Porsche Car Art

The intense heat, dryness and vivid color of Chris Labrooy’s work is a far cry from the often cold and harsh environment of his home in remote Scotland, so much so that it seems like the digital sphere acts as a form of escapism. He admits that the contrast is essential, and that if he had not moved home after a spell living in California, it would not feature so heavily in his work today. But where do the cars fit in to all this? An air-cooled Porsche seems like a strange muse for an artist whose work is at once so modern and otherworldly.

“I’ve always been into cars, ever since I was a small boy,” Labrooy says. “I’d play with them, then I would draw them, then drive them in computer games. Even as a youngster I was fascinated by the design of cars. I remember seeing an episode of Top Gear where they went to the Royal College of Art and from the next day onwards I was telling my friends that that was where I wanted to go. To study car design.”

“Of all consumer products, cars are the ultimate object of desire. They are such complex things, with unique and very specific identities.”Chris Labrooy

The reality of art college saw Labrooy side-tracked into painting and sculpture and cars were all but forgotten for a while, but an increasing focus on product design meant they would make an inevitable return. “Of all consumer products,” he says, “cars are the ultimate object of desire. They are such complex things, with unique and very specific identities.”