The Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix threads a 6.2-kilometer circuit through the city’s most recognizable landmarks. Pop ups, fan experiences, and brand experiences can be found at every turn. At the Four Seasons Hotel, you’ll find the Art of Speed exhibit, presented in partnership with the Hall of Fame Collection, which brings British artist Paul Oz back as Artist in Residence for the third consecutive year. His motorsport portraits and bronze sculptures transform the hotel’s corridors and public spaces into a gallery-style homage to the greats of F1.
Oz fell in love with Formula 1 when he was 10, watching Ayrton Senna pilot the black and gold Lotus. He thought the car looked “impossibly cool,” he said in a recent interview; the aesthetic grabbing his attention before he understood anything about racing or art. His childhood artistic ambitions were expressed in Legos, pottery, and woodwork classes; mediums where his hands could form the multi-dimensional objects he envisioned.
In upper school, aerospace engineering seemed like the practical choice. That led to software design and eventually automotive software sales as a career. Painting stayed relegated to evenings and weekends, a hobby practiced between professional obligations. When the 2008 financial crisis collapsed his position in London, he painted to cover rent, expecting the arrangement to be temporary. The work found an audience almost immediately, accelerating from side practice to full career in months.
Paul’s painting style came from a self‑taught exploration of texture and form rather than formal art school training. He began experimenting with oil impasto using palette knives to achieve motion through texture, applying paint in thick ridges that catch light like a sculpture. He’s said his focus is on “energy, movement, and maximum 3D effect,” using color and structure to recreate the raw intensity of racing. The technique makes images appear to shift as viewers walk past, ridges of paint forming helmets, faces, and the visual blur of speed that catches light differently from every angle.
His breakthrough arrived in 2009 at an official Formula 1 party in London where his portrait of McLaren driver Ayrton Senna, The Rainmeister, received attention. McLaren purchased the piece for their Technology Centre in Woking. That single sale introduced him to team principals, sponsors, and drivers who had a passion for what he was trying to capture. The next decade unfolded across the Formula 1 calendar. Oz worked with McLaren, Mercedes AMG Petronas, and Scuderia Ferrari, painting live at circuits from Monaco to Singapore. He created portraits for Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Jenson Button, and Jackie Stewart. Teams brought him into sponsor activations and VIP events, placing him where he could work in real time while fans watched the process. The role became official without ever being formally defined; he was Formula 1’s portrait artist.
Oz’s sculptures take his dimensional work further, combining traditional lost wax casting with 3D scanning technology, merging centuries-old bronze techniques with contemporary precision. McLaren approached him about creating a series of bronze monuments for a world champions series to adorn the halls of MTC, marking 50 years since Bruce McLaren’ passing and the successes he put into motion. The commission gave him permission to work at scale, producing life-size statues that would be installed permanently at the Centre. He completed Bruce first, then Niki Lauda, James Hunt, and Ayrton Senna. For the original Senna bronze, Oz wore a replica suit and held the driving position through dozens of three-minute scanning sessions while cameras captured every angle. The digital model moved through clay for detail work, then wax, then bronze, preserving the exact posture, helmet angle, and hand placement that defined how Senna drove.
The bronze proved successful enough that Oz decided to experiment with new materials. He wanted to create a sculpture from magnesium, specifically from used wheels pulled directly from McLaren’s Formula 1 cars. The idea seemed unlikely until he sent a straightforward email to team principal Zak Brown asking if McLaren could spare some wheels for the project. Brown responded immediately, asking only how many Oz needed and shipped them within the week. Underestimating the volatility of magnesium his first try exploded and nearly burned his foundry to the ground – he had to ask Zak for more wheels.
The second round was more successful, and Paul was able to debut his Senna La Rascasse, at 60% scale, at the McLaren activation inside Four Seasons during the 2024 Grand Prix. As an interesting note on their provenance, every Formula 1 part carries a code tracking its history and performance data, so Oz was able to trace the wheels to their drivers. 2024’s La Racasse was crafted of wheels from McLaren’s 2022 and 2023 seasons that had been driven in competition by Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri.
Paul’s celebration of motorsport extends beyond Formula 1’s established champions. In 2019, a sixteen-year-old Abbi Pulling messaged Oz on Instagram to share her GCSE art coursework; she had chosen him as her subject and recreated his style for the project. Five years later in Miami, she reintroduced herself, in full Alpine team kit, as an F1 Academy driver. Pulling had just taken pole position, and would go on to win both races that weekend, and dominate the 2024 season. Before the Autosport Awards where Pulling would receive her championship trophy, her manager contacted Oz to arrange a surprise. They orchestrated a surprise meeting for Oz to present Pulling with a portrait featuring her signature winning celebration pose, completing a circle that began with a student studying an artist’s work and ended with the artist documenting hers.
This year’s Art of Speed features paintings and sculptures from Oz’s Formula 1 Collection, anchored by The Champions Wall: 20 portraits spanning the history of world champions. Each portrait documents a driver, a moment, or a career-defining achievement; forming a visual history of who shaped the sport across decades. The work appears in the Moët-Hennessy Champions Lounge alongside the Hall of Fame Collection’s authentic race-worn suits and helmets, creating a mixed-media presentation of Formula One history.
Four Seasons established its artist-in-residence partnership with Oz in 2023, inviting him back annually for race weekend. The program places work in high-traffic areas where hotel guests encounter it naturally; turning corridors into galleries and the lobby into a formal installation, along with built spaces for exhibition. Kathryn Freymuller curates the program as Four Seasons’ Commercial Director. She is a Fine Arts graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and the Sotheby’s Institute. Her approach treats art as essential to hospitality rather than supplementary decoration, enhancing the guest experience.
The Las Vegas residency connects to Four Seasons’ broader commitment to supporting artists across its properties. The company has maintained an Artist Showcase program at its Maui resort for over twenty years, offering regular exhibition space and sale opportunities for local creators. Other properties run student mentorship programs and community support initiatives, using hotel spaces as platforms for emerging and established artists. The structure creates reciprocal benefit; artists gain exposure and institutional support while hotels offer guests access to work they otherwise might only encounter in galleries.
The Art of Speed exhibit runs throughout November, giving visitors multiple opportunities to see Oz’s work as the city welcomes the Formula 1 universe. Oz plans to be present during race weekend, engaging in live paint sessions. It will be a unique opportunity for guests to watch him work and understand the process behind the finished pieces.
