Last month Australian Street Artist Matt Adnate and Canadian Artist Aaron Li-Hill got together in Bushwick and painted a mural commemorating the survival of the Tibetan culture. This mural was made possible with the help of The Bushwick Collective.
About The Mural
After the mural Adnate painted in 2015 of a Tibetan boy (pictured left) in Bushwick, to Celebrate the Tibetan people and their quest for survival, Li-Hill and Adnate decided to keep that theme alive.
The mural is made up of two portions. The Left portion depicts a Tibetan refugee Adnate photographed in India, with a Buddhist Mandala in the background painted by Jessica Crema . And for the portion on the right Li-Hill chose to paint a snow leopard. Not just an important symbol of Tibet but a metaphor of the plight both the species and cultures face amid extinction and oppression, with keeping in mind that Tibet, along with Syrians and Palestinians, are the most oppressed population in the world today. Awareness about Tibet has been raised but to little avail. The world needs increasing pressure as the amount of oppressed is growing by the day.
About The Artists
Adnate is an artist that realises his portraits in spray paint. He has moved past his roots in Street Art, utilising the medium to carry his realist style into the fine art realm. Heavily influenced by the chiaroscuro of renaissance painters like Caravaggio, Adnate embraces portraiture like the masters of the XXI Century. Adnate has always held a connection towards indigenous people of their native land, especially with Indigenous Australians. He paints large scale murals in the main cities around Australia and the world, creating a statement of reclaiming the land that was always theirs. He endeavours to capture the stories and emotions of each subject he paints, encouraging the audience to feel through their own experience.
Li-Hill is a Toronto based visual artist living in New York City, who employs painting, illustration, stencilling, and sculptural elements within his works. With a background in graffiti and mural painting and a degree in Fine Arts, his works range from smaller multiples to enormous murals that explore industrialization, scientific breakthrough, man versus nature and information saturation. He incorporates found objects and unconventional materials to structure complex multi-layered pieces that are as aesthetic as they are thought provoking. Li-Hill possesses a BFA from OCAD and has travelled and shown extensively in countries such as Australia, Thailand, Myanmar, Mexico and China. He has had works shown in such national institutions as the National Gallery of Victoria, The Art Gallery of Ontario and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
Adnate: website | instagram
Li-Hill: website | facebook | instagram
