With its largest platform yet, the Brisbane Street Art Festival (BSAF) returns in 2022, presenting fifty live public murals and installations turning public walls, bridges, and buildings into a canvas, as well as scheduled art events, performances, open studios, discussion panels and an interactive all-ages workshop program from 7 to 22 May.
Street artists from the US, Spain, Russia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, and New Zealand join influential Australian and Indigenous talents such as Sofles, Lisa King, Rachael Sarra, Jay Mordey and Dylan Mooney, creating opportunities for knowledge sharing and adding their unique perspectives to the walls of Brisbane.
Aerosol Masterclass, BSAF 2020 in Ipswich, Queensland. Photograph: @mellumae. Courtesy Brisbane Street Art Festival, Queensland
Superordinary Northshore, an arts precinct that will act as the central hub for this year’s program, will host several art events, including the BSAF Opening Party on Saturday 7 May, and sit amongst twelve mural activations from the festival schedule. Outside of Northshore Brisbane, the live mural sites will spread across iconic locations in the city – Howard Smith Wharves, Queen Street Mall, RNA Showgrounds, The Valley Mall, and Southbank, to name a few.
A festival highlight is HKwalls’ Tools of the Trade exhibition, straight from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong. The show frames the history of street art and graffiti, highlighting the ingenuity and the inventiveness of the artists by focusing on the techniques and tools that allowed them to produce their best works before commercial companies created products just for artists. Also on view are collaborations with Brisbane’s Botanica – Contemporary Art Outside, which sees a 90-minute Scribble Slam amongst their stunning open-air art exhibition, and House of Iris with a Brisbane-themed photography exhibit that celebrates and connects the rising local photography scene.
