Sydney Artists

By Niall Roeder.

From Ken Done to Fiona Margaret Hall, Ben Quilty, Simryn Gill and Brett Whitely; Sydney has bred or been home to a gaggle of prominent artists over the years. But what of the new school? Which creative renegades are splashing, stroking and spraying their way into the art scene? There are plenty around. Here are some of the best:

Kentaro Yoshida

Kenny-san was born and bred in Japan, but has been lovingly adopted by the sunburnt country since moving here when he was 18. By day he’s a successful graphic designer, but his true passion lies in illustrating by hand… anywhere and everywhere. Whether it be on walls, canvases, skateboards or surfboards, Kenny doesn’t hesitate to grab a swag full of poscas and start scribbling his trademark death, skull, surf, hang over inspired masterpieces. Get this kid competing in the next Secret Walls night!

Georgia Hill

All hail Georgia Hill, Queen of the typeface. The talented Ms Hill specialises in the art of hand-drawn type based art. Her murals are epic. Usually in black and white, what they lack in colour is made up for in incredible stylistic diversity. If I was the dark and mysterious drummer in a mega famous rock band, I’d be asking her to design our band posters. Do yourself a favour and scroll through her Insty feed.

Brett Chan

Mr Chan is a skateboarder. He is a multi media artist and musician. And he is most definitely a tripper. The New Zealand born, now Sydneysider has murals around Bondi… keep an eye for his unmistakable line-fragment-pattern work.

Numskull

Elliott “Numskull” Routledge has evolved over the last 15 years from graffiti bomber to become one of Sydney prominent contemporary artists. He has murals all over Sydney and around the world, and is now currently working on building up more of a gallery presence. His works blend colourful pop art, eclectic typography and abstract pop culture to produce pieces that are both eye catching and fun. Numskull by name, (sm)artist by nature.

Mulga

In 2014, Mulga (aka Joel Moore), threw in his finance job to follow the dream of being a full time artist. T’was a wise move. Looking at his intricate, technicolour works, you’d never guess he came from a number-crunching background. His art is like a child’s imagination on acid, it’s very surreal, but in no way threatening. His art looks great hanging on a canvas or printed on a tee… but what really dilates the ol’ pupils is seeing one of his sunglass’d hyper-colour ape-captains (or other fantastical inventions) as a mural.

Jess Cruickshank

Jess Cruickshank is into lettering, illustration and puppies. Her words. Not sure how good she is with puppies, but I can definitely vouch for her letter and illustration skills. Mad skills to say the least. There’s something really impressive about someone that make art out of words. We write words everyday of our lives, but most of it looks like spider crawl…. Not Cruikshank, she can turn it into something beautiful.

Image: Numskull Facebook