Art and culture have become staple ingredients of the Icons of Porsche festival, embracing everything from graffiti and sculptures to oils and water colours. This year, Icons of Porsche not only welcomed back international artists but it also shone a light on emerging Emirati talent and a few stars of tomorrow.
Manu Campa
Spanish artist Manu Campa is known for his distinctive brushwork, use of colourful and solid backgrounds, and his ability to faithfully recreate the most iconic classic cars.
While studying Fine Arts, Manu’s passion for the automotive world led him to build his career, capturing intricate details and the essence of the cars he paints with reflections and light effects among his signature elements.
“I'd seen pictures of Icons of Porsche on Instagram for the past four years and I really wanted to play a little part of it, so exhibiting there with my collection of four paintings was beautiful, especially because they were designed specifically for Icons of Porsche," said Campa.
“Given the name of the event, I wanted to portray my four 'Icons of Porsche'. Three were various interpretations of the 917 and the other was a Kremer Racing 911 from 1974, so all were very colourful.
“Two of my paintings found homes, one is going to be living just 10 minutes from my house in Madrid while the other is moving to Switzerland to a beautiful collector's home.”
Manu’s work has gained recognition both in Spain and internationally with exhibitions in cities around the world.
He has built a strong presence on social media, where he shares his creative process and artworks, allowing him to connect with a global audience. His work is appreciated by both art and automotive enthusiasts, transcending boundaries and connecting with diverse passions and interests.
“I absolutely loved Icons of Porsche and it was beautiful to be a part of it.
“It was a great Porsche environment and the people were fabulous, so I’m excited to come back again next year. All the Porsche team that I worked with were beautiful and so welcoming and to be honest, we just feel like it was home.”
Tobias 'Toskill' Schoberth
German pop artist, Tobias Schoberth, a.k.a Toskill, has become a familiar face at Icons of Porsche after exhibiting last year, transforming a classic Porsche 911 into a pop art-inspired, life-sized project.
This year, Toskill again designed new Porsche-inspired artworks exclusively for Icons of Porsche and to his delight, he sold out over the two days.
“I was honestly overwhelmed by the response. The energy around my stand was incredible with a constant flow of visitors, collectors and Porsche enthusiasts.
“Every single piece I brought to Icons of Porsche was sold, which means a lot to me and shows how strong the connection is between Porsche culture and my art.”
Toskill has been creating art since he was he was a child and working as a full-time artist for the past five years from his base in Munich. He boasts many international celebrities and public figures as his clients with his art hanging in their homes from Los Angeles to Dubai.
“Being part of Icons of Porsche each year inspires me to push my art further and this weekend in Dubai was my best one yet because there’s no other brand in the world that creates such an electrifying atmosphere and brings the entire community together like Porsche does.
“One of my personal highlights is always the backdrop Porsche creates at this festival. The setting, the organization, the vibe, there’s simply nothing comparable out there and I’m proud to be part of it each year.”
Marwan Al Ahmed
For Emirati Marwan Al Ahmed, his love of engineering has turned into a career creating automotive art sculptures. His laser-cut sculptures of various Porsches were a hit with the Icons of Porsche crowd, selling out on Day One and again on Day Two.
“Icons of Porsche has been a crazy, hectic weekend but I have loved every second of it,” said Marwan.
“I had to go home and re-stock after the first night. We were completely out by the end of the day. I even had to take down some of the pieces hanging in my own house and bring them in, but I’ve been happy to take orders for those I couldn’t help by the end of the event.”
Marwan’s fashion and arts business, DropGear, started after his education in engineering, which prompted him to take his passion into the world of art. After three years to perfect his laser etching system, he began focusing on Porsches and the 911 in particular.
“Porsche has always been close to my heart, so I thought why not focus on Porsche because they have such timeless designs. The car is engineered in such a beautiful way, so what I do is, I just read the car itself and if it wasn’t for the 911’s design, I don’t think my work would be half as desirable.”
Pascal Goebel
German, Pascal Goebel is another Icons of Porsche returnee with his unique canvases proving to be exceptionally popular for another year. Finding new challenges in the Middle East and its love for the performance end of the Porsche spectrum compared to the classics more in fashion with his European clients, Pascal said Icons of Porsche opened up a wide scope of new inspirations.
"You can draw completely different cars here compared to Europe and put them into a scenery to match the car’s personality," said Goebel.
"In Germany it’s more about the classics and is a little more subtle but with modern cars that the UAE loves, you can be more aggressive with the background, which makes it very attractive.
“This year there were so many Carrera GTs, which we just don’t see. It's crazy and it's a car I want to focus on for next year. I created some images that I will use for inspiration next year. It was just awesome to see all these GTs together.
“We’ve had a lot of enquiries from people who want to get their own cars painted. We ended the event very low on stock especially for the performance models like the 911 GT3 RS, which is good to know for next time so that I can bring more of what the Middle East likes with more aggressive cars.”
His main focus during Icons of Porsche apart from selling his art was to paint a bright yellow GT3 RS with an iconic Dubai background.
“I just love the view and painting the car from the back with the Dubai skyline which is something I’ve never created before and have absolutely loved doing.”
After Icons of Porsche, Pascal’s next job will be 10 days exhibiting at the Essen Motorshow.
Aran La
11-year old Aran La has painted for the likes of Prince Albert of Monaco, Christian von Koenigsegg, designers Frank Stephenson and Giorgetto Giugiaro.
Making his return to Icons of Porsche, the London-based junior school student was busy juggling sales, painting to a live audience and media commitments across the two days of the biggest car festival in the region.
“I love the iconic design of the Porsche 911. As soon as you see one, whether it’s the tail lights across the back, the side profile or from the front, you know straight away it’s a 911,” said La.
“I came to Icons of Porsche last year and we loved it so we had to come back. The Porsche 911 Targa I painted last year is also back here and I’ve been busy painting for clients all weekend.”
At just four years old, Aran started drawing construction vehicles, fire engines, diggers and heavy machinery and progressed to painting cars when he was seven.
"During COVID I had a lot of spare time and that’s when I started drawing cars. I love the design, the speed and the engineering. My favourite part of the 911 is the head lights, their circular style really stands out compared to any other car.”
Aran plans to make his hobby and his love of car design his career when he leaves school.
“I’m going to be a professional artist and an automotive designer.”
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Scene and Passion
