Rendering of McLaren Artura GT4 designed by Mickalene Thomas for DART Car. | Photo Courtesy DART Car
ART THAT CELEBRATES BLACK WOMEN is hitting the professional racing circuit. Mickalene Thomas designed a custom wrap for a McLaren Artura GT4 race car. The commission was announced by Driven Artists Racing Team (DART Car), a female-led team focused on highlighting the achievements of women in professional motorsports and fine art, both male-dominated fields. DART Car was newly launched by entrepreneur Zoë Barry, art advisor Spring McManus, and race car driver Aurora Straus.
Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Thomas is the first artist to work with DART Car. In addition to the car wrap, she designed custom driving suits and hand-painted helmets for Straus and Barry, who drive for the team. The race car was unveiled at the Classic Car Club Manhattan on Feb. 18.
“The mission of DART Car is to create positive change and was co-founded with the idea of commissioning work from female artists for racecars driven by female pilots,” Barry said in a statement. “Together, artists and athletes can help elevate each other and shift the dollars to underrepresented, yet amazingly talented, women. I am incredibly excited to work with Spring and Aurora, both of whom are experts in their respective fields of art and motorsports and partnering with Mickalene Thomas is a true ;pinch me; moment. I simply cannot wait to race the first-ever Mickalene Thomas x McLaren Artura…this racecar is making history!”
“The mission of DART Car is to create positive change and was co-founded with the idea of commissioning work from female artists for racecars driven by female pilots… I simply cannot wait to race the first-ever Mickalene Thomas x McLaren Artura… this racecar is making history!”
— Zoë Barry
Mickalene Thomas with the racing helmets she customized. | Image Courtesy Kelsey H Campbell Photography
Thomas is recognized for her visionary depictions of Black women. Her practice celebrates the Black female body; explores contemporary notions of beauty, agency, and sexuality; and engages the tenets of Black feminist theory and modern art history. She works across painting, collage, photography, film, and installation, but is best known for her rhinestone-embellished, mixed-media works. “Mickalene Thomas: All About Love,” the first international touring exhibition of the artist opened last year at The Broad in Los Angeles, Calif., then traveled to the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, Pa. The show is currently on view at Hayward Gallery in Southbank Centre in London, through May 5, 2025.
The design for the custom car wrap reflects key touchstones of Thomas’s aesthetic, including a deconstructed Cubist portrait of a woman’s face, emphasizing her lips and long-lashed eyes, and collage-like elements in planes of reflective color, Ben Day dots, glitter, and zebra print.
“I’m passionate about the intersection of art and women in sports,” Thomas said in a statement. “This collaboration with DART Car embodies the perfect union of art and feminism as a potent fusion of creativity, speed, and female empowerment, challenging stereotypes by inspiring innovation and redefining the boundaries of power and beauty of women in the driver seat.”
The car will race for the first time in SRO GT4 America at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., from March 28-30, 2025. At the conclusion of the season in January 2026, DART Car is participating the 24H Series Middle East Trophy in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The occasion is historic, marking the first time all-female-led team is in the series, according to DART Car.
“Both art and racing are close to my heart. As a veteran female driver, I am all too used to being the only woman in the room, and despite the push for diversity these last few years, we have so much further to go as an industry,” Straus said in a statement. “We have purposefully chosen hyper-competitive, co-ed racing series to prove that women can compete against men on equal footing. And to the (few, but vocal) people in the racing industry who still say we shouldn’t be there – we’re looking forward to proving you wrong this year!” CT
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McLaren Artura GT4 designed by Mickalene Thomas for DART Car. | Photo Courtesy DART Car
McLaren Artura GT4 designed by Mickalene Thomas for DART Car. | Image Courtesy Kelsey H Campbell Photography
Front of McLaren Artura GT4 designed by Mickalene Thomas for DART Car (corner angle). | Image Courtesy Kelsey H Campbell Photography
From left, Zoë Barry, Aurora Straus, Spring McManus, Mickalene Thomas in front of McLaren Artura GT4 designed by Mickalene Thomas for DART Car. | Image Courtesy Kelsey H Campbell Photography
Feb, 18, 2025: McLaren Artura GT4 designed by Mickalene Thomas for DART Car unveiled at Classic Car Club Manhattan. | Image Courtesy of Kelsey H Campbell Photography
BOOKSHELF
“Mickalene Thomas: All About Love” accompanies the international traveling exhibition currently on view at Hayward Gallery in Southbank Centre in London. The publication includes a conversation with Mickalene Thomas conducted by Hayward Gallery Chief Curator Rachel Thomas, and essays by Claudia Rankine, Darnell L. Moore, Ed Schad, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Renée Mussai, and Christine Kim, that consider the artist’s “distinct visual vocabulary, drawing on themes of love, intergenerational female empowerment, and tenets of Black feminist theory.” From Phaidon Press, “Mickalene Thomas” features essays by Roxane Gay and Kellie Jones. “Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe” was published on the occasion of Thomas’s 10-year retrospective. Additional publications include “Muse: Mickalene Thomas: Photographs,” “Mickalene Thomas: Femmes Noires,” and “Mickalene Thomas: I Can’t See You Without Me.” Also consider, “Figuring History: Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, Mickalene Thomas.”
