Adelaide’s East End Art

A nice little pocket of art can be found in the east end of Adelaide and they’re all within a pleasant stroll of each other along East Terrace.

Starting at Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute on the corner of East Terrace and Grenfell Street you can find these beautiful works of art by Ngarrindjeri / Arrente artist Thomas Readett and artist Laura Paige.

The mural along the side of the building depicts aboriginal actor, dancer, singer and painter David Gulpilil AM, and includes images of Gulpilil as a younger and older man as well as scenes from his film Walkabout. The painting of the Gulpilil in his older years is particularly good and very photo realistic.

Heading towards North Terrace (Adelaide is very simple to navigate your way around), you will go past Vardon Avenue and the buildings which once made up the East End Market. There are a number of street art murals to find including these two.

The mural of labels is by Tristan Kerr and shows a typographic history of names that are or were, well known Australian products. They include Rosella, Amscol, Bushells and more and the wall has a nostalgic feel to the days of the corner store where these advertisements were common.

Another mural is by artist Jimmy C and depicts the Shakespearean character of Ophelia with inspiration from the Adelaide Botanic Garden’s sacred lotus.

Heading north still is the historic Stag Hotel on the corner of Rundle Street where you can stop in for a drink or a meal and see more art on the walls, including a wall by Lew Dalby.

This east end of the city is very picturesque and has galleries, boutiques, restaurants, pubs, casual cafes and lots of small bars so there are plenty of reasons to visit.