The Big Picture Fest
Frankston 2021
Frankston City will become a canvas for some of Australia’s best street artists as The Big Picture Fest returns for its fourth year.
An epic spectacle of colour and vibrancy showcasing Frankston’s evolving arts and cultural edge, the FREE festival will see 9 new murals added to the city’s already striking street art.
Artists will bring spray paint and acrylic to the laneways transforming large-scale walls into contemporary artworks right before your eyes.
This years line up includes artists from New South Wales and South Australia joining with our Victorian and local Frankston talents.
Make sure to see them all in action and watch the unique processes evolve over the week of the festival with our main weekend running from 19-21st March.
Artists
Brett Piva
Newcastle
Brett Piva is a contemporary artist and curator based on the east coast of Australia. Piva’s beginnings started in a rural setting connecting to the Murrumbidgee River. Relocating to an urban environment, his affection for ‘The Australian Bush’ grows stronger by the day.
Piva develops natural patterns and lines within his work that are documented whilst adventuring in drier Australian bush climates and within forestries that strongly benefit from rainfall along the coast.
The contrast within the triumph and tragedy of these ever-changing environments are present within Piva’s work. To reflect on these experiences, Piva uses abstract reverse painting techniques with gold leaf and enamel on glass within paintings, timber and glass sculptural pieces along with large scale murals.
More recent works share compositions of abstract forms created using hand made tools built from branches, bark, leaves or fronds. Mastering these uncontrollable tools shares a connection to an environment in giving a strong sense of place within Piva’s work.
Piva’s practice continually evolves through constant research, experimentation and practice. This has seen him exhibit works in many group shows, solo exhibitions and accomplish artist in residencies in Australia and abroad.
CTO
Melbourne
Peter ‘CTO’ Seaton is a Melbourne based, Urban Contemporary artist. Born in London, England and moving to Auckland, New Zealand as a youth followed by his final move to Melbourne, Australia. After Studying Fine Art at Whitecliffe College of Art and Design, Peter developed a comprehensive understanding of the gallery space yet he felt he wanted to make art available to the general public. This wave of thinking coincides with the rise of what some would coin the biggest art movement in history: Street Art & Graffiti. Peter’s work is a pursuit to expose the intangible aspects of the human condition. Ideas that we all innately and inherently are a part of an advanced intelligence which permeates all things are explored using the human form, colour and geometry. Peter has undergone work around Australia, New Zealand, South American, Europe and Asia however you can find a high concentration of his work on walls within the inner city suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.
Dave Court
Adelaide
Dave Court is an Adelaide based multi-disciplinary artist working in areas of painting design and installation.
Current work includes large scale mural painting, event activation, venue design and creation of immersive installations.
After graduating with Visual Arts honours specialising in painting in 2013, Dave was involved with award winning immersive art project Mr IST. Other major projects include running ethical clothing brand foolsandtrolls, retail store / art space Created Range and working as creative director of Yewth Magazine, as well as ongoing freelance work and art practice.
Dave’s practice is based around painting, and has expanded to include experimental aspects of photography, video, performance, installation and collaboration.
Ghostpatrol
Melbourne
Born in Hobart, Tasmania. works and lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Working under the pseudonym Ghostpatrol, David Booth first made a name for himself on the walls of Melbourne’s laneways. Working with ephemeral techniques, by 2007 Booth had built an international reputation and fanbase as a street artist. But Booth’s practice, grounded in a passion for drawing and sketching, has always been split between ephemeral works — street-based works, as well as temporary sculptural and installation works — and works on paper and linen. As a result, Booth sees his practice as floating between the worlds of fine art, commercial design, fan service, large mural painting and commercial collaboration.
Born in Hobart, Tasmania, Booth now works and lives in Melbourne, Australia. The legacy of his childhood environment — Tasmania being an isolated and halcyon island, densely populated with forests and bodies of water — is threaded through Booth’s practice. His imaginary realms feel unearthly, meditative and ethereal; Booth is a creator not of simply works, but entire worlds. His works themselves feel like falling into a daydream; at once intensely familiar and welcoming, and entirely otherworldly. They are alternate realities.
Booth’s finely-drawn worlds are woven in threads of hybrid animals, creatures and characters, pop culture references and childhood nostalgia. Booth’s workspaces often turn, as he works, into small shrines; indulging and entering the realm he is conjuring. The whimsical and innocent qualities of his works ostensibly belie their conceptual concerns with metaphysics, cosmic scale, curiosity-led science, quantum physics and futurism. Booth’s iconic visual language invites us to see beyond the scale of our earthly existence and the limits of our own atomic configuration.
Booth’s ongoing explorations are focusing, at present, on ambitious installation and painting projects and other multimedia experiments, often working collaboratively. These passion projects — among them, the Hepburn Wind Farm and the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne — inform Booth’s studio practice and gallery work, and reflect the artist’s social and environmental conscience.
Jason Parker
Melbourne
Jason Parker is a fine artist/mural artist originally from New Zealand currently living in Melbourne Australia.
His work is designed to be ambiguously evocative and emotive, rendering the spirit, states of consciousness, and capturing dreamlike moments. Jason often paints visual metaphor-type portraits, figures, and scenarios capturing the moments and feelings that language fails to express. His work of late can also be seen to subtly express his thoughts and feelings on the state of the world.
Consistently working on both studio and mural work Jason can be found moving from the confines of his studio, into the galleries and out onto the streets.
Julian Clavijo
Colombia
Julian Clavijo is a nationally and internationally renowned Award Winning Artist currently based in Melbourne, Australia. In 2008, he graduated with a Bachelor of Advertising from the Universidad International de las Americas in Costa Rica. In 2011, he completed a Masters of Arts (Art in Public Space) at RMIT University in Melbourne.
A painter and sculptor since a very early age, Julian has demonstrated an enormous capacity to professionally establish his practice and style in Australia, South America, USA, Europe and the Middle East. After graduating in 2011, Julian started exploring the possibility of translating his photorealistic oil painting technique on to mural painting at any scale. By mixing spray painting skills, commonly use in the world of street art, and the traditional brush work techniques almost resembling classical fresco murals, Julian can achieve striking hyper-realistic results by painting murals at monumental scales in public spaces. This has earned him the respect and demand of the urban art community in Australia and around the globe.
In November 2018 Julian was awarded the ‘Best Global Artist Award’ in the Category of Street Art in Dubai, accolade given by the Global Art Agency, the Wall Street Journal and the UAE Government.
In the last 9 years Julian and his team have cemented a solid reputation in the arts industry having successfully produced and delivered over 60 projects for private and government organisations, such as Creative Victoria, Liuzzi Property Group, Caydon Property, PFD Food services, Australian Grand Prix Corporation, Swinburne University, RMIT University, Aston Martin and various local and regional community councils amongst others.
During this period Julian has been a participant, finalist and winner of multiple art awards and exhibitions in Australia and the globe including the prestigious Lester Prize (former Black swan Prize), Doug Moran Prize and Archibald Prize amongst others. His work has seen commercial representations by Metro Gallery, Beinart Gallery, Bromley & co. in Melbourne and the respected Jonathan Levine gallery in New York.
Julian’s work both in the studio and in the public space, have caught the attention and praise of Australian art luminaries such as Adam Elliot (Academy Award Winner), prolific artist David Bromley who collects Julian’s works and John Olsen (AO, OBE) living legend of Australian art, who personally recommended Julian to the Australian Government as a young talent who’s contributions to the arts are an asset to the Australian society.
Currently his studio practice aims to portray the human essence through the empathetic nature of childhood’s joy, curiosity and innocence; as an invitation to connect with with oneself’s live journeys in an introspective, emotional and reflective manner.
Maxine Gigliotti
Frankston
Maxine is an artist based in Victoria, Australia. Spending half her time painting the other half teaching and performing circus. She grew up on the Mornington Peninsula, fascinated by the natural world around, drawing the beautiful birds and animals she’d see. This love of nature has continued into adulthood with most of her inspiration coming from the environment around us. Her passion is to make and share art that brings joy to the community and highlights our natural world.
Melanie Caple
Melbourne
Melanie graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) from RMIT and holds a Masters of Arts Management.
As an artist, curator and arts manager, Melanie has worked in multiple capacities within the arts industry.
Over the last decade she has developed her practice to incorporate finely detailed oil paintings and large-scale exterior murals. Examining our relationship with the botanical world around us with a focus on immortalising a sense of place, she uses native flora to activate walls and canvases to draw attention to the fragility and vibrancy of our landscape.
Melanie has exhibited in various group exhibitions and has staged solo exhibitions around Melbourne and in Gippsland, including a major solo exhibition in 2015 at the Latrobe Regional Gallery as the recipient of the annual Dick Bishop Memorial Award.
Most recently she was a finalist in the 2019 KAAF Art Prize, the Winner of the 2016 People’s Choice Award in the Roi Art Prize, and a finalist in the 2018 Collins Place Art Prize. She has also been a selected mural artist for Frankston’s Big Picture Festival in 2021 and 2022.
Melanie divides her time between Melbourne’s north and her large painting studio in South Gippsland, and was the Project Manager for the Victorian showing of the Archibald Prize 2021.
Wina Jie
Frankston
Artist Wina Jie creates imagery exploring the Asian Australian Identity Experience. Her past body of work Dichotomy (2008), Dis-Oriental (2009), Metamorphosis (2010), Floating Life (2016) and Zodiac Dreaming (2017) explores self-portraiture with Hybrid Eastern and Western creatures and landscapes.
Wina Jie works as a freelance Graphic Designer with a Fine Art, Film and T.V. background. Specialising in designing Art murals, Photography and Illustrations.
Event Program
Walking Tours - Thursday 18 March
When: 9.30am, 12 noon and 3pm
Where: Library (Wells St)
Discover Frankston’s street art by joining one of the FREE Tours taking place throughout the festival. Special twilight tours will also run on Friday night.
To book visit discoverfrankston.com.au
Walking Tours - Friday 19 March
When: 12 noon, 3pm and 6pm twilight
Where: Library (Wells St)
Discover Frankston’s street art by joining one of the FREE Tours taking place throughout the festival. Special twilight tours will also run on Friday night.
To book visit discoverfrankston.com.au
Walking Tours - Saturday 20 March
When: 9.30am, 12 noon and 3pm
Where: Library (Wells St)
Discover Frankston’s street art by joining one of the FREE Tours taking place throughout the festival. Special twilight tours will also run on Friday night.
To book visit discoverfrankston.com.au
Walking Tours - Sunday 21 March
When: 9.30am, 12 noon and 3pm
Where: Library (Wells St)
Discover Frankston’s street art by joining one of the FREE Tours taking place throughout the festival. Special twilight tours will also run on Friday night.
To book visit discoverfrankston.com.au
Share the Love
Simply share your Big Picture Fest photos on Instagram using the hashtag #thebigpicturefest
The best public photo from the weekend will win a signed print by one of the participating artists.