Live art to celebrate Lunar New Year 2026 in Hurstville brings brush, ink, and memory into public view, as a local artist paints culture in real time.
On a weekday afternoon inside Westfield Hurstville, the usual retail tempo slows. Shoppers pause near the balustrade, coffee cups cooling in their hands, as black ink meets white surface. A brush moves deliberately, leaving behind strokes that feel both ancient and immediate. This is live art to celebrate Lunar New Year 2026 in Hurstville, unfolding not behind closed studio doors but in the middle of daily life, where people can watch meaning take shape.
Bryan Mew works quietly, focused, occasionally stepping back to assess the balance of red, gold, and ink. Around him, the centre hums on – escalators rise and fall, announcements echo – yet the mural commands a different kind of attention. It invites stillness.
Live Art To Celebrate Lunar New Year 2026 In Hurstville Takes Shape
The mural, Kumquat Blessings & The Fire Horse, honours the Year of the Fire Horse through imagery that feels grounded rather than symbolic for its own sake. Kumquats cluster across the surface, their rounded forms associated with prosperity and renewal. Traditional Chinese characters anchor the composition, while looser, contemporary gestures push against their formality.
This live art to celebrate Lunar New Year 2026 in Hurstville is not rushed. Painted over nearly two weeks, from 7 to 19 February, the work evolves incrementally. Regular visitors notice changes day by day – a new character here, a deeper red there – and begin to feel a sense of ownership over the process.
A Local Artist, A Familiar Place
Mew’s connection to Hurstville is not abstract. He moved from Hong Kong in 2001 and grew up nearby, absorbing the rhythms of the suburb long before this commission. After studying art in Melbourne and spending time in Tokyo, he returned to Sydney with a sharpened sense of how place shapes identity.
Walking through Hurstville’s grocery stores and restaurants became part of his preparation. Conversations with shop owners and familiar faces informed the mural’s direction. In this way, live art to celebrate Lunar New Year 2026 in Hurstville becomes less about spectacle and more about recognition – an artist reflecting back what he sees and knows.
Live Art To Celebrate Lunar New Year 2026 In Hurstville As A Public Ritual
There is something quietly radical about watching art being made. Without the polish of a final unveiling, viewers see hesitation, correction, and decision-making. Children ask questions. Elders linger, nodding at familiar symbols. The act of painting becomes a shared ritual in the lead-up to Lunar New Year.
This approach aligns naturally with the festival itself, now a long-running tradition in Hurstville. Art here is not separate from celebration; it is woven into it. Live art to celebrate Lunar New Year 2026 in Hurstville acts as a bridge between the everyday and the ceremonial, between shopping trips and street festivals.
The Fire Horse And Hybrid Identity
The Fire Horse carries connotations of energy, independence, and momentum. In Mew’s hands, it also speaks to hybrid identity – the experience of moving between cultures without fully leaving either behind. His calligraphic style blends discipline with freedom, honouring tradition while allowing it to evolve.
For many Chinese Australians, Lunar New Year is a moment of return: to food, language, gesture, and memory. This live art to celebrate Lunar New Year 2026 in Hurstville captures that return not as nostalgia, but as something active and ongoing. The mural does not look backward; it stands firmly in the present.
From Shopping Centre To Festival Ground
When the mural is unveiled at Georges River Council’s Lunar New Year Festival on 21 February, it will arrive already layered with stories. People who watched it grow will recognise certain strokes, remember the day they first noticed it, or the moment they explained a symbol to a child.
In this transition – from Westfield wall to festival setting – live art to celebrate Lunar New Year 2026 in Hurstville completes its arc. It moves from process to presence, from quiet observation to communal display.
An Ending That Lingers
After the crowds disperse and the festival noise fades, the memory of the mural remains. Not just its colours or characters, but the act of watching it come into being. Ink drying under fluorescent lights. A brush lifted, paused, then set down again.
In a suburb shaped by movement and migration, live art to celebrate Lunar New Year 2026 in Hurstville offers something steady. It reminds us that culture is not only inherited or performed on a single day, but made – patiently, publicly, and together.