Unique art event lets guests sleep among classic cars

A new “immersive art experience” which lets visitors explore classic sports cars, art cars and contemporary racers among work from major modern artists opens its doors next week.

Sleeping with Art will bring high art together with many leading names from the automotive world, including art cars from the likes of Bentley, Aston Martin, Polestar and BMW.

BMW made art cars famous in the 1970s, allowing major artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Liechtenstein to use its vehicles as “canvases”, and will be displaying a number of its own custom art cars at the two-day event at the Lemore Estate in Herefordshire.

Bentley’s Unifying Spur art car will also be among the vehicles on show alongside paintings, sculptures, photography and digital art on 23 and 24 September. The one-off version of the luxury saloon was revealed to coincide with European Diversity Month and was created by the firm "to represent the unifying power of humanity, regardless of race, creed or sexuality”.

A brace of models from the Aston Martin Heritage Trust will be spread around the grounds of the stately home along with the The Aston Martin Callum Vanquish 25 - the result of the Vanquish’s original designer Ian Callum revisiting and refining his famous coupe 25 years later.

The two-day event will also see the debut of the B500X Arkonik by Etienne, a classic Land Rover Defender-based model created by Bugatti’s former head of interior design, as well as the Polestar 1 - the only car which can be bought with art - and models from Morgan, Alpine and Jaguar Land Rover.

Among the artists taking part in the exhibition are hotographer Gered Mankowitz and royal portrait artist Christian Furr, who will unveil unique collaborative artwork created for the event. Also taking part are Scottish pop artist Stuart McAlpine Miller; Miami based Camilo Rios; McLaren car designer Robert Melville; motoring artist Paul Oz and sculptor Margot Roulleau-Gallais, who will show a bust of British motorsport commentator Murray Walker created specially for the event.

Photographer Bart Kuykens will also be exhibiting at the event and auctioning off a large-scale print of his iconic Emory Porsche 356 chassis photograph in aid of Unicef.

Full details of the cars and artists being exhibited along with tickets, priced from £35, are available from the event’s website.