Murals
Art is what sets us apart from so many festivals. We love to support talented artists who bring a fresh flavour to the festival and turn Strawberry into a canvas of imagination.
Be surprised and delighted with pops of colour, paint and live muralists as you roam, dance and play among the ghost gums alongside the Murray.
Stop, chat and connect with the artists and discover more about their craft and inspirations.
Casey Hare is a painter, facilitator, and educator who grew up on Turtle Island (Toronto, Canada). Now based in Naarm (Melbourne), their practice has become a physical reflection of their lived experiences as a queer, diasporic Asian person. Being a self-taught artist, Casey enjoys an unconventional approach to painting and perceives their works as a form of flux – each piece evolves organically, linked to their being, remaining open to new conversations and ongoing dialogues. While leaning into neo-impressionist modalities, Casey’s large-scale painting practice spans from fractured body-centric compositions to high-contrast fluid abstraction with a strong focus on biological explorations.
Casey was one of the founding members of Gallery 17, and has worked within various interdisciplinary artist collectives in event spaces, festival contexts, and group exhibitions.
Simon Beuve is a French/Australian artist originally from Normandy. In the year 2000, he discovered graffiti and moved to Paris, to be part of the main scene in France. He now lives and works in Melbourne, creating murals and paintings.
Simon’s work has evolved from the street onto the canvas with a gestural and abstract aesthetic, exploring the city's essence and its impact on society. His work is inspired by all the little details and layers our day-to-day environment offers, which are often overlooked as mistakes. This for him is the essence of emotion and energy. These ephemeral unintentional marks of life are captured and translated into paintings, collages and assemblage.
Simon’s work has been presented at several solo and group shows, publications, and street art festivals worldwide. He exhibited his first solo show in Melbourne in 2015. He has dedicated the majority of his time to studio work, honing his aesthetic and exploring the conceptual basis of his practice.
Chia Jen is a recognisable Melbourne based artist & creative director in the Australian scene.
You can find her intricate patterns, flowing linework and colourful pallet blends throughout Melbourne Victoria's festival circuits as well as interstate, international festivals and venues.
For the past decade her paint has graced stages at festivals such as Strawberry Fields / Babylon/ Organic Audio / Elements USA / Rabbits Eat Lettuce / Bushtechno and Esoteric.
She has transformed businesses with her brush strokes and up-cycled decor in venues such as - Hatch Uluwatu Indonesia / Bird watching society, crooked letters, Comma wine, Abbots Yard and more.
‘I love fluid movement with lines and patterns over soft colour blends to create contrast’ - Chia Jen
Originally from Larrakia country and now based in Naarm, Georgia is an artist who works across a range of media, including murals, painting, drawing, and installation. She’s well-known for her large-scale commercial murals but also enjoys those rare moments when she can paint purely for herself. With a long-standing interest in painting people, Georgia initially focused on capturing their likenesses in a traditional, realistic style. These days, however, she’s more interested in expressing the unique movement, feelings, and emotions of her subjects. Her personal work—though not often seen by the public—explores the joy and beauty of the human experience in a more abstract and expressive way
Chris Henderson is an artist and arts educator based in Wangaratta and Melbourne (naarm), predominantly creating with sculpture, paint and mural work. His emotive works tell the stories of bushrangers, people within the justice system and feature historical myths and legends deeply influential to him. His approach to art making is both playful and reactionary, referencing the rich palette of his upbringing and current social landscape.
Giovanna is a Brazilian Australian artist based in Naarm (Melbourne). Currently undertaking a Masters of Art in Public Space, Giovanna’s works within the public realm through muralism and her studio painting and drawing practices. Giovanna has undertaken a number of public art projects with ranging scales over her 8 years of practice locally and overseas. Giovanna has exhibited in several galleries and spaces around Australia in group exhibitions and a solo exhibition. Giovanna’s international experience includes mural residencies in India (2018) and Mongolia (2024). She has also produced and facilitated community engaged mural projects and workshops locally and overseas.
Giovanna’s current practice interests involve the collection of locally engaged ideas while the process of situated practice, illustration and reductive abstraction in image making drive her methods. Her works stand as an archive of her personal experiences expressed through symbolic forms and chosen stylistic approach. Giovanna’s public practice informs her studio work and vice versa, while being Informed by her everyday surroundings she explores themes of the personal, hyper local and pattern recognition in everyday life.
Eden Ariston is a self-taught artist, musician and arts worker currently residing and creating on Wadawurrung land in Djilang, Australia.
Edens' work is driven by her background in architecture, her deep love for animals and nature and her connection to and exploration of the stolen land she calls home. Her practice encompasses painting, drawing, sculpture, large scale murals, digital illustration, poetry, songwriting, tattoo and curation.
Since formally beginning her art career in 2022, Eden has held two solo and one group exhibition, participated in 10 group shows across Djilang and Naarm, undertaken a 2023 residency at Platform Arts, co-founded ACEE Collective, and released her debut EP under the musical alias ‘stonnii’.
Eden uses her art as a method of storytelling, and is drawn to investigating how creativity can be utilised as an outlet for processing grief, trauma and the world around her.
Minna creates playful images inspired by the unique beauty and feeling across a vast array of native Australian landscapes - all the way from the dry sclerophyll forests of the Strathbogie ranges, to the tangled mangroves and thick rainforests of Cape York. Through her paintings, she seeks to spark a sense of appreciation for the natural world and all things wild - as well as an interest in issues relating to environmental conservation, during a time where fragile ecosystems need our care and protection the most.