During art week in Miami, if you walked by Loews Hotel in South Beach, it would have been hard to miss an SUV parked cavalierly by the grand fountains in front. It was decorated with an image of a palm tree, and then rendered in a multitude of colors, a cascade of grids, checkerboards, clouds, arrows, and stripes. The car, a 2025 Acura ADX SUV, was tricked out courtesy of the French artist and art director Dalkhafine.
Unfortunately, this color way will not be produced for mass consumption. This one-of-a-kind vivid vehicle was only on view last week and was just the first step of Dalkhafine’s Miami collaboration with the car company.
The artist Dalkhafine with one of her customized 2025 Acura ADX’s. Courtesy of Acura.
Loews is a handy nexus to Art Basel Miami Beach and Design Miami, and it served as the official host for the SCOPE art fair further down Collins Avenue in a temporary space erected on the beach. Acura is the exclusive auto partner of the fair, and there was a fleet of the cars to ferry VIPS through the notorious traffic to Scope. Once at the bustling fair, a standout was Lua Brice’s immersive light and sound installation “Folding Light,” causing an audible hum and a physically vibrating floor at the entrance. Other works had roots in technology as well.
A closer view of Dalkhafine’s Miami mural at Scope. Courtesy of Acura.
A special outdoor section is ScopeWALLS, which showcases a collection of large-scale graffiti artworks presented on canvases mounted across oversized shipping containers, curated by Hyland Mather of the STRAAT Museum in Amsterdam. Dalkhafine, AKA Delphine Dussoubs, was holding court in impenetrable cat eye sunglasses next to a gleaming, mirror chrome-wrapped Acura ADX SUV. This futuristic disco ball on wheels was promo-only as well, super cool and not so outlandish, but the glare to other drivers would surely be a hindrance in the Sunshine State.
The new SUV comes with an abundance of premium features that include Google built-in, heated steering wheel, surround-view camera system, and a powerful Bang & Olufsen premium sound system. Dalkhafine’s maximalist vision unfolded behind her, rendered in a massive multihued mural.
Dalkhafine in repose on the stairs she designed in front of the gleaming Acura and her mural. Courtesy of Acura.
Dalkhafine has a background in graphic design and motion graphics that seamlessly blends with her work as an art director. Her bold aesthetic draws from a variety of sources—1960s counterculture, 1990s internet nostalgia, and contemporary digital art. Her fascination with cars is nothing new. In previous works, she has integrated elements of automotive culture, such as speed, chrome surfaces, and sleek designs. For her, cars are both tools of mobility and canvases for storytelling. Her projects frequently incorporate motifs like grids, glitches, and bright, cascading gradients, evoking a retro-futuristic vibe. The mural fits this bill.
The 2025 Acura ADX SUV. Courtesy of Acura.
The artist pulled together the entire project in just one month and was unveiling it to an assemblage of press. “I love driving” Dalkhafine said. “I’m inspired by speed and I am also a huge fan of Formula One, especially Charles Leclerc. With this installation, I wanted to play with road imagery. I wanted the audience to follow playful and immersive paths.”
The artist Dalkhafine. Courtesy of Acura.
Dalkhafine often speaks about the intersection of humanity and technology, which she calls “a dance of contrasts.” She continued: “I wanted to invite the audience to take in the sun. I like the term ‘intersectionality,’ connecting humanity with nature, with earth and sky. The gradients were inspired by the sky of Miami. I love Miami. It’s like a dream.” Miami’s vibrant energy and sunlit atmosphere seem tailor-made for her work, which thrives on hyper-saturated hues and playful symbolism.
The mural also contains hints of 1960s idealistic flower power motifs, such as a hand gripping a marigold, but it’s mostly a psychedelic explosion of early ’90s web 1.0-inspired graphics. “I’m very inspired by the ’90s,” Dalkhafine explained. “I love to play with glitch. This is like a road glitching.”
