The mural on the side of the Unimed building at the corner of Gloucester and Manchester streets. Photo / Facebook
Christchurch street artist Wongi "Freak" Wilson's latest artwork continues to enthrall the Garden City.
The mural on the side of the Unimed building at the corner of Gloucester and Manchester streets was completed last month and shows two children playing hide and seek.
It was commissioned by UniMed New Zealand and set up by the street art collective OiYou.
Wilson said as far as he was aware there are no plans to build in front of the mural.
"So hopefully it'll be there for some time."
The giant images are modelled on his and his wife Emma's niece, and on the son of a good friend.
Born and raised in Sydenham in Christchurch where he still lives, Wilson's cheerful murals continue to lift spirits city-wide.
He says his art has evolved from a hobby to a full-time career with the help and support of Emma, who is an accountant, and boosted by the opportunities brought about in post-quake Christchurch.
He did a Certificate in Design at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology in 2009, and has never looked back, doing dozens of murals each year, many of them documented at his website, www.wongi.co.nz
His interest in graffiti developed at a young age, watching the art form grow over the last two decades from virtual non-existence to a blossoming, pervasive creative influence across the country.
He has played a major role in transformation graffiti art in Christchurch through both his hundreds of large-scale murals across the city, and through several exhibitions at Canterbury Museum and the COCA Gallery.
His medium of choice is the spraycan but his trademark is a diverse range of styles featuring a blend of traditional graffiti and photorealism.
University of Auckland building B201 was transformed and that project won the team behind it a top Property Council award on November 8, 2024.