Timur Fork (b. 1986) is a Moscow-based artist who emerged from the Russian graffiti movement of the early 2000s, becoming known for character-driven street works across Moscow, Barcelona, Paris and Osaka. A pivotal injury in 2017 prompted a shift from walls to canvas, transforming his street language into a distinctive studio practice.
He is the founder of ‘plasticine realism’ — hyperrealistic paintings that mimic hand-moulded plasticine, fusing childhood nostalgia with technical precision and three-dimensional illusion. Balancing irony, colour and dynamism, Fork creates works that are playful yet profound, bridging street culture and contemporary art through a universal visual language.
MUR0NE
Mur0ne is a largely self-taught artist whose career spans graphic design, graffiti and muralism. Beginning casually before evolving into a profession, his background in design strongly informs his contemporary practice. Working between geometric abstraction, expressionism and psychedelic figurative imagery, he creates bold, immersive works defined by primary colours, sharp contrasts and high saturation. Muralism is his preferred medium, with large-format works across public spaces worldwide, including fields, stands, tunnels and ceilings. His monumental approach has established him as a reference point for immersive art. As he explains, “Abstract geometry and illustration are my passion, broadly defining my work.”
Gus Eagleton
Gus Eagleton is a Brisbane-based contemporary mural artist delivering public and private commissions across Australia and internationally. A 2013 graduate of the Queensland College of Art and Design, he has over a decade of experience in large-scale painting and has earned international recognition, including the Lord Mayor’s Brisbane Portrait Prize. His practice explores the lives of everyday people, blending imagery from diverse times and perspectives into compelling figurative narratives. Eagleton has completed projects for councils nationwide and organisations including Hutchinson Builders, Mirvac, Queensland Rail, Scentre Group, IBM and Alder Constructions, with works spanning 30 metres high and 200 metres long.
Jasmine Crisp
Jasmine Crisp (she/her) is a painter and muralist from Adelaide, South Australia. Working with traditional techniques, she creates highly detailed murals using only brush, roller and hand-mixed colours. Her practice draws on lived experience, depicting local figures, spaces and personal belongings through original imagery and references.
Blending reality with fantasy, she produces playful genre paintings of the imagined familiar.
Since beginning her public art practice in 2020, Crisp has delivered large-scale murals internationally, including Street Art Boulogne Sur Mer (France); Without Frontiers Lunetta (Italy); Muralia (Vienna) and LOOKUP Festival (Portsmouth, UK), alongside major commissions and festivals across Australia.
JUZPOP
JUZPOP is a Melbourne-based Australian artist and muralist known for large-scale murals and surreal, introspective paintings. Her work explores identity, mental health, and hidden emotional landscapes, centreing women as symbols of strength. Drawing from her own photography, she merges portraiture with elements of nature to create layered, dreamlike compositions reflecting the connection between humanity and the natural world.
After discovering muralism during a residency in Oaxaca, Mexico, her work has appeared across Australia, Mongolia, Amsterdam and Mexico. Her 2024 solo exhibition, Morphe, marked a milestone in her evolving exploration of transformation and self.
Kitsune Jolene
Kitsune Jolene is a Belgian-born contemporary mural artist working between Australia, Europe and around the world. Her practice sits within surreal figurative muralism, often blending symbolic figures with botanical forms and strong emotional narratives. Using her bold, recognisable colour palettes and flowing compositions, her work explores themes of transformation, intimacy, and the human relationship with nature. Influenced by psychological surrealism and poetic storytelling, Jolene creates immersive large scale works that feel both dreamlike and grounded. Her murals aim to invite quiet reflection while maintaining a strong visual presence within public space.
MADWINGS
MadWings Murals is the powerful collaboration of Jason Wing (Biripi/Cantonese) and Maddison Gibbs (Barkindji), an artist duo whose multidisciplinary public artworks amplify cultural visibility, ancestral memory, and social justice across Aboriginal landscapes. Jason Wing merges his Aboriginal and Chinese heritage into a dynamic practice spanning street art, photomedia, painting, installation, and sculpture. Maddison Gibbs combines activist energy with poetic visual languages. Together, MadWings create site-specific public art that resonates deeply with community, tradition, and place, and transform urban environments into living canvases of storytelling, ceremony, resistance, and connection.
KRIMSONE
Born in Australia’s Blue Mountains, Krimsone is a street artist with German/Ukrainian roots whose practice is grounded in environmental awareness and reverence for the living world. His work is distinguished by a surreal, dreamlike visual language and an emotive approach to storytelling. Through immersive compositions, he explores the intimate and often fragile relationship between humans and nature, drawing attention to interconnected ecosystems and our shared responsibility within them. Balancing tenderness with quiet urgency, Krimsone’s murals invite contemplation, empathy and deeper connection to the landscapes and beings that sustain us.
SARSAR
SARSAR (Sarah McCloskey) is a Western Australian visual artist based in Sydney, working across painting, illustration, and large-scale public murals. Inspired by people, places, and everyday moments, her work often blurs the line between real and imagined, inviting viewers to find beauty and curiosity in even the simplest of subjects. Portraiture and storytelling sit at the core of her practice, reflected in both her studio-based oil paintings as well as public art. A finalist in prestigious portrait awards including the Archibald Prize, she currently works from a studio in Marrickville, while her murals can be seen across Australia and overseas.
Anganya artists and Uncle Chris Thorne
Uncle Chris Thorne is an Aboriginal artist living in the bush near Lima, Victoria, and is well known throughout the Benalla region for his paintings — a practice he learnt, and is still learning, from his Elders. Uncle Chris’ work tells of Dreamtime stories that have been shared with him over the years by his Elders. He is a lost child, as he was taken at birth and adopted. He does not know his mob but has been adopted by many mobs due to his thirst for knowledge, connection and activism as an Aboriginal man. The bush is a constant source of inspiration in his work. Through his art, Uncle Chris expresses both his connection to Country and his personal journey of identity, belonging, and finding his way home. Uncle Chris has been completely inspired by the young fellas he is working with on this project due to their commitment to learn and to deepen their knowledge and connections to Country.
Mattie Davo
Mattie Davo, born in Yarrawonga, has lived in Victoria most of his life and has been an owner of Benalla Signs for more than 20 years. Mattie has been a fervent supporter of Street Art in Benalla for many years, and has contributed to the dynamism of previous festivals through his professional output and pop-up artwork projects. As an official artist in this year’s lineup, Mattie Davo brings a unique flavour, blending traditional and contemporary signwriting skills with street art sensibilities to deliver a major work.
Vero Coya
Vero Coya is a French Canadian painter, illustrator, and ceramicist now based in Wandiligong, creating work in the realm of earth-based psychedelia. Her practice draws on emotional landscapes, deep relationships with plants, animism, and shared human experiences. Using familiar imagery, rich textures, and thoughtful storytelling, she crafts immersive worlds that balance comfort with subtle surrealism.
Her paintings, illustrations, and ceramics invite viewers to slow down, reflect, and find refuge in her vivid, emotive compositions. As Vero explains, her work is “an invitation to step into a comforting realm of colour, nature, and heartfelt expression.”
In addition the festival will also be presenting eight exhibitions; Stephanie Cartledge:
Shared Waters takes over Benalla Visitor Information Centre, HA-HA: Street Art Bushranger pops-up at Benalla Art Gallery, Ling: The Allure of Gold: All That Glitters hits Benalla Town Hall, Elliot Routledge [FUNSKULL]: Happy Place will be on display at 126-128 Bridge Street East, The 3000 Podcast joins the celebrations, TANK: STRANGE WORLD runs at Benalla Visitor Information Centre, Catherine Pianta brings the skills of Art and Bookbinding to Tomorrow Today, and Broken River Painters bring their recent works to Benalla Scout Hall.
The festival will also have live music from Lottie Gallagher, and there is a massive program of talks, workshops and more to explore.
