
MIKE MAKATRON & SPED
THE ARTIST
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Mike Makatron is a Melbourne-based artist who works with paint on a wide variety of media, mostly walls, canvas and paper. His signature style portrays a world where natural forces are rising up against the uncaring advance of human civilisation.
His focus on the clashing point between man, beast and machine harbours an ultimate message to mankind, encouraging us to reconnect with mother nature and the animal within.
Mike’s art has taken him all over the world. Starting with an art scholarship in New York at age 20, he has left his mark on numerous city walls and has exhibited extensively throughout Australia and abroad. Several of his pieces are part of public and private collections, including acquisitions from The National Gallery of Australia.
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THE ARTWORK
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The location of this mural, adjacent to the Darwin RSL club (since destroyed in a fire), provided significant inspiration for Mike, aiming to link and contrast the foreign French battlefields of WW1 and its iconic red poppies, to the familiar green tropical vegetation of the Top End. The tropical scenery can also be likened to more recent conflicts, such as the Vietnam War where tropical vegetation, depending on your context, can be seen as lush and inviting or oppressive and overwhelming.
Mike enjoys representing the magic of Australian landscape, flora and fauna, usually twisting it into a creative interpretation. He hopes that people who see this piece will derive enjoyment from it and that it will inspire people to add colour to more walls.
View this artwork on Google Street View



