Earlier this month American based international automotive artist Heidi Mraz made her UK debut at this year’s Royal Automobile Club’s Art of Motoring Exhibition at the Conduit Gallery at Sotheby’s in Bond Street, the first time the RAC has partnered with RM Sotheby’s, having previously hosted the artwork in its Pall Mall Clubhouse.
Heidi was one of 25 well-known motoring artists and sculptors that included former Swedish Formula One and Le Mans winner Stefan Johansson who made his artwork debut two years ago, exhibiting works from her Art of Provenance and Petal to the Metal collections.
Heidi has created a wide range of contemporary fine artwork dedicated to significant cars, using art to share automotive stories and preserve history. Her process is rather unique in so far as she thoroughly investigates her subject, gathering an extraordinary amount of information.
Using thousands of historically relevant layers, she assembles art that is far beyond a snapshot image by creating an archival retrospect of a given vehicle, as well as the people and culture surrounding her subject.
Heidi has submerged a canvas in a Swiss lake to chronicle the infamous sunken Bugatti pictured here, named “Beneath the Surface: Bugatti of Lake Maggiore”, and even painted a canvas using a wind tunnel to honour the first cars Porsche designed in a wind tunnel, namely the Porsche 906 and 917 the latter also pictured here, named “Shaped by the Wind”.
To show the extraordinary lengths she goes to, Heidi has buried a canvas in Bordeaux where a race car had been entombed during World War II to hide it from the Nazis, and even dragged a canvas through the Baja desert during the NORRA Mexican 1000 to engrain the region’s infamous silt into her work to make it more authentic.
Prior to the Art of Motoring Exhibition, Heidi was a featured artist at Sleeping with Art, which was an experiential, two-day event held at Hedsor House in Buckinghamshire.
Commenting on her visit to the UK, Heidi said:
“There is a wonderful energy in the UK for historic automobiles and this same enthusiasm is reflected by the increasing interest in automotive art. My time in the UK was an extraordinary experience on so many levels. As a guest of the Royal Automobile Club, I enjoyed its great fellowship and enthusiasm for all things automotive. I was honoured to share my artwork and car stories overseas and look forward to more collaborations with the British collector car and arts communities in the future.”
Over in America, Heidi has been the poster artist for several major American Concours d’Elegance as well as being commissioned to paint the Best of Show cars of Pebble Beach. She is also a consulting curator for The White Collection in San Francisco and has judged several major American concours. Her current project is a documentary that chronicles the behind-the-scenes of her historically based automotive assemblages. For more information on Heidi Mraz’s and her works of art, please visit: www.heidimraz.com.
Author Bio:
Simon Burrell is Editor of Our Man Behind The Wheel, a professional photographer and former saloon car racing driver.
Photographs courtesy of Heidi Mraz Fine Art
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