Local artist Karwai Chan’s latest work of art is a hand-painted McLaren GT!



Remember Karwai Chan, the local artist we first heard about after seeing her ultra-realistic paintings in McLaren Kuala Lumpur’s showroom? She’s teamed up with McLaren again, except this time instead of her artwork being hung up on the wall, it’s actually parked right on the showroom floor.

That’s right – her latest artwork in collaboration with McLaren Kuala Lumpur is actually a car. Called “Ride Every Wave”, Karwai’s latest art piece is meticulously hand-painted onto the bodywork of a white McLaren GT, taking over 200 hours of detailed work to complete!

The artwork is an amalgamation of Chinese and Japanese art styles, inspired by traditional Chinese porcelain and “The Great Wave of Kanagawa”, one of the most recognisable artwork from Japan.

According to Karwai, the wave motif was chosen as it perfectly encapsulates how “limitless, fearless, and unstoppable a McLaren GT is”. Plus, it’s also right around the corner to Chinese New Year, so the porcelain art style is also the perfect way to celebrate Chinese traditions.

Pretty, isn’t it? Unfortunately, you probably won’t be seeing it on the roads anytime soon, despite the 620 hp 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine lurking underneath the rear boot deck.

Karwai says that they’ll be applying a layer of varnish on top of the oil painting, plus another layer of paint protection film (PPF) to further protect it from the elements. But it’s still a work of art, which means it’ll need to be preserved like one – displayed under bright lights and watched-on attentively by security guards.


GALLERY