Kiwi street artists making their mark on the world
selves 10 years to complete the Paint the Pacific project. On each island they visit, they partner with locals to find out what stories they want the art to tell, which symbols they’d like represented.
In 2014, Charles helped achieve a new Guinness World Records feat by painting the world’s largest graffiti scroll, 2.2km of finest Egyptian cotton; a year later, he won the world Ono’u Graffiti Festival contest in Tahiti.
In between Painting the Pacific, the Williams family — including the kids aged 10, 12, 13 and 16 — have found time to participate in Tauranga’s Paradox Street Art Festival and hold a retrospective exhibition, Huia Come Home, at Otara’s Fresh Gallery.
Owen Dippie — designing art for Auckland’s new destination alleyway, Custom Lane
In what could be Auckland city’s next happening laneway, painter Owen Dippie’s latest mural breaks from the large-scale realist portraits the 33-year-old is perhaps best known for.
Commissioned by the Grand Mecure Hotel to paint Custom Lane, a 25-metre-long wall now features a tiki design inspired by Dippie’s own signature drawing. While it represents his distinctive style, it’s also a tribute to New Zealand.
Originally from the Bay of Plenty, Dippie might be anonymous to many but his work certainly isn’t.
His most-viewed outdoor pieces — at least in this country — are the threestorey-high portrait of his friend Tania Cotter on the southern motorway, the “Chinese girl” alongside the Morningside rail corridor and, in Christchurch, a stunning image of a ballet dancer on the back of the Isaac Theatre Royal.
But he’s also worked extensively in New York, painting a teenage mutant ninja renaissance masters mural, one of Notorious B.I.G. and a cheeky take on the Madonna and child which paid tribute to the abstract style of fellow artist Keith Haring.
That led to the Huffington Post naming Ninja Renaissance Masters its Best Mural in 2015 (Dippie’s Radiant Madonna came in at No 9) and a commission to paint a giant Michael Jackson mural in Los Angeles.
Dippie has fond memories of the latter’s unveiling, where Jackson’s fans went full “Thriller”, donning costumes and re-enacting the Thriller video’s dance routine.
Producing such large works means Dippie spends hours atop cherrypickers, boom lifts or scaffolding.
Dippie returns Stateside this year for further work and, for the first time, to take up a commission in Canada. He hopes to continue his travels, “exploring the universal language of art”, and making his mark on the world rather than just existing in it.
Janet Lilo — going bananas on Karangahape Rd
From family shopping trips as a child, catching buses across town and to nights out, Karangahape Rd has long been part of Avondale artist Janet Lilo’s life. So when she got the chance to add to its atmosphere, she didn’t hesitate.
Using a banana motif she’s worked with often and neon lights, Lilo created Don’t Dream It’s Over — three eye-catching banana-patterned light poles on the K Rd overbridge, originally installed as part of an upgrade for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Since then, they’d featured a pattern-based design by Tongan artist Filipe Tohi.
While she’s previously made pictures of green bananas, Lilo had to use yellow so the colour of the light poles couldn’t be confused with nearby traffic lights. Unveiled this month, the artwork scales the length of the six-metre poles, part of Auckland Council’s public art collection.
In the past, Lilo has had her work projected on to objects in galleries, museums and shop windows, the sides of buildings, empty bus stops and billboards. She’s also known for photography and, this year, was commissioned to create new work for the Auckland Festival of Photography.
While she doesn’t have a favourite medium, everything she makes highlights an interest in people and places and the influence of popular culture.