2024 BMW Art Car No. 20 by Julie Mehretu (BMW M Hybrid V8)

Over the past 50 years, some of the world’s most important and highly regarded artists have turned 20 BMWs into the BMW Art Car Collection. The BMW vehicles that have been turned into works of art using a wide variety of graphic and artistic techniques are as different as the artists themselves—from pure racing thoroughbreds to production vehicles and rare sports cars. The results are all vastly different. No two vehicles are alike. Several of these rolling masterpieces have also competed in top racing events including the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Daytona. For the first time ever, BMW Art Car No. 20 by New York based contemporary artist Julie Mehretu will be presented in North America at The Bridge. This year’s event serves as the perfect venue to celebrate the American-made masterpiece, as 2025 marks the 50th anniversaries of the BMW Art Car Collection and BMW officially selling vehicles in the USA.

Having celebrated its World Premiere in Paris last year before taking on the 24 Hours of Le Mans like many of its predecessors, Mehretu’s BMW M Hybrid V8 is the latest in a long line of storied BMW Art Cars dating back half a century. Mehretu follows in the footsteps of art icons like Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Esther Mahlangu, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, and Jeff Koons. Space, movement, and energy have always been central motifs in Mehretu's work. For the design of BMW Art Car No. 20, the artist transformed a two-dimensional image into a three-dimensional representation, with which she succeeded in bringing dynamism into form. Mehretu used the color and form vocabulary of her monumental painting Everywhen (2021–2023) as a starting point for her design. Its abstract visual form results from digitally altered photographs, which are superimposed in several layers of dot grids, neon-colored veils, and the black markings characteristic of Mehretu's work.