Page 38 - Holidays with Kids - Volume 62 (January 2020)
P. 38
PROFILE
01 01 Matt with wife Jess and son Romeo at his eponymous hotel, The Adnate
02 Mural at The Adnate 03 Matt and family in Europe © Matt Adnate 04 The
Adnate mega mural, in part. Image 01, 02 & 04 © The Adnate
02
‘Community’ is a word that comes up often in
conversation with Matt Adnate, the Australian big-wall
street artist best known for his moving, monumental
works of First Nations people that adorn walls the
world over. It is from engaging with community that
Matt draws the inspiration for the murals he creates.
“When I spend time in community, there are certain
people who really stand out to me,” he says. It is the
faces of these people that shine in Matt's prodigious
portraits. Through these connections Matt endeavours
to capture the story of each subject he paints in his
highly emotive artworks celebrating multiculturalism
and Indigenous culture. Each artwork encourages the
audience to feel through their own experiences as well
as create awareness of social issues and equality.
Living large
With a career that has taken him around the world,
Matt’s latest milestone is – rather fittingly – having a
hotel named for him. It’s an honour that “still doesn’t
Wall to wall ninth Art Series hotel and the first to feature street art.
feel real,” he says.
Perth’s hottest new hotel, The Adnate, is Australia’s
And it brings with it a striking new landmark for the
Perth CBD in the form of a record breaking 25-storey
mural – the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the mural, which took Matt just
Australian big-wall artist and father of one, one month to complete, was created to tell a story
about Perth’s culture and community. In the striking
matt adnate, chats to Holidays with Kids work, a Noongar man, an Indian woman and a
about community, inspiration and how Mediterranean woman gaze out over the city, each of
travel has changed with son Romeo in tow. the youthful faces embodying past, present and future
through their personal histories and backgrounds.
Inside the 250-room hotel, guests are greeted by
a collection of Matt’s striking portraits. Two original
canvases grace the lobby, a large-scale mural sits
above the main staircase, and 650 limited edition prints
38 Australia’s #1 family travel magazine and website
