Drawn to the power: Hong Kong's Porsche designer Pinky Lai
To mark his gleaming career in car design, Pinky Lai Ping is publishing a collection of his finest automotive artwork
Pinky Lai Ping regards himself as something of an anomaly in the car industry. "I like long-distance driving, but I don't enjoy daily driving," says Porsche's former chief of exterior design. "I reject over-motorisation because with a Porsche you only need a quarter of the horsepower to have fun. You don't need 400 horses."
So it is perhaps unsurprising that Lai has turned his attention to the art world. Due to retire from Porsche in 2014, and now working in a consultative role for the German carmaker, Lai will display sketches of his groundbreaking designs and concepts in the run-up to next year's Venice Biennale art exhibition.
The Hong Kong native was in town last week for a preview of some of the images, which are also being presented in a book, titled , to be released early next year. The book is a window on more than 30 years of Lai's work at Ford, BMW and Porsche. It includes sketches of his redesign of the iconic 911, which helped save the ailing Porsche from being taken over in the 1990s, and won him many awards.
The exhibition will take place from April 15 to May 14 at The Arsenal gallery in Venice and will coincide with the Italian regatta of the America's Cup World Series.
"The regatta is held right in front of the gallery. So a lot of preparation is needed to make it perfect. I want to set up models of a car and boat outside. Not real production models, but something sculptural that is linked to the sketches inside," says Lai.
