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AKAROCS (Richard Gonçalves) is an artist whose practice bridges the worlds of machine and meditation, heritage and humanity. Known for transforming iconic automobiles into hand-built works of art, he approaches cars not as machines but as living canvases — vessels for memory, culture, and storytelling. His celebrated builds, such as the Panamericana featured in Mobil1 x Porsche’s “Powering Icons” film, exemplify his vision of the automobile as a sculptural artifact, reimagined through craftsmanship and narrative.

 

Yet AKAROCS’ art extends far beyond the automotive. His paintings often confront the existential — canvases where cars vanish entirely and only the human condition remains. Through bold textures, raw gestures, and unfiltered marks, he explores questions of identity, fragility, and meaning. These works strip away the industrial to reveal the inner landscapes of solitude, conflict, and transcendence.

 

At the heart of both practices is a shared ethos: transformation. Whether reshaping steel into sculpture or layering paint onto canvas, AKAROCS resists uniformity and embraces imperfection. His art celebrates the handmade, the personal, and the authentic, rejecting polish in favor of honesty.

 

Together, his car-inspired and existential works form a continuum. The machines become myths of culture; the paintings become meditations on existence. Seen side by side, they reveal an artist deeply committed to reimagining both the external world we inherit and the internal truths we carry