Geoff Hogg’s murals have always emphasised collaboration. That was one of the key ideas of a new approach to art in the early 1970s, when he began making these works.
“Returning to Australia in 1975 he set about establishing the Community Art Workers organisation as a body which provided him with the means to coordinate the first community art style mural in Australia in Lygon Street, Carlton, Victoria. The project pioneered many of the methods of work used for creating neighbourhood murals in Australia via community consultation and community involvement in the production process. On site preparation and the organisation of professional and non-professional teams of art workers, the Lygon Street project established novel links between artists, local residents, historians, unionists and the media. A new way of supporting public art in Australia was thus begun and a new source of community creativity had been tapped. A new Australian art tradition was being put into place.” Professor Bernard Smith Big Picture Shepparton Art Gallery 1994.
In the years that followed, he has been particularly interested in cross-cultural projects, many of which have been created in collaboration with Chinese artist Wen Jun, a working relationship beginning in the 1980s and continues today.
Geoff Hogg 