At first glance, the Rolls-Royce Black Badge Cullinan inside London’s Unlocked gallery appears discreet, its deep black paintwork shimmering with hints of blue under the lights.
A closer look reveals tiny clues that this isn’t an ordinary Black Badge SUV: Rolls-Royce’s first-ever gradient coach line dissolving from phoenix red into forge yellow on one side and mandarin transitioning into turchese on the other, combined with Cyril Kongo’s blurred, spray-painted graffiti tag traced by hand, along with brake callipers in four different shades.
To the untrained eye, these elements are barely visible. To Rolls-Royce insiders, they are radical.
Rolls-Royce Black Badge Cullinan by Cyril Kongo
Then the doors open. Inside, Kongo’s aesthetic universe packed with mathematical equations, symbols, atoms, and constellations explodes. Hand-painted galaxies swirl across the fascia, centre console, picnic tables, and rear waterfall. Shooting stars streak across the illuminated ceiling amidst a sky of planets, hearts, crosses and pyramids.
Kongo’s tag and signature motifs are deftly embroidered on the door leather. Neon reds, turquoise blues, acid yellows, and bursts of orange slice through black leather interiors divided—for the first time in Rolls-Royce history—into four distinct chromatic zones.
“I want passengers to feel immersed in the ‘Kongoverse’—inside my painting,” insists the French artist of Vietnamese origin. “That’s why I don’t even call it a car. For me, it’s an art installation.”
ONLY FIVE IN THIS LIMITED-EDITION LINE-UP
Launched in May, the five-piece limited-edition Rolls-Royce Black Badge Cullinan by Cyril Kongo marks a series of firsts for the British marque. It is its first official collaboration with an artist rooted in graffiti culture; the first time an artist has painted multiple interior surfaces; the first Starlight Headliner featuring eight colours of stars and a shooting star spanning the full length of the ceiling.
It is also the first time an artist has effectively undertaken a two-month residency with the bespoke teams inside the Rolls-Royce factory in Goodwood, embedded directly into the brand’s production processes.
All five vehicles were pre-sold through Rolls-Royce Private Offices—invitation-only salons for its top collectors—to clients in the US, UK, Belgium, Cyprus, and Vietnam. The project also celebrates 10 years of the Rolls-Royce Black Badge, the marque’s darker, more rebellious alter ego.
Kongo was introduced to Rolls-Royce through Vietnam’s S&S Group, distributor of Rolls-Royce cars in the country and a longstanding partner of the artist. What followed was far from a conventional luxury brand collaboration. “There was a constant conversation between my universe and Rolls-Royce’s,” Kongo notes. “Every idea was treated with care and curiosity.”
Crucially, he never met the eventual owners. There were no client moodboards or bespoke requests. Instead, collectors bought entirely into his artistic world. “This isn’t bespoke in the traditional sense,” he explains. “It’s my universe interpreted and elevated through the hands of Goodwood.”
UNRESTRICTED ACCESS, “SO MUCH RESPECT”
That approach reflects a broader shift in contemporary luxury culture. According to Domagoj Dukec, Director of Design at Rolls-Royce , the idea emerged through its Private Offices’ close relationships with collectors. “Creativity and imagination are the forces that define Rolls-Royce, shaping motor cars that are as individual as their owners,” he asserts.
“Our Private Offices, where clients co-create the most complex bespoke commissions, directly reflect this belief. Conversations within these spaces identified a desire for bold contemporary art among a uniquely daring and like-minded group of Rolls-Royce collectors.”
Inside The Rolls-Royce Goodwood Factory
Inside the Rolls-Royce factory, the collaboration became a genuine dialogue between artist, engineers and artisans. Kongo was given unrestricted access to the brand’s top-secret EX Vault research centre, where future concepts are developed years ahead of launch. “They received me like a king,” he says. “They gave me so much respect and so many possibilities to express what I wanted.”
Working side-by-side with Rolls-Royce specialists, he painted directly onto veneered interior components mounted inside the paint laboratory. Engineers guided him through the technical realities of integrating art into a functioning car—where stitching lines, hidden lighting structures, and material durability all had to be considered. “It was a real discussion between two experts,” he adds.
Some of the project’s most striking details emerged from that exchange. “It was the first time they had ever done a coach line with colour transitions,” Kongo shares. “What I loved is that I could push Rolls-Royce outside its comfort zone. It’s great to be able to push institutions like that, people who are so professional, towards something a little more relaxed, and I think that’s what they liked.”
The Starlight Headliner proved even more ambitious. Normally limited to one or two shades, he demanded eight. Engineers painstakingly mapped fibre-optic wiring for 1,344 stars behind three separate leather ceiling panels while ensuring a giant shooting star could fly diagonally across the cabin. “The challenge was more for them than for me,” he laughs.
The craftsmanship extended to tactile details unnoticeable to most passengers. Rolls-Royce artisans developed specialised coatings that preserved the visual texture of Kongo’s brushstrokes, while making painted leather surfaces feel perfectly smooth to the touch. Elsewhere, 10 layers of lacquer were applied and hand-polished over air-brushed veneers to achieve the depth expected of a Rolls-Royce interior.
A SHARED PURSUIT OF PASSION & EXCELLENCE
For Kongo, those obsessive processes are exactly what draws him to luxury collaborations. “What touches me deeply is meeting women and men who have dedicated their lives to a specific savoir-faire,” he discloses. “Beyond the disciplines, we speak the same language: passion, patience, and excellence.”
Subsequent presentations of the Rolls-Royce Black Badge Cullinan by Cyril Kongo will take place in Ho Chi Minh City and during Monterey Car Week in California this August.
As he approaches 60, Kongo describes the project as a creative peak after a four-decade career. “Today, I know I can tell any story in any setting, while staying true to myself,” he states. “I’m 100 percent in control of my art.”
And after conquering Rolls-Royce? “I think I’ve made the rounds with objects,” he concludes. “Now I want to talk about terroir, nature, the organic, and go against everything that is screens and AI. I want to work towards something of a deeper grounding—an internal Kongoverse rooted in humanity rather than robotisation.”
