The Big Picture Fest
SALA 1-31 August 2018

Russell Fenn, better known as Sofles, is an Australian graffiti artist originating from Brisbane. Self-taught, he has been honing his skills for over 20 years, exploring various mediums such as spraypaint, acrylic, drawing and brush painting, as well as digital and illustration works. Sofles’ large scale murals have taken him around the world ten times over and now grace many of the world’s largest cities, including Berlin, Copenhagen, Oslo, Las Vegas, and LA.

Sofles has a clear goal with his art; he aims to create strong images that evoke emotions in people. “I believe art should be an important part of the city landscape. I want to create public art for people to enjoy, to transform spaces”, he says. Drawing inspiration from nature, society, graffiti and traditional art, his work focuses on the ideas of time, dimensions, and an abstract mix of past experiences.

Many have been in awe whilst watching Sofles create artworks in real time. His preferred way to paint is to do so freely, with no sketch or preprepared plan. When one sees his vision transform from his mind to the wall or canvas, it is clear that he has an incredible imagination and expert skills and technique with his “tools”, be it a spray can, a brush or digital stylus. He explains, “Some graffiti pieces are painted with scrap paint and no plan. Others are large-scale, thoroughly planned artworks. My favourite process is to create large and detailed artworks in a free and unrestricted manor.”

Claire Foxton is a Wollongong-based artist and designer who is most known for her large body of public art found across Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

With a distinctive mix of abstract and realistic techniques, Claire’s painted mural works explore a site specific narrative often concerned with the connectedness of people and place.

Through considered colour palettes & acute attention to textural details, Claire’s work draws the viewer into a deeper conversation responding to land, story & identity.

Street-writing since the early eighties, KAB101 has developed a marking style reflective of his personality. His work is based on calligraphic signature markings and mechanical type styles. His studio paintings consist of these same styles.

They tell stories of identity, his emotions and experiences related to his past and present affinity with writing his name and taking space.

Utilizing spray paint, inks, markers and brushes he constantly finds himself exploring new mediums to produce works connected to the written word.

Bronte Naylor (b.1993) is an Australian Visual Artist working across exhibitions, public art, installation, research and community engagement. She recently completed a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Honours) Graduating First Class at University of Southern Queensland, Australia. Collaborations with St+ART India, Sea Walls: Artists for Oceans, First Coat International Art Festival and Big Picture Festival have firmly positioned her as an emerging heavyweight within the international public art landscape.

Mixing photography and digital illustration, Naylor has established a signature collage aesthetic and methodology. She employs a considered and respectful approach to the creation of site specific public art, working across three stages: initial research including documentative photography, the conceptualisation of design and rational and then realised through the act of painting in the public sphere.

Elliott Routledge is an Australian contemporary artist based in Sydney.

Across his career, he has shown work and installed major public murals all around the world. He has shown in galleries and installed murals throughout the world in such places as London, Vienna, New York, Melbourne, Tokyo, Paris, Singapore, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and extensively throughout Australia.

His work exists in a balance between expressive mark making and abstract form. Having spent a lot of time practising colour theories, his current work is reflective of how he takes this information of colour relationships and pattern choices, and flips them enough to create bold, harmonious compositions.

Elliott’s practice spans across canvas paintings, hand made sculpture and large scale public murals. He was most recently a feature of the Art & About Festival in Sydney, and has also been shown in the Museums Quartier, Vienna as a part of his 2014 Residency. His work can be viewed publicly in the form of numerous large scale murals, for the City of Sydney, UTS and many more.

Joel Van Moore is an Australian contemporary artist based in Adelaide, South Australia.

A creative spirit by nature, he has pursued his love of letterforms and abstraction under pseudonym Vans the Omega for almost three decades.

Joel’s work is heavily influenced by ancient scripts, architecture, engineering and pattern making. His works pays homage to the natural world through his use of dynamic body movement, gesture and colour derived by observing the immediate environment.

Moving beyond the spectrum of graffiti, Joel’s current work is a collision of geometric patterns translated into vibrant figurative pieces. These works aim to create inner movement, reflection and the overwhelming sense of beauty when viewed at street level.

Joel’s colourful creations can be found all over the globe and continue to tell local stories which highlight individuals and their stories.

Nicky Create is an Australian artist, muralist and emerging local art curator, with a passion for creative thinking and practice.

As a lover of yoga and nature, she specializes in botanical and nature-themed murals with vibrant colours, intricate detail and positive messages of kindness and peace. While studying Media at Adelaide University, Nicky worked as a curator for a popular cafe Argo and continues today, developing her curatorial experience and style, over the past 3 years through a busy program of rotating exhibitions and installations.

Passionate about the environment, Nicky gets inspiration from natures flora and fauna to create beautiful scenes, rich in details and often very bright. Her art is soft, expressive and feminine, often containing magical themes or mystical creatures.

Nicky has done several in store creative installations which transform spaces and create discussion and engagement. She has also painted a number of interactive murals which combine the art, person and online platforms, encouraging people to become a part of the artwork, instead of simply observing it.

She is also an accomplished events and social media coordinator, having run numerous successful social marketing campaigns, art workshops and events.

Jake Holmes is an Adelaide based visual artist with a Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design. He works across a variety of mediums including; screen printing, mural painting, illustration, audio and collage.

Holmes’s mural work focuses on sight specific pieces that take inspiration from the surrounding landscapes and communities with colourful works that feature both figurative and abstract elements.

In 2011 Holmes co-founded Tooth and Nail Studio Gallery, an art studio that over the last 6 years has had over 100 tenants, a gallery that has shown local, interstate and international artists and a printmaking supplies shop.

Holmes has work in several major collections including; The Art Gallery of South Australia, The Mornington Peninsula regional gallery and the Flinders University Collections.

With a particular interest in realism and surrealism, Lucy has won national and international art prizes including the Lethbridge and Clifton’s Art Prizes and has been a finalist in prizes such as the the Doug Moran and Black Swan. Lucy’s work is diverse, represented through painting, sculpture & installation.

Abrupt and immediate ideas around composition and structure hold the attention in Matthew’s mural, studio and installation work.

Drawing influence from colour field painting and early Bauhaus graphics, the use of rudimentary tools and industrialized processes assist in constructing a strong visual language towards his work.

Using documentation of a built environment, interventions within urban space and explorations into materiality, his work seeks to engage an audience through a series of persistent investigations around the use of public space, and how that communicates to a formal studio practice.

Thomas Readett is an Emerging Artist from Adelaide, South Australia currently working as Tarnanthi, Education Officer at the Art Gallery of South Australia and has recently been awarded the Country Health SA and University of South Australia SALA Residency at Glenside where we will see him complete a body of work in the space and themes of Mental Health. 

Thomas has been a drawer his entire life ever since he was a child, wanting to further his career as a professional artist he enrolled into Adelaide Central School of Art in 2011, and it was then he began painting. This is now one of his main practices among others. Thomas graduated his study at Adelaide Central School of Art completing his Associate Degree and Bachelor of Visual Arts Degree (BVA) in 2015. During his time at Adelaide Central School of Art he held group shows with fellow graduates and ended the degree with his final body of video work based around ideas of Solitude and a personal journey through his identity. Thomas has since exhibited solo shows “Beneath the Skin” and “Dark Light”.

I want to do the great painters of the past justice by keeping their methods and values alive through contemporary ideas and materials.

My personal taste resonates closest with the Baroque period of painting. Their particular attention to soft shadows and luminous light is something that is too beautiful to be forgotten. I aim to bring their methods and values back, and expose it to the public on a large scale.

My painting methods are very similar to Leonardo Da Vinchi. Partly due to my ongoing mentorship with the chief restorer and historian of the Mona Lisa, Jaques Franck.

Jaques has helped me greatly in understanding the way that Da Vinchi painted. Giving me detailed lessons on how he used multiple layers and transparent pigments to achieve subtlety and softness of light.

I use the methods of Leaonrdo Da Vinci to create shimmering portraits full of depth, subtlety and luminosity.

As LINZ, an internationally acclaimed and Ironlak-sponsored graffiti writer with a career now spanning 23 years, Harnden’s movements have aligned him with celebrated Australian musicians, artists and sporting personalities.

These figures, along with some closer to his heart, form the pith of his work; a realism characterised by the heightened juxtaposition of subject and technique.

In his time and place, Lee Harnden is a catalyst of ‘subterranean representation’. Unfortunate for him as it is for many true artisans, his work will speak volumes much louder in generations yet to come.

M J Gower, qualified traditional sign-writer, Letter based street artist who combines both mediums together for an original outcome. A career artist who has dedicated his life with over 20 years experience in the field to date.