When you think of art cars, you probably think of BMW rides commissioned from visionaries like Andy Warhol and Jenny Holzer. Or maybe you think of homegrown models, bedecked with plastic army figurines and Mardi Gras beads. But photographer Luis Gispert has found another variety of art car -- one born from an acute obsession with high fashion.
Gispert's latest series of photographs began when he stumbled across a Cadillac Escalade upholstered with brightly colored fabric that was a knockoff of the recent Louis Vuitton line created by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. What interested Gispert was not only the final product, but also the fact that the Escalade's owner didn't know who Murakami was -- and that the work, while well-done, was clearly DIY, a product of deep obsession.
Gispert decided to document the Escalade. His recent photographs have captured the insides of heavily customized airplanes and big rigs, typically shot from behind the driver's seat, looking onto a spectacular view -- the Grand Canyon, New York at sunset, etc. -- so he tried the same approach with the SUV. It worked (see above).
Since then, Gispert has found other "fashion cars", all of which demonstrate the same obsession to detail. In a way, they're more like hoopties, minus the tuning: thoroughly blinged, thoroughly personal, and thoroughly, well, thorough.
Gispert's photo series of these cars will debut during New York Fashion Week this September at Mary Boone Gallery. And at $25,000, the prints are still cheaper than most of the rides themselves.
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