It is quite telling how many car artists of the modern age started their careers as graphic design experts for automobile companies or for advertising purposes. It would be easy to believe that people would be turned off the idea of something by having to do it for a living, but the number of car artists who have left their jobs so that they could do the same thing more exclusively is quite impressive. Among these people we can consider Tony Sikorski, the Philadelphia car artist who started his work in 1963 as an advertiser and worked in graphic design for quite some time.

Tony Sikorski’s depictions of (mostly) racing automobiles give a clear message for how he sees cars and what excites him about the vehicle. The impression of speed and technical perfection is a big theme in his work, which since 1995 has been mainly in the sculpture medium. This may well have a great deal to do with his fascination with Formula One. One of his finest works is a sculpture that appears as a solid depiction of a Ferrari in motion. To give the impression of speed he has created solid lines in the familiar scarlet of the racing team’s livery.

It is very easy to fall into the trap when creating a work of art based on a motor car where the technical elements are recreated very faithfully but with little sense of the passion and emotion of the automotive art. This is something Sikorski avoids as a result of his undoubted flair.