Rich Tu and his work (above).
MUNICH: MINI USA has recently announced a limited edition rooftop collection created in partnership with three artists.
Available for a limited period of time in the United States, the individual pieces commissioned especially for this purpose will transform the MINI rooftops into works of art and will also go on display as murals in Brooklyn, New York, New York’s SoHo neighbourhood and Portland, Oregon.
As part of this project, MINI USA will be making a donation to the American Immigration Council to support its mission.
The works of art were created by artists Rich Tu, Shane Griffin and Shawna X.
They were selected by MINI to reflect their individuals’ diverse cultural backgrounds and experiences growing up in the United States.
Shane Griffin.
Rich Tu is an artist and designer based in Brooklyn. He is a first-generation Filipino American who is particularly interested in culture and the future.
Striking colours, inherent movement and images full of detail are the prevailing features of his highly personal works. His work is entitled “Hiraya”, which is derived from an old Filipino word meaning “fruit of hopes, dreams and aspirations”.
Shane Griffin, also known as "Grif", is an award-winning, multi-disciplinary visual artist and director who is originally from Dublin and now based in New York.
Grif has worked with many pop culture icons, including Kanye West, Kid Cudi and Wiz Khalifa. Mainly drawing on surrealism and abstraction, Grif’s work spans the entire spectrum of print, sculpture, animation and live-action film. Shane’s work is entitled “ChromaFlow”.
Shawna X is an independent artist and visual director with roots in Portland who lives in New York. She is known for her vivid, impassioned and graphic style of visual design in digital, spatial and motion spaces.
Shawna X.
X is a reference to her Chinese name Xiayun (Sia-yoon, the word for the shrub Ruta montana). Shawna’s work is entitled “Roads we travel” and is a visual expression of the paths that bring us together.
“MINI is all about self-expression, and the rooftops convey this in its purest form,” said Mike Peyton, Vice President, MINI of the Americas.
The collaboration is part of the MINI brand campaign BIG LOVE that features the motto: “We’re all different, but pretty good together.”
Now sold in 109 countries all over the world, the MINI was designed in 1959 by Alec Issigonis, a British engineer with Greek roots. The car is driven with great pride by people who have made the brand their own in a unique way.
