A Mickalene Thomas work moving at a speed of up to 200 miles per hours, driven by racer car drivers who happen to be women, commands attention. The Driven Artist Racing Team (DART), founded by entrepreneur Zoë Barry, art advisor Spring McManus, and pro driver Aurora Straus will race a McLaren Artura GT4 wrapped in a new work by Thomas in the SRO GT4 America series. The car makes its endurance racing debut in late March at Sonoma Raceway with Straus and Barry behind the wheel. Thomas also designed race suits and helmets for the drivers, personified by luscious lips under the mouthpiece and eyelashes above the visor encrusted in rhinestones. “You’ll see a lot of lips and eyelashes, some of my best qualities in women. I wanted to bring that to the forefront of this collaboration,” she said at the vehicle’s unveiling at the Classic Car Club in Manhattan in February. “The design comes from some of my abstracted faces that I do that is based on “Tête de Femme,” Picasso, cubism, and African art.”
McLaren Artura GT4 designed by Mickalene Thomas for DART Car unveiled. Image courtesy of Kelsey H Campbell Photography.
DART will compete through January 2026 and plans to end the season at the 24H Series Middle East Trophy in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where it will be the first all-female-led team to enter the series. We spoke to the team founders on why they incorporated art into the mission of the women-led motorsports team. The following is an edited version of that conversation.
Merging Art with Motorsports
Mickalene Thomas behind helmets created by Thomas. Image courtesy of Kelsey H Campbell Photography.
WHITEWALL: From your perspective, what is the relationship between art, vehicles, and motorsports?
ZOË BERRY: Art has always been about challenging perception and when you bring it into motorsports, it dilates people’s perspective: racecars as more than just engineering feats, they can also be statements of art. With DART, we are proving that these worlds don’t just coexist—they amplify each other. A beautifully designed car can make you feel something, just like a painting or a sculpture does, and when that car is also racing, competing at the highest level, it adds an entirely new dimension. It is movement, adrenaline, and culture all wrapped into one.
“Art has always been about challenging perception,”
—Zoë Berry
WW: How does art give DART the edge over a typical racing team/initiative?
ZB: I came up with the idea for DART Car while taking a break from being a tech startup founder. I enrolled in Isituto Marangoni fashion school as they just opened a campus in Miami. I started studying collaborations between artists and fashion brands like Louis Vuitton with musician Pharrell Williams or Louis Vuitton with artist Yayoi Kusama. It made me wonder: why couldn’t you put a contemporary artist’s work on a racecar?
In the art world, Mickalene Thomas has an incredible following and she has built her body of work over several decades. People appreciate her scope, appreciate her contemporary flair and appreciate her fierceness and femininity. Yet there is a world outside of contemporary art collectors that don’t yet know her name. With DART, we want to change that. There is a subset of art collectors that are motorsports fans, and a subset of car and sports memorabilia collectors that appreciate art. Interestingly, both of those subgenres are expanding – and pulling in new enthusiasts along the way.
Shifting the Narrative for Women in Motorsports
WW: Decades after the first women racers changed the game, motorsport continues to be a space where women are underrepresented — but many spaces are in our current world. How does your approach shift the conversation away from being “one-of-one” or “the first” to draw in more women fans, supporters, and participants?
ZB: An important element of DART is that we are seeking to reduce complexity. We are very excited to work with Mickalene Thomas as our inaugural artist, but Aurora (Straus) and I are racing in a pack full of men. We are not racing in a women’s league or a women’s event. We are racing and trading paint alongside the shoulders of men. Beyond just gender, I think it is also important to touch on age. I became a professional athlete when I turned 40. I am sharing the message that it is never too late. You can have a complete shift in your life path regardless of age or gender.
WW: You come from a family of art collectors. Could you talk a bit about the family collection and work that you are influenced by that you’ve grown up with?
AURORA STRAUS: Collaborating with Thomas on DART aligns with my grandparents’ tradition of supporting artists at pivotal points in their careers. I vividly remember my grandfather introducing me to Jeffrey Gibson’s punching bags when I was 12, maybe 13 years old, when he was first planning on showing them at Marc Straus Gallery. Their desire to only work with artists they love, and to help their careers in any way possible, is something that has stayed with me. Growing up surrounded by art also exposed me to challenging content from a young age, like Damien Hirst’s “I Love Everything About You” (1994), which features medical waste containers full of chemotherapy waste products, locked in a metal cage. It’s a visceral confrontation with mortality, illness, and the institutional management of suffering – things that my grandparents intimately understand.
My grandfather spent most of his life as an oncologist treating late-stage, aggressive cancers, and my grandmother has had some real tragedies in her life. Family members of theirs died in the Holocaust, and they didn’t grow up with much. Art wasn’t initially a commercial endeavor; it was a way to grapple with all of these complex emotions. For me, Damien’s work has a more positive message – it’s a reminder of the preciousness of life, refusing to be “caged,” and embracing doing crazy things precisely because life is fleeting and fragile. I never realized it until I was an adult, but growing up with pieces like this has shaped my willingness to appreciate every moment.
The Process of Breaking the Boundaries
McLaren Artura GT4 designed by Mickalene
Thomas for DART Car. Photo courtesy of DART Car.
WW: What was your selection process for choosing Mickalene Thomas as your inaugural artist?
SPRING MCMANUS: I met Mickalene Thomas early in my career when working at Christie’s and have admired her work ever since. For DART, Thomas was the perfect fit for our inaugural Art Car with bold, unapologetic works that are deeply rooted in reimagining representation—particularly of women. She has spent her career challenging traditional narratives in art, much like how DART is challenging traditional narratives in motorsports.
Mickalene’s signature use of texture, color, and sparkle translates well with the visual dynamism of a race car in motion. The moment we envisioned bringing her aesthetic to a McLaren Artura, we knew it would be unlike anything seen before in motorsports.
“This dialogue between art and motorsport creates new opportunities for artists, collectors, and brands,”
—Spring McManus
WW: Beyond aesthetics, what conversations do you hope to trigger in motorsport and contemporary art?
SM: This dialogue between art and motorsport creates new opportunities for artists, collectors, and brands to engage with motorsports in fresh, unexpected ways. The more we blur these boundaries, the more vibrant and inclusive these industries become. Motorsports has long been male-dominated, and the art world, despite its progress, still struggles with equitable representation. By commissioning women artists annually and racing at the highest level, we’re pushing for a broader dialogue—one that extends beyond the track and the gallery to everyday culture.
