Check out a new street art trail in Ipswich

The recently completed Ipswich Street Art Trail is a compact stroll across the CBD. Meander the back lanes and streets at your own pace to view the seven completed murals.
31 Aug 2020
Liz Bond, Travel, food and wine writer

The paint is nearly dry on the final wall in the first Ipswich Brisbane Street Art Festival. If you haven’t already seen these stunning works by some of Australia’s finest muralists and street artists now’s the time to come on down.

This is the first time the Brisbane Street Art Festival has come to Ipswich. The city’s historic laneways and walls have been transformed in recent weeks. The sunny streets of Ipswich are now even brighter with seven works that range from abstract to social realism.

The inaugural Ipswich festival kicked off with a jam-packed weekend of events to celebrate and experience street art. The program of workshops covered aerosol skills and other techniques that street artists use to create large-scale murals. Art buffs from across South East Queensland saw the artists in action.

Originally the festival was planned for May but due to Covid-19 many of the events needed a re-design to incorporate social distancing. A live-streamed Swich Up party showcased the artists with a program featuring local musicians.

Meet the artists below and see their walls!

Rachel Sarra

Rachael Sarra's BSA Festival work at the Ipswich Health Plaza Image Cheri Desailly

Rachel Sarra is a local, contemporary artist and a Goreng Goreng woman. Rachel was one of the two illustrators of the children’s book “Our Home, Our Heartbeat”. She created her first mural a little over a year ago.

Her mural for Ipswich Festivals and Brisbane Street Art Festival is titled “Distant Country” and her canvas is the largest in the festival at Ipswich Health Plaza. Instagram: @sar.ra_

Fintan Magee

Fintan Magee BSA Festival 2020 (Credit - timbond.photography)

Fintan Magee’s Two Figures behind Glass depicts two rail workers behind bevelled glass.

It pays tribute to the essential workers who continued to work during Covid-19 and is also a reminiscence from his childhood.

His works often depict personal stories to start a conversation about bigger issues like global warming and immigration. His numerous works can be seen in Australia and abroad. Instagram:@fintan_magee

Emily Devers

Emily Devers BSA Festival 2020 (Credit- timbond.photography)

Emily Devers has totally transformed a nondescript wall at the Ipswich Art Gallery at d’Arcy Doyle Place into something quite spectacular.

Her work is a “reflection on the experience of isolation as a practising artist and transition as a gallery owner”. Based in Brisbane, Emily is a large scale muralist and Director of the Third Quarter Gallery. Instagram: @emily.devers

Ash Taylor

Ash Taylor completing her work for the BSA Festival (credit- timbond.photography)

Ash Taylor’s mural, which is on the wall of Dancing Bean cafe on Brisbane Street, features a closed fist holding a bunch of wattle, against a backdrop of other native flowers. “It’s about mental health, which I think is quite fitting right now,” Taylor said.

“I want it to remind people to just take a moment and breathe when it all gets too much.” Instagram: @ashtaylr

Gus Eagleton

Gus Eagleton BSA Festival Ipswich 2020 (Credit- timbond.photography)

Combining a near photo-realism with an unrealistic edge, Gus Eagleton’s work is held in private collections in Europe and adorns walls nationwide and in Asia. He uses a considered colour palette and each of his striking murals evoke a particular story. Instagram: @instaguss

Jordache

Jordache BSA Festival (Image- Ipswich Festivals via Facebook)

Also from Brisbane, Jordache Castillejos draws from cubism and futurism, contemporary art, post-graffiti and street art. He has left his mark on silos and streetscapes and even a Granite Belt brewery. His large scale mural work can be seen both in Australia and Nepal. Instagram: @its.jordache

Styna

Styna BSA Festival Ipswich 2020 (Credit- timbond.photography)

Based in Western Sydney, Christina Huynh is both illustrator and muralist. Her trademark storytelling style always is very much of place. She has worked with the National Library of Australia, NSW Department of Education, NSW State Archives, Westfield, Nude by Nature, WestWords, Sydney Fringe Festival, Banna Group Property and WestConnex. Instagram: @stynabyna

Finding your way around

BSAF art trail map

The recently completed Ipswich Art Trail is a compact stroll across the CBD. Meander the back lanes and streets at your own pace to view the seven completed murals. This might just be the perfect way to enjoy contemporary art and socially distance at the same time.

Cafe’s nearby the Ipswich CBD street art include Fourthchild, Dancing Bean, Oikos, Rafter and Rose and The Retro Diner.

To see some of the older street art works in Ipswich click through to the Ipswich Central Street Art Trail.

 

Liz Bond Travel, food and wine writer
Liz Bond has been writing travel, food and wine for her blog This Magnificent Life since 2009. She also regularly contributes to Escape, inflight magazines and other travel media. Liz has interviewed celebrity chefs, slept in some of the world’s finest hotels and swum with whale sharks. She prides herself in her uncanny ability to bump into famous and celebrated at baggage carousels. Her blog is https://thismagnificentlife.com

Things to do

View more things to do

Tell your story

Got something special you’d love to see highlighted via Discover Ipswich? A new attraction, perhaps, or a restaurant or a venture that people are travelling for? Share your story with us so we can share it to the world!

Send Email