Hickey’s series of female idols are inspired by images of women from a variety of contexts, histories and worlds. The complex layering of imagery and patterns depict beauty, spiritual iconography and the feminine. After completing bachelor degrees in fine arts and education, and then five years of teaching art in Queensland high schools, Sarah Hickey started to produce art professionally after a long hiatus from her own creative practice. Hickey has held eleven solo shows and participated in over thirty group shows.

SATR is a Chinese artist who approaches her creative process using insights and inspiration from her life. Known for her vigorous brushstrokes and intuitive spray can control, the focus of her body of work is animal using a simplified colour scheme. Her works embody dynamism and fluidity.

Blu Art Xinja has been a street artist for the last five years, installing the iconic blue sculptural pieces in and around Brisbane and whenever Blu travels to other cities or abroad. The goal is to bridge the gap between graffiti and authorised public sculpture/art. Blu enjoys placing pieces in hard to reach places, as well as very public areas, the brilliant blue contrasting against the structures of the urban environment. Blu’s work for this festival will be harking back to their very first pieces they placed around Brisbane: Sprouts and organic forms growing from side spaces and alleyways, beautifying those areas that are often neglected, but always visible in our periphery. 

Boneta-Marie Mabo, Piadram/Munbarra, a proud Aboriginal and Torres Strait woman, a sugar slave descendant, a prison abolitionist, and a lover of fashion and art. In 2017 she collaborated with the Royal Australian Mint in the design of a circulating commemorative 50c coin to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum and the 25th anniversary of the High Court Mabo decision. In 2016 she was the inaugural artist-in-residence for the State Library of Queensland’s kuril dhagun Indigenous centre, in 2015 she won People’s Choice award in the National Aborig- inal and Torres Strait Islander Telstra Art Award for her art celebrating the life of her activist grandfather, the late Eddie Koiki Mabo. For the past five years the award winning contemporary artist has lead the Sisters Inside Young Indigenous Art Program. Sisters Inside, an independent community organisation, which exists to advocate for the human rights of women and girls in the criminal justice system. She holds an Undergradu- ate Degree in Visual Arts from Deakin University. Boneta-Marie most recent solo exhibition in 2018 was ‘Immersed’ a collection of portraits of First Nations women that celebrates resistance against patriarchal colonialism

CHABOO is a artistic partnership between Casey Coolwell, a Quandamooka woman with traditional ties to Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), and Roy Fisher, a Wakka Wakka man from Cherbourg, QLD.
Casey is an Aboriginal artist and established graphic designer, while Roy is a painter and decorator by trade. Casey is the artist and designer behind their label CHABOO and has created many graphic design pieces for North Coast Aboriginal Corporation for Community Health (NCACCH), Menzies School of Health Research, Sentencing Council Queensland, YFS, ATSICH, Femeconomy, The Brisbane Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Housing Authority (BATSICCHA), and Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC).
As a team Casey and Roy have created murals for Logan Hospital, The Hills Montessori and Wattle Montessori.

Reuben Stocks aka Dank Zappa is an established graffiti artist and an emerging fine artist. His background is in pen and spraycan skills. His inspiration comes from the street, global graffiti culture, underground music and the influence of the fine art world in childhood. His profound reflective inner self and the unknown realities of our outer multiverses are tangible in his work. His ability to visually distill that which is organic and universal together with street culture Phunk into a singular current of production is completely mesmerising.

Perfecting his craft since 1997, Joos ‘DOES’ van Barneveld is a multidisciplinary international artist recognised for his well balanced colour schemes, clean style and eye for detail. Taking root in graffiti art, traditional letterform is DOES’s primary love. He maintains that different hand styles betray elements of their owners’ emotional landscapes, putting personality traits subconsciously on display. Using the letters D, O, E and S as a foundation, he continues to elevate these etchings to new heights. Through an explosion of colour and shape, letters assume narrative.

Elysha Rei is a Japanese-Australian visual artist whose work draws upon her mixed heritage and lived experiences between places, cultures and communities. Her works are created from personal and historical archives which embed narrative and symbolism within a Japanese design aesthetic. Works include portraits, patterns and paper cutting which have been translated into large-scale murals and installation commissions. Since completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts in 2008, Rei has created and exhibited work, curated exhibitions and managed cultural spaces across Australia, Japan, Thailand, New Zealand and the US.

In the studio, Gus Eagleton paints with oils on canvas to create photo-realistic yet surreal interpretations of the reality and beauty of our urban landscape. On the street, he explores the individual in nature, juxtaposed against the concrete city.

Shaun Lee, Gwarkabah (Saltwater man) also known by his artist name, Hafleg, is a Larrakia, Wardaman and Karajarri contemporary freelance artist born and raised in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Shaun has been painting from a very young age learning from his large artistic family. He specialises in murals and logos using traditional and contemporary designs and especially enjoys doing one off pieces of art.