SANAA Festival Collaborative Mural

Multicultural Communities Council of SA, Adelaide CBD

This expansive mural was created as a collaborative piece for the SANAA Festival, celebrating diversity, cultural expression, and strength of community. Painted on the walls of the Multicultural Communities Council of South Australia (MCCSA), the work is a vibrant visual statement on unity and multiculturalism in contemporary Australia.

Created in collaboration with African artists Thufu Bebeto Ochieng and Mwamba Chikwemba, along with local Indigenous artist Elizabeth Close, the mural is a powerful merging of stylistic approaches, cultures, and traditions.

At its core, the mural features a series of striking figurative portraits; deeply expressive and intricately rendered. These faces, brimming with colour and personality, represent not only individual identities but collective histories. Surrounding and anchoring these portraits is a bold abstract backdrop of geometric forms, referencing traditional African patterns and textiles. The use of high-contrast black and white geometry creates a rhythmic structure that both grounds and amplifies the figurative elements.

Layered over these patterns are flourishes of colour that bring the wall to life and reflect the energy of urban streets, diasporic resilience, and creative collaboration.

The mural is a celebration of African heritage, Indigenous presence, and the many communities that make up the multicultural fabric of modern Australia. It speaks to both the distinctness of each culture and the shared spaces where stories overlap and evolve.

This mural stands as a proud visual landmark in the heart of Adelaide, reminding passersby of the beauty that arises when cultures converge through art.