Julie Mehretu’s 20th BMW Art Car Debuts at Art Basel Hong Kong 2025 as Part of Global Tour
Following its global debut in 2024, the BMW Group is proud to present the 20th BMW Art Car, designed by internationally renowned artist Julie Mehretu, at this year’s edition of Art Basel Hong Kong. The showcase is part of the ongoing BMW Art Car World Tour, celebrating 50 years of the iconic “rolling sculptures” that unite art, design, and innovation.
The 20th BMW Art Car will be on view at Art Basel Hong Kong alongside a display of miniature BMW Art Cars from across the past 50 years, with designs by artists including Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jenny Holzer, and Jeff Koons, on the occasion of this milestone anniversary. As a global partner of Art Basel, BMW continues its longstanding support for the fair’s VIP car service.
The BMW M Hybrid V8 Art Car, designed by Mehretu, has already captivated audiences worldwide with its bold and dynamic aesthetic. Deconstructing and reconstructing her large-scale painting “Everywhen” (2021–2023), the design incorporates digitally altered photographic layers, vibrant neon colours, and Mehretu’s signature black gestural marks. Using advanced 3D mapping technology, the car reflects a powerful fusion of art and high-performance engineering. Having competed at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2024, the Art Car continues to make an impact both on the racetrack and in the art world.
Julie Mehretu describes her vision: “Working on the BMW Art Car has allowed me to explore new dimensions of movement, space, and time. This car is not just an artwork; I call it a performative painting that reaches its full expression on the racetrack.”
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“The 20th BMW Art Car perfectly encapsulates the powerful symbiosis of art, technology, and design. And for over 50 years, the BMW Art Car Collection has inspired creativity, innovation, and dialogue amongst a broader global audience of art and car enthusiasts,” says Raymond Tan, Managing Director, BMW Hong Kong Services Limited.
The BMW Art Car World Tour.
Art Basel Hong Kong marks one of many global stops for the BMW Art Car World Tour, which spans 2025 and 2026. The tour highlights the brand’s long-standing commitment to the intersection of art and mobility, with planned appearances at major events such as Taipei Dangdai, Market Art Fair, Concorso d’Eleganza, and other cultural landmarks, including automotive museums and classic car festivals. Please find the complete press release with further press material for download here.
African Film and Media Arts Collective.
In conjunction with the Art Car exhibition, BMW and Julie Mehretu together with producer Mehret Mandefro are launching the African Film and Media Arts Collective. These workshops, hosted in 2025 across cities such as Dakar, Lagos, and Cape Town, aim to foster creativity and collaboration among young African artists and filmmakers. The results of these workshops will be displayed alongside the 20th BMW Art Car at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town in 2026.
The BMW Art Car Collection.
Renowned artists from all over the world have participated in the BMW Art Car program since 1975. The initiative came from the French racing driver and art lover Hervé Poulain, who, together with the then BMW Head of Motorsport Jochen Neerpasch, asked his artist friend Alexander Calder to paint a car. The result was a BMW 3.0 CSL, which competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1975 and became a crowd favourite.
This was the birth of the BMW Art Car Collection. In the years that followed, renowned artists such as Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Esther Mahlangu, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Ólafur Elíasson and Jeff Koons enriched the collection with further BMW Art Cars, each in their own individual style. Most recently, the Chinese multimedia artist Cao Fei and American conceptual artist John Baldessari each presented a BMW Art Car based on the BMW M6 GT3 and GTLM respectively in 2016 and 2017. The BMW Art Cars are not only shown at their home, the BMW Museum in Munich, but are also on tour around the world as part of international exhibitions.
The BMW Group’s Cultural Engagement, with exclusive updates and deeper insights into its global initiatives can be followed on Instagram at @BMWGroupCulture.
Experience the 20th BMW Art Car at Art Basel Hong Kong
March 28–30, 2025
BMW Lounge at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) Level 3 Concourse (Near Entrance 3D)
1 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong SAR, China