Austin Babbitt and the World's Fastest Art Exhibition
We gave Austin Babbitt, better known as ‘Asspizza’, a ‘99 BMW 5-series to do with as he pleases in our Greenwich Village space FREE PARKING. Then we had an art show.
The nine-day event was Babbitt’s second-ever art exhibition, the first being two years ago in the form of a joint project with Amanda Bynes. This time, the spotlight belongs to Babbitt alone. The 530i was covered in his signature motifs of scribbled goblins, pumpkins and Carl’s Jr. logos. The exhibition continues to a wall adorned with clothing, some from Babbitt’s personal archive, some made especially for the show, all thrown together to resemble a messy bedroom floor. Another wall houses an extensive collection of canvases on which Babbitt’s signature interplay of commercial logos can be seen: his Carl’s Jr. stars with automakers’ logos inside.
If anyone asks, Babbitt would say he’s been making art in earnest since 2024; yet those familiar with his work would call him an artist since he began gifting tees with his signature doodles to famous friends back in the 2010s. Wearable art, drivable art, hangable art – though not exactly the same, there is a fair bit of overlap. But in Babbitt’s show, titled the “World’s Fastest Art” exhibition, there was no difference.
This isn’t the first car Babbitt has customised. He has a history of decorating cars, though all of the cars he’s done in LA have been “towed and sold for parts,” he says in an interview with Hypebeast. We’re sure this one won’t meet the same fate. Though it did come close: the car was vandalized during the exhibition, with additions scrawled in purple on the hood. Babbitt’s reaction? “They don’t know how to use a spray can,” he says, pointing out the patchiness of the letters as he squints to make sense of the handwriting.
The car in question happens to have a bit of an art pedigree. It first showed up as part of an Ai Weiwei activation in 2015 in which he used several BMWs as donation points for used lego pieces, stationed at various museums around the world. So suffice to say this particular 1999 BMW 530i has led a more interesting life than most: survivor of an unknown number of owners, two art exhibitions, and one vandal. What’s next? Well, Babbitt’s the only one who seems to have a clear idea as he readies a plan of action to fix the hood: “this shit’s about to be worth 100K more.”
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