Canvassing Communities

Guido van Helten is a muralist whose work embodies the same emotional depth and stylistic intention often found in tattoo art. Artistic expression comes in many forms and stems from countless motivations—emotions, principles, aesthetics, and the desire to share knowledge. The same can be said for muralism, where van Helten applies techniques reminiscent of traditional black and grey tattoo artists.

“When I paint big concrete buildings, I use an element of tattoo style where I want the original surface to be a part of that mural, a part of the painting. I let the base color of the wall be like the midtone, and I’m just darkening it,” he explained. “It’s like a sculptural approach where I’m shading the original surface and making that a part of the piece so that the mural itself is in the concrete.”

“People sometimes say that it’s black and white; they’re black and white murals. But they’re not black and white. I’ll mix the tone of the wall, of a concrete tone, for example. I will shade the concrete,” he elaborated.

Raised in Melbourne, Australia, van Helten was drawn to the diverse and iconic graffiti that decorated the vibrant city. He painted graffiti murals for about 10 years, starting around age 15. But in 2013, after finishing an art residency in Iceland, he rented a scissor lift, bought 300 cans of spray paint, and created a simple mural of a house in the photorealistic style he uses today.

“This style, I’d say was kind of like a rebirth for me,” he said. “The people there hadn’t seen something like that before.” Commissions started from that day forward, and van Helten has traveled the world ever since, leaving his mark with profound artistry and connecting communities along the way. To understand the mindset of this accomplished muralist, van Helten shared three stories that impacted the communities surrounding his true-to-life artworks.

A Voice for Integration

In early 2020, van Helten was doing research in Greenville, South Carolina. “This was kind of a serendipitous thing that I happened to be there during the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of schools,” he recalled. “I was at the gas station and I saw on the local newspaper a lady named Pearlie Harris, and she had this great story. She was talking about teaching in a white school, but just before desegregation.”

He was intrigued that Harris was a Black teacher who taught before, during, and after desegregation, so he set out to locate her. “Finding her and talking with her and taking some portraits, that led to her being the feature character because she was well-respected and well-loved,” van Helten shared.

“These kind(s) of coincidences I take as signs, a guide to connecting stories with place,” van Helten shared on Instagram. For six weeks, using the texture and colors from the existing building structure, the Australian muralist brought his vision to life.
The result was a nearly 20,000-square-foot mural depicting Harris encircled by young students. The message it conveyed was of unity, diversity, and the unique relationships between students and teachers. “You have to find the face of a community by just being there. And this is why that process is important,” van Helten said.

Portraying the Past

Brushed across the immense concrete face of Western Australia’s Wellington Dam is an awe-inspiring 86,000-square-foot photorealistic representation of the local communities. “That was hugely difficult,” van Helten says about the project.

Located in Collie, the mural illustrates the life of the locals across generations and their collective memories from their visits to the heritage-listed site. “It was the biggest (project), it was at the time the longest; I had to camp there,” van Helten explained. “It’s an international park and I had to work to a very tight schedule because we had to paint off these swing stages that were moved in segments.”

“The photographs depict migrant workers, school children playing in the water, Aboriginal children on a picnic day out from Roelands, a Collie family huddled on the sand, and an Aboriginal couple from a photograph believed to date from the 1890s,” van Helten’s website, guidovanhelten.com, outlines.

van Helten immersed himself in the community and consulted with Wilman Noogar Natives, gathering stories and perspectives, carefully selecting the photography, and constructing his vision of the project.
Completed in March 2021, “Reflections” is the largest mural dam in the world and is a popular tourist destination.

Bound By Books

Deeply immersed with a radical far-left identity, Exarcheia in Athens, Greece, was the site of the beginning of the Athens Polytechnic uprising in 1973, where students from the National Technical University of Athens demanded democracy and an end to the dictatorship.

vhile visiting the area, van Helten recognized the historical significance of the uprising was still very much alive, but he also saw the bookstore culture that saturated the neighborhood. “There’s so many amazing shopfronts with people still bookbinding,” van Helten explained. “The theme of books and literature and political activism to me was interesting because that’s the real heart of the area; it’s not just burning cars and fighting police.”

As he visited the bookbinding shops, two friendly men welcomed him and van Helten photographed them as they performed their craft, and they became the focus of his “Bookbinders in Exarcheia” mural. He wanted to document Exarcheia’s story so that people could understand the culture, whether they agree with its political persuasion or not.

“I try to open up something so it’s communicable and people can feel,” he shared. “(My murals are) quite simple in their composition or messages because I’m trying to bring people together in a way.”