BOON 2019
Bruce McLachlan
For 2019’s Boon Street Art Festival we knew we wanted to include local legend Bruce McLachlan. Born and bred in the Waikato and currently based in Hamilton he is known for his precise and detailed acrylic paintings, often inspired by pop culture.
Christie Wright
Christie Wright is a self-taught, multi-disciplined visual artist from Napier and Wellington. Her signature use of bright colours mixed with fluid patterns is easy on the eye but still supplies the viewer with an extreme amount of detail to lose yourself in.
“I wanted to do something that would bring joy, colour and imagination to a bland area. It was a mighty challenge painting a whole building in a week on a massive Knuckle Boom,” she says.
Daniel Ormsby + Jeremy Shirley
Daniel (Ngāti Maniapoto, Waitomo) is skilled in Toi whakairo and tā moko which both feed into his paintings on canvas and murals. This was his first mural, supported by the technical assistance of Hamilton artist Jeremy Shirley.
Through this piece, Daniel explores a ‘person’ manifesting from chaos or spirit; A bright radiating energy. The piece emphasises ‘the spark’ or ‘Mauri’ within us. The mural aims to encourage the you to fully express yourself, dream big, believe in yourself, listen to your heart and love one another.
Dinho Bento
Brazilian Artist / Muralist / Illustrator Dinho Bento was the first international artist to paint for a BOON Street Art Festival after responding to a general call-out. We were excited to have him enrich our city by sharing tales of his Brazilian whakapapa through his signature large-scale mural design.
As an indigenous Brazilian who grew up in a severely deforested area, he is concerned with the relationship between people, land and animals.
The woman is a representation of Pachamama (Earth mother).
Enox
Enox aka Iain Spanhake, is another of New Zealand’s proudly homegrown artists, who’s quirky, madcap creations caught the eye of our Project Manager Craig on Instagram. Having already brought his urban contemporary style to a range of other mediums we were delighted to have him bring his crew of energetic and positive characters to the walls of our streets.
Kalani Lanusi
A budding part of the local art community, Kalani was then working as artist Bruce McLaughlan’s assistant. She had recently completed the beloved Duck Island mural as her first big wall, and had an appetite for more. For BOON she was interested in telling stories of her South American whakapapa.
Kell Sunshine & Michael Moore
Kell is a multidisciplinary Kiwi artist with a focus on street art in a bright, fresh palette. We were keen to bring her back to Hamilton after her graceful work on a temporary wall resonated strongly with our community. For 2019’s work she decided to collaborate with local spoken-word poet Michael Moore to create something a bit different.
Their collaboration serves as a reminder that we are all children of Ranginui (Sky Father) and Papatūānuku (Earth Mother) and we honour them in the way we live.
Melinda Butt
Melinda Butt is an artist on a mission, sharing BOON’s belief in the power of art to transform and enhance communities' experience of everyday spaces. After our Project Manager, Craig discovered her work on Instagram we felt BSAF19 was a great opportunity to bring her geometric shapescapes to Kirikiriroa.
Stephen Templer
Wellingtonian Stephen Templer is an artist, performer, painter and prop designer with a gift for collaboration. He is also the friend of notorious BOON instigator Paul Bradley, with whom he agrees strongly about the power of the arts to bring vibrancy to New Zealand communities.
Only his words can adequately describe what is happening in his piece The Secret Gathering, “The moon is full tonight in the house of libra. The sun moves into Aries Autumn equinox. For all the dreamers tonight may you wake in them and create new worlds. There are other worlds they have not told you of. They wish to speak to you. Love to the Lucid dream bike crew dreaming on bicycles tonight.”
T Wei
T Wei is a Wellington based artist whose particular style is pop-surrealism.
His piece responds to the Waikato river in particular reflecting on the importance of the awa itself and the eels within it.
The fisherman’s head is a bucket that is holding the eels. It's a playful reflection of its surroundings.