A group of street artists have turned a dreary lane in Auckland's Glen Innes into a tapestry of mural artwork.
It's all part of art week, which organiser Gary Silipa says is breathing new life into the local community.
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"After the weekend we should have 26 murals from the past six years in this space," he told Newshub.
It's a visual feast for the Glen Innes community with plain brick walls licked with coloured paints and patterns.
Called the Bradley Lane Project, it's the brain child of Silipa. The artist painted one of the first murals back in 2013, after becoming inspired by travel.
"Seeing how art had transformed communities in other areas, and thinking about how Glen Innes was the perfect place for that to happen as well," he said.
Silipa grew up in Glen Innes and its streets, shops and people are close to his heart.
He says he wanted to inject more colour into the community, on spaces that would otherwise be blank or tagged with graffiti.
"Once we started painting murals on some of the walls that were getting tagged a lot, you'd notice that the tagging would stop because there was some sort of respect," he said.
Each artist is paired up with a young local art student to lend a helping hand.
Silipa says there isn't an overall theme for the murals, but some artists choose to explore social issues.
"One of the issues from one particular artist was touching on the housing that's happening around here," he said.
Glen Innes is part of the Tamaki Regeneration Project, which is tearing down thousands of state houses in favour of new buildings.
Five artists are involved this year, four from New Zealand and for the first time Joel Moore from Australia.
"Look it's quite interesting because I don't really feel like an international, it kinda feels like coming home for me," Moore told Newshub.
He's been a street artist for 29 years and his piece is about the connection between humanity and nature.
"In the colour palette there's a lot of brown and skin tones, which is our body and our blood, and then a merger of the green is nature," he said.
The five artists will complete their creations over the weekend, much to the delight of some of the locals.
Newshub.
