just before the current edition.

The 20th Art Car is now on a global tour running through 2025 and 2026, making appearances at international events such as Taipei Dangdai, Market Art Fair, Concorso d’Eleganza, and more. The tour will culminate in Cape Town, where the vehicle will be exhibited at Zeitz MOCAA — Africa’s leading museum of contemporary art. There, in 2026, it will be joined by works from the African Film and Media Arts Collective — an initiative launched by Mehretu and BMW, in collaboration with producer Mehret Mandefro, to support emerging creatives in cities like Dakar, Lagos, and Cape Town.

Far from a retrospective gesture, the 20th BMW Art Car marks a turning point. It reflects a shift from static object to kinetic installation, from personal artistic expression to collective cultural engagement. Following its debut in Paris, critics noted that Mehretu had redefined what a BMW Art Car can be — and where it might go next.

Source: bmwgroup.com