Discover the outdoor art trail at the new Marrickville Metro development

You might already be familiar with Georgia Hill’s striking monochromatic murals from her collaborative work lining the George Street wall of UTS, and now the Marrickville resident has splashed her distinct style of combined abstract and geometric shapes with text onto the facade of the Smidmore Street building. Her work here is a call to arms for the local community to strive for togetherness in this divided world, because community is what makes places like Marrickville so special. She took inspiration from old signage fonts for the statement on the work, which reads ‘You’re here, I’m here too’, placing it over a riot of organic white shapes and bold lines. 

We expect our artists to make beautiful things, but when they are able to take something utilitarian and functional, like a carpark, and imbue it with beauty and creativity, that is when they are at their most powerful. Liz Shreeve is an artist who works with light, shade, shape, form and texture to create geometric artworks that have a mesmerising, mandala-like effect on viewers. She has sprinkled some of her creative magic onto the shell of the carpark at the new Marrickville Metro, wrapping the practical structure in a palisade of colourful palings that represent the natural, seasonal shifts of 60,000 plus years of Indigneous land management in a muted palette of soft greens and yellows, followed by sharp, primary colours representing the 220 years of industrialisation of the area following colonisation.

The final touches are going onto Fintan Magee’s vast, elaborate homage to the creative women who have been producing art from within Marrickville for decades, from the legendary, Archibald Prize-winning Wendy Sharpe in her painting studio, with her works around her,  to Irish/Indigenous painter and musician Rachel Lafferty. Magee is a realist painter and in this work that stretches huge swathes of a building siding, he is allowing us to peek into the private creative spaces that are hidden all over Marrickville behind unassuming doorways and serviceable roller shutters. The work shines a light on how much creative work is being produced every day in the suburb without anyone realising.

The new art is not limited to the centre extension. There are new murals in the existing centre as well, and during the launch weekend artist Richard Briggs will apply his signature sketch style to a large wall. Customers will be able to watch it come to life as Richard work on it for set periods each day. Richard is a British-born designer based in Sydney with a strong interest in social and community-based projects.

You may already be a frequent flyer at Hypmotive’s flagship store on Marrickville Road anytime the need for a thoughtful gift from independent creatives crops up, but they’re hard at work on their second venue as a part of the new Smidmore Street development at Marrickville Metro where they can devote even more shelf space to local artisans, be they illustrators, card-makers, ceramicists, jewellers, shoemakers, painters or accessory designers. They also host workshops, so if you’ve got some pent-up creativity that needs an outlet book into a watercolour, pottery or kintsugi class.