Melbourne street art female scene

The street art female scene in Melbourne is growing, while in the past it was dominated by males, probably because of the risks that it involves, now the number of women creating art, here and all over the world, is increasing. Some of the names that are growing in Melbourne are:

Vexta

Vexta is a veteran of street art, she was born in Australia and started doing tags and stencils in her mid-20s, and only about seven years ago she made street art her career. Although she moved to New York five years ago, she continues to work in Melbourne. Her artwork has been seen in Italy, US, Mexico, France and Britain.

In Melbourne, several of her works can be seen, including a commission of the City of Melbourne of the Meat Market in the North of the city. Another example is her collaboration with New York artist Elle in Prahran’s Hornby Street.

One of the reasons of why she decided to be an artist was activism and freedom of expression. For Vexta, it is about freedom and nature as well as the way we relate to it. She also aims to create a different image of women from what it is normally portrayed in advertising.

Lucy Lucy

Lucy Lucy was born in Paris and in 2007 first moved to Melbourne to study an International Business master’s degree, after that, she moved back to Paris for a few years, but ended up returning to Melbourne six years ago.

She had always loved drawing and painting and became friends with street artists while in Melbourne, but it was not until she shared a flat with Li-Hill, another street artist, that she started her career by forming AWOL, one of the best known street artist collectives in the city.

Her work can be seen in Preston library, in the Box Hill town hall and in Benalla. Her style includes murals of standard women, as she likes to portray different aspects of females.

23rd Key

Jessica Kease, known as 23rd Key, is a 28 year old artist with a lot of education. She graduated from music production, fine art, visual communication and design and is currently studying a bachelor degree of Architecture & Design.

Her career started with stencil art in 2005 influenced by her brother, who was into street art in the 2000’s. She specialises in realistic stencils and is very focused on detail, as she cuts everything by hand. This particular characteristic has made her win on two occasions the Australian Stencil Art Prize in 2011 and 2014.

Her style is not very ladylike and most of the times people think she is a male when they see her artwork. Some of it can be seen on Preston’s The Hood Market, on the CBD and several in a space next to Eastland, she has also put gallery shows with her smaller pieces.