About The Competition
Our brief was to encourage innovative and forward-thinking artists, with any level of experience to interpret our theme of “Art in Motion.” This involved creating a high-impact piece of art, fusing unique talent with our XPENG design philosophy, and featuring an image of (or reference to) an XPENG G6 vehicle.
We received over 200 entrants to our XPENG Visionary Art Challenge and, after a period of intense judging by our XPERT panel from XPENG UK, London Art fair, and Rafik Ferrag from Guangzhou Design Centre at XPENG, we have our winner and five runners up!
The Judge – Rafik Ferrag
Rafik Ferrag is a French automotive designer and a pivotal creative force behind one of the world’s most dynamic electric vehicle brands.
As the Head of Creative Design in Guangzhou Design Centre at XPENG, he is responsible for translating visionary concepts into tangible reality, shaping not just cars, but the future of personal transportation itself.
The Winner
Our winner of the XPENG Visionary Art Challenge, taking home the grand prize of £6,000, along with national print exposure and the opportunity to share their work with the London Art Fair and XPENG community. Chosen for its standout creativity and innovative approach, this piece perfectly captures the spirit of ‘Art in Motion’ through a unique blend of art and technology, reflecting XPENG’s vision of forward-thinking design and limitless possibility.
Reuben Sutherland
Concept: The collage design is an animated zoetrope this means it can be rotated on a record player and filmed to reveal the animation.
Rafik Ferrag rationale on selecting the winning artwork:
“XPENG is all about exploration and innovation, the perfect balance between art and technology. This artwork combines real physical motion with an abstract beauty that begins to take on meaning as it moves.
In a sense, it’s a powerful representation of the contrast between “emotional” and “rational”, which lies at the core of our design DNA.
The colours and movement in this collage also evoke a sense of infinite possibilities, capturing the essence of XPENG as a young company just beginning to show its boundless potential to the world.”
Rafik Ferrag.
Runners-Up
Here are our runners-up; five outstanding entries that each receive £600. While just missing out on the top prize, these works impressed the judges with their originality, creativity and distinctive interpretations of ‘Art in Motion’, showcasing the many ways art can bring movement to life.
Ore Adedeji
Concept: The title of this painting is “The boy dreamed of a car” 61x76cm oil and spray paint on canvas. It is inspired by the theme “Art in motion” and part of XPENG’s design philosophy “To create the perfect union between hardware and software developing vehicles not only for the expectations of today, but with a commitment to tomorrow.”
In the painting a young boy is playing with his toy cars when he suddenly sees the XPENG G6 driving past him capturing his attention. The spirals symbolise the flow of energy generated by the motion of the car’s wheels turning. The boy is playing with his toy cars in the present, but he looks to the car that he hopes he may have in future. Motion is not always only about physical movement from point A to point B; one could describe time as something that is consistently moving.
I wanted to capture how childlike aspirations shape what we want for ourselves in the future and how the present and the future can often be intertwined in one’s imagination. The painting is oil on canvas and the swirls a created by using a small blade to cut shapes into card thus creating a stencil and then spray painting the gradation of colours on top of the canvas.
Nick Hoyle
Concept: In creating this piece, I sought to illustrate the sheer force of nature the XPENG G6 exhibits.
A finely tuned instrument of pure motion captured through a high-speed lens of molten metal brush strokes, colliding and guiding the ride of your life through a technicolour landscape on a journey of infinite possibilities.
Michael Marsden-Price
Concept: Motion does not always have to mean linear movement. With design of any product, motion moves from different spaces at different speeds, snaking out into a web of chaos.
You cannot predict what happens. Yet the design of technology is fundamentally orderly. This design explores both the freedom of art and the intricacies of technology and ultimately accepts that neither is at odds with one another.
Jake Smith
Concept: I wanted to explore how movement itself could become the artwork. Traditional car imagery often relies on motion blurred landscapes, but rather than repeating that familiar trope, I wanted to push it further—treating motion not just as an effect, but as a graphic, intentional design element.
I experimented with transforming the landscape into something more stylised and expressive, where speed reshapes the environment into bold streaks of colour and form. The car becomes the fixed point, while the world around it stretches into a kind of kinetic artwork.
This idea connects to a technique I’ve been developing in my personal work: building entire scenes from a single pixel stretch. By pulling one fragment of colour across a canvas, I can create landscapes, figures, and still-life compositions that feel both abstract and surprisingly detailed.
Applying this approach to the XPENG brief allowed me to reinterpret motion as a creative force—something that generates the visual rather than simply blurring it.
The final poster aims to capture that idea: motion as transformation, speed as mark making, and the XPENG car as the catalyst for a dynamic, graphic world.
Helna Merin Joseph
Concept: When pets need a vacation, XPENG is ready. My creative process began with a fundamental question: how do we visualise 6,000 years of human movement within a 40 x 40 cm space? As an artist and educator with over a decade of experience in sculpting, I recognised that XPENG represents a pivotal shift from mechanical history to an intelligent future. I chose clay specifically for its additive nature it is a medium that lives and breathes under the hands. In my studio, I built this work layer by layer, touch by touch. This was a deliberate physical metaphor for the XPENG G6’s over-the-air (OTA) updates. Just as the G6 is a “Software-Defined” platform that evolves after it leaves the factory, my sculpture evolved daily. The human pulse I put into the clay mirrors the “digital pulse” of the car’s code, proving that advanced technology remains an extension of human craftsmanship.
The compositional logic serves as a historical bridge, exploring the Philosophy of Movement. On the left, “wonky,” organic textures and ancient cart roads ground the work in our 6,000-year heritage. I included storks—symbols of delivery and new arrivals—to oversee this transition from the old world to the new. As the eye travels toward the London city horizon and Big Ben, the textures undergo a “digital refinement.” The chaotic lines of the past sharpen into the Futurist silhouette of the G6. This is where the Design-Art-Tech trinity becomes visible. My goal was to visually solve the “city headache” of urban friction. By sculpting the G6’s signature “Robot Face” and integrating the suggestion of ADAS sensors and automated parking, I portrayed the car not as a cold machine, but as a fluid, elegant solution that slices through the stress of modern traffic with digital calm.
Finally, the emotional heart of my process focused on “Warm Intelligence.” I chose a Fiery Orange hero colour, supported by a secondary palette from my childhood memories. These colours create a “chromatic vibration” that mimics the shimmer of code while remaining nostalgic and personal. Placing a dog at the wheel—a tribute to the “Nebula” cabin and “Pet Mode”—was the final step in humanising the hardware. It represents a shift in mobility it is no longer just about the engine, but the experience of the occupants. We all deserve a moment to breathe when our pets need a vacation, we usually do too—and with the G6, XPENG is ready. This work is a tribute to the human spirit that designs the journey.
