Gino Lamelza (Owner of Zucchero).  Saner, the internationally lauded Mexican street artist recently completed this artwork on the wall at Zucchero in Victoria Park.
Camera IconGino Lamelza (Owner of Zucchero). Saner, the internationally lauded Mexican street artist recently completed this artwork on the wall at Zucchero in Victoria Park. Credit: Supplied/David Baylis

Viva highway art

Staff ReporterSouthern Gazette

But it was a touch and go affair, as the collective’s Joni Sercombe worked the phone until midnight last Monday securing walls for the artist brought to Australia for the first time by FORM, an independent not-for-profit cultural organisation that develops and advocates artistic creativity in WA.

Saner was unable to come to Perth for FORM’s Public art event in May but spent last week in Victoria Park due to local lobbying before jetting off to complete murals in Port Hedland.

He completed the first mural in about seven hours and it features two animal characters ” including a stylised koala ” called Nahuals, which are protectors in Mexican mythology. It is common to his paintings, as they protect the wall and those viewing it.

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The second mural ” which features a masked couple kissing ” took two days as winter rain set in but a strong work ethic and desire to create an artwork for the many members of the Mexican ex-pat community, who came to visit him as he painted, drove him on.

‘When we are alone, sometimes we forget the good things in life. They (Mexican immigrants) are trying to survive here and bring with them the love for another country,’ Saner said.