"Something that’s purely dark doesn’t move me. But something dark with a glimmer of light in it, something beautiful that carries a bit of weight or pain, that hits different."

- Billielis

What first sparked your love of art and design? Were there particular people, experiences, or ideas that pushed you to start creating?

My mum and three sisters are all naturally creative so I guess I absorbed it by osmosis. Hailing from a small country town, boredom was often the impetus to create. There were no galleries or exposure to the art world outside of school books - but I loved to draw, so design seemed like a viable career path. It wasn’t really until university that I was exposed to so much more in the art and design world.

Your work channels a lot of vintage and pin-up aesthetics with a contemporary twist. What draws you to retro imagery?

I’m a bit of a collector and love to hunt for objects in op shops, thrift stores and flea markets. I’m drawn to mid 20th century fashion, design, imagery, packaging, music, typography, colour palettes - pretty much everything! It reflects a time when thoughtful design was prioritised, and where drawing skills and craftsmanship really mattered.

Your work is filled with fabulous and eccentric women. Are they imagined muses, reflections of people around you, or a bit of both?

The women I draw are strong, playful and free - unbound by society’s expectation around gender. I guess it’s the kind of world I’d love to see, especially for my daughter to grow up in. I’m inspired by women past and present who break the mould, carve their own path, and challenge the patriarchy in their own unique way.

You created a new version of Playboy’s iconic Femlin character, originally drawn by LeRoy Neiman in the ’50s. How did you approach reshaping her for a modern audience, and what was it like working within such a legacy?

The fact that a female art director asked a woman to reinterpret this iconic character speaks volumes from a feminist standpoint and reflects a modern audience. Like all of my work, I’m not creating for the male gaze; I’m just drawing girls having their own fun. It was such a great project, and Playboy were a dream to work with.

“I’M A BIT OF A COLLECTOR AND LOVE TO HUNT FOR OBJECTS IN OP SHOPS, THRIFT STORES AND FLEA MARKETS. I’M DRAWN TO MID 20TH CENTURY FASHION, DESIGN, IMAGERY, PACKAGING, MUSIC, TYPOGRAPHY, COLOUR PALETTES - PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING!”

- Neryl Walker

Out of the many techniques you use in your work, are there any mediums you find especially rewarding?

I love to paint! I’m enjoying giving myself space for exploration, embracing happy accidents and moving away from sitting in front of a computer.

Your most recent show, Ladylike, at Outré Gallery reimagines the language and themes historically used to define women. Tell us about how the body of work came to be and what you hope audiences take away from the show.

This show has been brewing for a while. It explores how women and femmes are constantly navigating expectations about how they should present themselves, and delves into everyday language that subtly polices and undermines them - words like bitch, nag, emotional, hormonal, bimbo…the list goes on. I’m hoping people can have a bit of a laugh, but also reflect on the many labels consistently placed on women and the impact that has.

What’s next for Neryl Walker?

I’ve just finished painting a large outdoor mural for the Darwin Street Art Festival and an album cover for all girl band, Girl Monstar. Looking forward, I’d love to collaborate on some larger projects - retail window displays, bar interiors, fun branding projects. I also love to travel, so maybe an art residency or international mural festival where I can continue painting at a larger scale.

@nerylwalker
www.neryl.com

David, what is it about everyday urban scenes that draws you in to capture a moment that others would likely overlook?

I enjoy capturing those fleeting moments that only I witnessed - being in the right place at the right time and prepared with my camera when something unexpected happens. For me it’s about making the most with what you have and seeing the beauty in the ordinary.

Quiet moments, bright tones, and layered exposures are recurring themes in your work. In a time of digital oversaturation, your images still stand out and jump off the screen. How would you describe your style, and how does darkness play into it?

I don’t think I have made a conscious decision about creating a particular visual style, I feel it’s something that has just emerged through the time spent taking photos and mixing things up when I felt what I was doing was stale. I started taking photos on the street about 10 years ago. I needed something to refocus my mind as work was quite stressful at the time, so I decided to start shooting whatever drew my eye on the walk home. Those photos tended to be dark, layered and contrasty with pockets of colour as it was normally dark by the time I finished work. What interested me most was how a mundane scene during the day could be transformed into something mysterious and film-like after dark once the lights came on. Coloured lights would activate grey concrete walls bringing life to areas ignored during the day, while the silhouettes of people moving through these spaces provided interesting shapes and compositions to photograph.

Let’s talk about light. Do you wait for the perfect natural light, or do you try to bend it to your vision?

You kind of stumble upon a situation with perfect light rather than waiting for it in my experience, so I just try and make the most of the situation I find myself in. When it is perfect I try to make the best of it as it could disappear at any time. At night it can be a little more predictable - if it's a light source from a sign or a street light that I know will be on after dark. I generally like to capture the quality of the light as it appears rather than altering in post production.

Do you come from a graffiti background? There’s a real rawness and anonymous undertone to your work that feels deeply connected to that world.

That’s an interesting observation but no, my background is not that exciting. Growing up in Adelaide, I was a quiet kid happy to sit for hours building Lego, drawing pictures and riding bikes around the streets with the other neighbourhood kids. I grew up in the time before smartphones and the internet where we had to keep ourselves entertained during school holidays while our parents were at work. Making do with what you have, viewing life as it was in all its rawness and the influence of friends being themselves and saying things with no filter helped shape who I am as a person today. I think those experiences instilled a sense of authenticity that I'm instinctively drawn to and comes through in my photography to this day.

Are you someone who pre-visualises the shot or do you let the moment guide you?

I would say that most of the time I am open to exploring and to see what I would find rather than heading out to shoot with a predetermined idea of what I would shoot. I have found with my street photos the best results have come from the most unexpected situations or encounters.

Let's talk about your origins as a photographer -  what pulled you into photography, and what keeps you coming back to shoot?

I remember being given my first camera for my 15th or 16th birthday. Thinking back, it was a cherished gift that was my first true introduction to the joy of taking photos and my first ‘grown up’ present my parents had given me. It was a small Canon point and shoot film camera (I still have it today) that I used to take photos of friends and family at parties or around the house. It wasn’t until Uni that I became interested in proper photography. The way you can use photography to express an idea or create a story quickly really appealed to me. I enjoyed the physical aspect of developing my own film in the dark room and the joy of seeing my image magically appear in the developing tray. With photography I always feel like there is more to learn or ways to improve, which keeps me going.

Do you shoot with film? The layered exposures, and unexpected light feels like spontaneity, like the surprises you’d get from a roll of expired film. Is that an intentional influence? Is it a particular technique you use to capture moments and layer this way?

I shoot both digital and film, but I feel more of a connection to analogue and have been shooting more film than digital recently. Sometimes digital can feel too perfect. Life isn’t perfect and sharp, being blurry around the edges feels like a better reflection of what I see around me. The appeal of film for me is in the way the results can surprise me, the imperfections in the colour shifts and rough grain when using expired film, unexpected contrasts if the wrong exposure was dialled in, light leaks and unexpected compositions layered through multiple exposures. I experiment with a lot of double exposure, exposing the complete roll of film, rewinding, and re-exposing the same roll at another time. It can be a hit or miss process but there are times I see results that I could never plan or replicate and it makes the effort all worthwhile.

Is being a street photographer your full time gig?

There was no grand plan to become a ‘street photographer’, it was just something I started to explore as a creative outlet in my spare time. Over the years photography and image making has become a bigger part of my life with my interests expanding beyond just street photography into more of a fine art direction. I would love to push my ideas further and see where they lead without it becoming commercial work for someone else. To balance this aspect of my life I work as a Graphic Designer which also complements my passion for photography.

How do you think Graphic Design has shaped your photography journey?

As a part of my visual communication degree at university I was taught all the fundamentals of design and visual language including composition, colour theory, form, contrast and harmony etc and once that became second nature and a natural part of my design and conceptual thinking process, framing scenes through my camera lens became an intuitive action. My design intuition subconsciously helps me to identify quickly whether a particular scene is interesting or if a composition will work even before I get my camera out.

Who or what inspires you?

Getting off social media and observing what is happening in the world is my biggest inspiration. Travel. Time spent wandering through art galleries and watching films also sparks ideas for me. Films with inspiring visual direction including work by Wong Kar-Wai (In the mood for love), Wim Wenders (Paris Texas) and Blade Runner (Original and 2049) are a few of my favourites that I can watch over and over. Artists Basquiat, Jeffery Smart, Magritte. Photographers Trent Parke, Saul Leiter, William Eggleston, Bill Henson. Designers David Carson, Stefan Sagmeister, Vaughan Oliver. However my biggest inspiration is my partner Lidiia. She is always there for support and advice and is the one that keeps me going.

What keeps the passion for photography as a creative practice alive for you, especially in times of creative burnout or doubt?

I often put too much pressure on myself to create amazing images constantly so I must take a breath and remind myself why I am doing this and it's supposed to be fun. Taking a break to give my mind a chance to relax and reboot also helps to minimise my burnout and aid in regaining my passion for creating.

"I enjoy capturing those fleeting moments that only I witnessed -  being in the right place at the right time."

– David Sark

Do you ever feel tension between preserving a moment as it is, and reimagining it through your lens? How do you balance authenticity with interpretation?

There are many moments I observe and stay with me without the need for taking a photo. After shooting for years I find I'm more selective with the moments I chose to shoot and preserve. They need to be authentic, real life moments that I find interesting or have a personal connection to. It’s all intuition, something I don’t think about too hard at the time. I believe the interpretation comes after. The final image may speak to me differently compared to the moment it was captured and my audience may also have a different interpretation viewing the image with no context explained.

The theme of this NC issue is resurrection - what does resurrection mean to you?

For me resurrection relates to my inspiration and my creative output at this moment. My father passed away in 2023 and I experienced a long period of grief. Losing complete interest in photography and most other things. Only now I feel as though I'm working my way out of a hole and gaining that lost inspiration to start creating again, a new lease on life.

Tokyo streets and scenes appear often in your work. What’s your relationship with the city, and what is it like shooting there?

Travel is a great way to reignite the passion for taking photos. I've always enjoyed being in a new city, exploring and discovering all the little details that make it unique and different from home. With my travels throughout Japan I felt there was an infinite amount of little details to discover with fresh eyes. Everywhere I went or every corner I turned I found something new and interesting I needed to take a photo of. I thought I needed to take as many photos as I could knowing I would probably never go back to those places as there were so many new places to see. Not knowing the language, I found it a very different experience to shoot in places like Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto compared to home. The sound of people talking and announcements in Japanese seemed to fade into the background leaving me to focus on all the visual elements around me, undistracted.

You seem to have done a lot of international travel / work - where else have you loved to shoot outside of Australia and why?

I lived and worked in London for a few years and tried to make the most of the short distances to cities in Europe. I loved being able to journey to cities with different languages and cultures in a matter of hours. I love the winding narrow laneways in old European centres never knowing what’s around the corner, the energy of New York where there is always something happening on the streets at all hours of the day and the tranquility and culture of Kyoto.

With social media being so oversaturated with images now, do you think photography as an artform is being diluted by quantity over quality? And if so, how can we fix this?

Definitely so, but like everyone else on social media I’m still trying to work out the best way my work can be more visible. Social Media has changed so much since I first started posting on Instagram 10 years ago. There is still plenty of quality photography and active communities on Instagram but as the barrier to enter the space is now non-existent, photographers will continue to struggle for visibility against the sheer tsunami size wave of new ‘content’ being posted every hour. I feel we have to either go into battle with an algorithm that we have no control over or instead dedicate time to producing more meaningful work that is true to ourselves and values. Maybe you can do both, but at the end of the day, I think everyone needs to find an outlet and platform that works for them in a positive way.

When editing, what makes a photo 'complete' for you? What's your definition of done?

Editing photos is my least favourite part of the process. There are endless possibilities that can be a little too overwhelming for me. I try to keep things simple, correcting exposure, white balance and contrast. With my street photos I still aim to retain a realistic/natural aesthetic, I'm not a big fan of shifting colours too dramatically. For me the editing is just the final touch on a photo I'm already happy to have captured. I feel an image is complete when I feel it is. Again, it’s weird to talk about a process that I am not consciously thinking about. It’s done when it’s done! But saying that, I think if you need to spend more than an hour to edit a photo - you’re overcooking it and it probably wasn’t a good photo to begin with.

Any famous last words?

“Just start” is my current mantra.

www.davidsark.com
@_davidsark

As a duo, who are PichiAvo?

Two friends who met while painting. We both come from graffiti backgrounds. It's our roots, but we also have formal training in Fine Arts and Design, so our work is really a dialogue between the street and the studio.

How did your partnership come to be and how long have you been creating together?

We met in 2005 painting graffiti in the streets of Valencia. We quickly realised that we shared a vision, and since 2007, we’ve been working together on every piece as one artistic voice.

How has your identity as a duo evolved over time? Are there parts of yourselves (individually or collectively) that you’ve had to 'resurrect' or reinvent through your practice?

Over time, we’ve grown into a single creative identity. In the beginning, our styles were more separate, but now our process is completely collaborative. We've had to constantly adapt, reinvent and evolve, especially as our work moved from walls to galleries and public sculptures.

A working creative partnership could be even closer than a marriage! As a duo, how do you navigate creative differences or decisions? Are there a set of unspoken rules you’ve developed between yourselves?

Absolutely! It's a relationship built on respect, communication, and trust. We don’t have strict roles; instead, we make decisions together. It's not always easy, we also argue and have opposing opinions! But in the end we always reach an agreement and the result is good. We know each other’s strengths and we flow with that.

Tell us about home? What does home look like for you?

Home is Valencia. It’s where we were born, where we paint, and where our creative roots are. The Mediterranean light, the streets, the culture, it all feeds into our work. Home is also where our studio is located. We built a space for ourselves in 2020 that meets our needs and has been designed for our artistic practice. Now we have a team and we spend more time at the studio, that’s where all projects start.

Your signature style - ancient mythology meets modern graffiti - reflects a powerful dichotomy and dialogue between the past and present. What does this juxtaposition mean to you both personally, and how did it come to become the signature style of PichiAvo?

It’s our way of showing that the past and the present can speak to each other. Mythology represents timeless human stories while graffiti is our contemporary voice. Combining them is about honoring tradition, while breaking it and creating a new language that’s both historical and urban, sacred and rebellious. It came out of experimentation when we were younger. We were painting realism and graffiti and one day we decided to paint sculptures. We saw the potential in the result instantly.

Graffiti and street art in nature is ephemeral - here today, often gone tomorrow. The long lasting nature of your murals offers a promise of permanence and cultural legitimacy to an artform that’s historically been dismissed as vandalism. Do you see your work as a way of resurrecting graffiti’s value to the public?

Graffiti has always been a voice from the streets, but it deserves to be heard in galleries, museums, and public spaces. By merging it with classical art, we’re showing that it’s not just a fleeting trend, it’s a legitimate form of cultural expression. In any case, we don't mind the ephemeral nature of murals and street art. It's a kind of artwork that can be part of the urban landscape today and change radically tomorrow.

Your signature style - ancient mythology meets modern graffiti - reflects a powerful dichotomy and dialogue between the past and present. What does this juxtaposition mean to you both personally, and how did it come to become the signature style of PichiAvo?

It’s our way of showing that the past and the present can speak to each other. Mythology represents timeless human stories while graffiti is our contemporary voice. Combining them is about honoring tradition, while breaking it and creating a new language that’s both historical and urban, sacred and rebellious. It came out of experimentation when we were younger. We were painting realism and graffiti and one day we decided to paint sculptures. We saw the potential in the result instantly.

Graffiti and street art in nature is ephemeral - here today, often gone tomorrow. The long lasting nature of your murals offers a promise of permanence and cultural legitimacy to an artform that’s historically been dismissed as vandalism. Do you see your work as a way of resurrecting graffiti’s value to the public?

Graffiti has always been a voice from the streets, but it deserves to be heard in galleries, museums, and public spaces. By merging it with classical art, we’re showing that it’s not just a fleeting trend, it’s a legitimate form of cultural expression. In any case, we don't mind the ephemeral nature of murals and street art. It's a kind of artwork that can be part of the urban landscape today and change radically tomorrow.

The figures you depict from Greco-Roman mythology like gods, mortals, and symbols of ancient power, they often embody themes like justice, identity, pride, vengeance, and fate. What draws you to these particular characters, and what message or meaning are you hoping to convey through their resurrection in your work?

These figures represent the complexities of human nature: strength, wisdom, passion, and flaws. By bringing them into the urban landscape, we’re reminding people that these themes are timeless and still relevant today. Our work has something that attracts audiences of totally opposite generations.

How do you approach layering these two opposing styles into a final piece?

We start with graffiti - raw, energetic, and full of life. Then, we introduce classical elements - structured, timeless, and sculptural. Our work at the technical level is the result of many layers. When we paint in the studio with oils, some layers are thin glazes. Those transparencies that make the two worlds (graffiti and classical art) intertwine are fundamental.

"Mythology represents timeless human stories while graffiti is our contemporary voice."

– PichiAvo

What does resurrection mean to you?

Resurrection is about giving new life to old ideas. It’s about taking something from the past, reimagining it, and making it resonate in the present. For us, that often means revisiting classical art, (mythology, sculpture, architecture) and merging it with the language of contemporary urban culture. It’s a way of keeping tradition alive, by reinterpreting it and placing it back into public space. It’s a continuous cycle of creation and reinvention.

Large scale murals often carry a lot of significance and purpose with their size and prominence in cities/locations. What are your intentions when creating a large scale work for a city or community?

We seek to provoke reactions in the people who pass by and see the work, and create an  impact that contrasts with the urban environment. We always seek creative freedom and try to impose our instinct that is moved by different factors that we often do not analyse. It is simply our perception.

How does the community react to your work and how do their reactions make you feel?

It is curious to see people's reaction to our murals. With experience we have seen that during the creation process, it changes a lot every day with each layer we add. The first few days we only paint the graffiti and many people are opposed or frustrated when they see what we do. Once the classic figures emerge, the same critics change their minds and begin to react positively. After all, the public highly values the aesthetic dimension of the mural and expresses their opinion based on that.

How do you see your work evolving over time? Are there art forms or mediums you haven’t yet explored but would like to in the future?

Our journey has always been about pushing boundaries. While murals and studio artworks remain at our core, we’re increasingly drawn to sculpture and installations. We’re exploring how our mythological figures can transcend the wall and interact with space in new ways. Next year we are presenting a temporary pavilion in our city, (something that we call Fallas here) and hopefully we will be installing our first permanent sculpture in an outdoor public space.

@pichiavo
www.pichiavo.com