This July, the heart of Shoreditch came alive like never before. From July 3–5, the iconic Bike Shed played host to the very first edition of MotoArto, a bold new event blending the raw energy of car culture with the flair of contemporary art.
(Photo by @stillmovingmedia)
Reimagining Automotive Aesthetics
MotoArto is not your typical car show, in fact, it’s deliberately not one. Instead, it’s a cultural collision: where the machine becomes muse, and chrome meets canvas. The event was created to disrupt tired tropes of petrolhead culture and offer a fresh, inclusive perspective. Think: underground gallery meets curated garage.
Among the standout names redefining what “car-inspired art” can look like were none other than: Maxim, the frontman of The Prodigy, Sophie Tea who transformed an electric Porsche Macan into a rolling canvas, San Kara, Joel Clark, and Gabriella Anouk to name some.
With my photography that mixes animals, classic cars, and architectural dreamscapes, I felt right at home in this bold new world. From desert highways to Jag on Jag, my photographs blur the lines between fantasy and nostalgia, cinematic pauses that invite viewers to dream bigger and see the familiar through a surreal lens. At MotoArto, they took on a new dimension, displayed alongside reimagined motorbikes, rare concept cars, and a crowd eager to rethink what automotive art can be.
''The Jaguar''
Beyond the Showroom: The MotoArto Mission
Curated by Kim Shaylor of Gone Rogue and Marchella de Angelis, a longtime documentarian of outlaw car culture, MotoArto set out to dismantle the masculine clichés that still dominate the automotive world. And it succeeded, not just through the art, but through the energy, diversity, and accessibility of the entire event!
(Photo by Hoda Davaine/Getty Images)
