The traditional art car has long lived a sheltered life, sequestered behind velvet ropes and exhibition barriers. Once commissioned, photographed, and displayed for a fleeting moment, these rolling sculptures typically find a quiet retirement in private collections, preserved as static museum pieces that rarely feel the touch of an open road. Cultural entrepreneur Larry Warsh has spent years gathering precisely those kinds of transcendent objects, but his newest venture takes a radically different approach. Instead of locking art away from the public, his latest project sends a fleet of high-end vehicles straight back out into the bustling flow of urban traffic.
Titled "A World Within," this ambitious public art initiative is on view across London throughout the month of October, deliberately timed to coincide with the prestigious Frieze art fair. The project unites an original, continuous body of work by the acclaimed Brooklyn-based artist KOZO with six of the signature luxury vehicles belonging to The Peninsula London. The newly minted art fleet comprises two Rolls-Royce Phantoms, a Bentley Bentayga, a BMW i7, an electrified Austin taxi, and an LEVC electric vehicle. Together, these six distinct automobiles carry a single, unbroken composition that reads as one massive, cohesive work of art. Crucially, none of these cars are hidden away on a showroom floor or locked inside a gallery; every vehicle remains in active daily service, fully bookable by hotel guests and members of the public throughout October, effectively transforming the streets of London into a moving, interactive gallery experience with passengers riding inside the artwork itself.
Rethinking the Automobile Through CART Department
Larry Warsh built his platform, CART Department, on the foundational premise that an automobile can—and should—be much more than a mere instrument of utilitarian transport. Established to champion the vibrant intersection where cars, art, and pop culture collide, the initiative views modern vehicles as having evolved far beyond their original mechanical purposes, transforming instead into powerful sculptural and conceptual art objects.
The growing collection behind that curatorial vision now spans more than 70 one-of-a-kind art cars bearing contributions from legendary and contemporary heavyweights such as Keith Haring, Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, Lawrence Weiner, Rashid Johnson, and Olafur Eliasson. By bringing KOZO—a celebrated tattoo innovator whose intricate micro-realism has fundamentally reshaped both the contemporary fine-art landscape and the traditional craft of tattooing—into this elite lineage, Warsh continues to push the boundaries of where contemporary art can live and how audiences can experience it.
Unveiling History Through the Skin of a Car
KOZO’s conceptual designs for the Peninsula fleet are executed with striking visual cleverness, reading primarily as a dramatic paper tear. Across the body of each vehicle, the hotel’s iconic Pages appear to physically peel back the dark exterior skin of the car to reveal an idyllic British landscape hidden underneath. Expansive parklands, grazing animals, and stately historic homes emerge in rich shades of green and ochre that subtly echo the property’s signature Peninsula Green. These pastoral vistas are further threaded with recognizable motifs, including the Peninsula’s Guardian Lions and prominent London landmarks such as the historic Wellington Arch.
This three-dimensional, naturalistic landscape sits in sharp visual contrast against the flatter, monochrome figures of the Peninsula Pages. Rendered with clean, deliberate outlines that draw heavily from a traditional tattoo-flash graphic style, these uniformed figures ensure that the historical and mythical elements being uncovered remain visually distinct from the present-day characters discovering them.
Reflecting on the conceptual depth of the project, KOZO notes that the collection actively bridges past and present, generating unexpected visual juxtapositions that allow history and myth to feel vibrantly alive once more. By inviting viewers and passengers to journey within the art fleet, the project quite literally makes the audience a part of the unfolding narrative, allowing the rich heritage of The Peninsula to surface directly through the exterior skin of vehicles that remain in active daily service.
Translating Fine Art to Complex Curves
Developing the visual composition required navigating a complex set of physical and technical parameters. Over a rigorous three-month development period, KOZO conceived and refined the artwork, beginning with detailed digital sketches laid directly over precise photographs of each specific car model. Once finalized, the intricate designs were fabricated into premium vinyl wraps by the expert detailing technicians at Topaz, working closely in conjunction with The Peninsula.
For an artist accustomed to working on flat canvases or human skin, applying a comprehensive narrative composition to an automotive body presented a unique and formidable challenge. A car, as KOZO points out, is never a blank white canvas; this specific project forced him to translate his distinctive language as a painter and tattoo artist onto a dynamic, moving vessel.
The distinct, three-dimensional proportions of each individual vehicle model actively shaped the drawing process at every turn. Working alongside the vehicle’s existing factory paint, its sweeping curves, the specific contours of the hood, trunk, and doors, and even functional hardware like side reflectors required meticulous planning. Every physical feature had to be accounted for and integrated into the overarching composition rather than fought against, ensuring that the finished artwork would read with absolute clarity even when the vehicle was constantly in motion on busy city streets.
A Century-Deep Heritage Rooted in Automobiles
For Warsh, the partnership with The Peninsula London represents a natural alignment rooted deeply in automotive history. The luxury hospitality brand’s relationship with the automobile spans nearly a century, tracing back to a legendary, record-setting order of Rolls-Royce Phantoms placed in Hong Kong decades ago. Warsh notes that The Peninsula London felt like an ideal collaborator because of an organizational identity genuinely anchored in automotive heritage.
That institutional dedication is visibly woven throughout the London property, from its immaculately maintained classic and modern fleet to specialized hospitality spaces like the car-themed restaurant situated on the building’s eighth floor, which pays tasteful homage to the brand’s long-standing connection to motoring culture. Warsh’s personal relationship with The Peninsula predates the current art fleet project entirely, stemming from an earlier collaboration in which he arranged to display a David Hockney BMW art car at the hotel—an initial seed that ultimately blossomed into this expansive new commission. For Warsh, seeing the initiative come to fruition feels very much like things coming full circle.
Bridging the Gap Between Fine Art and the Public
At its core, the driving force behind the project is accessibility. Warsh champions the automobile as an exceptionally effective vehicle for carrying contemporary art far beyond the insular confines of traditional gallery spaces and museums, reaching audiences who might never actively seek out an art exhibition on their own.
By launching the fleet during Frieze week—a period when London swells with international collectors, curators, and global cultural enthusiasts—the project places world-class contemporary art directly in the path of the crowds most primed to appreciate it, while simultaneously engaging everyday urban commuters and hotel guests. As Warsh observes, cars serve as a brilliant bridge between diverse communities, offering a dynamic medium through which people can encounter and learn about art in an unexpected context.
Throughout October, the six wrapped vehicles remain out on the open street and in constant motion, far beyond the static confines of a conventional art fair booth, accessible to anyone fortunate enough to book a ride. While the traditional art car has historically been defined as an object meant solely for quiet contemplation behind a barrier, Larry Warsh and KOZO have successfully engineered an exhibition that invites the public to climb right inside.
