DAVID ‘MEGGS’ HOOKE
NAARM (MELBOURNE), Australia
David ‘MEGGS’ Hooke is a mural, street and fine artist recognized for his large scale murals and detailed paintings that combine elements of nature, industry and abstraction to create imagery that evokes a sense of flowing movement and change. His work explores core themes of sustainability, consumerism and duality in an evolving exploration of connectivity and the harmony found between beauty and decay.
From a young age MEGGS has had a keen interest in skate/surf/design culture from a young age, graduating from the Swinburne School of Design with a Bachelor of Design in 2000. He then began to pursue street/stencil art and became a founding member of Melbourne street art collective ‘Everfresh Studio’, established in 2003. EVERFRESH is now regarded as one of Australia’s most active and influential street art collectives and has spawned the careers of several of Australia’s most internationally recognized mural artists, including MEGGS, who now has over 15 years of experience traveling internationally to produce public art, exhibitions and working with community, school groups and environmentally focused organizations.
MEGGS has held numerous successful solo exhibitions since 2007, most notably with Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne, Thinkspace Gallery in Los Angeles, White Walls Gallery in San Francisco, Above Second in Hong Kong and Inner State Gallery in Detroit. He has also worked on several brand-based commercial campaigns which are in line with his personal love for skateboarding and surf culture, producing limited edition artwork for clients such as STÜSSY, Burton Snowboards, New Balance and Sector 9 Skateboards.
In 2014 MEGGS relocated to the USA to pursue travel and career opportunities, spending the majority of his time living and working in Los Angeles, Detroit and Hilo (Hawai’i). Those six years creating and traveling abroad provided him a greater connection and understanding of the natural beauty of coastal environments in contrast to long standing industrialized urban cities. MEGGS also co-founded ‘Temple Children Hawai’i’ a Hilo based artist residency and art program which hosted artists to build connections, engage in cultural and sustainability awareness, produce public artworks culminating in the ‘Kindred Spirits’ group exhibition at the East Hawai’i Cultural Centre in 2019.
Over the course of his travels he has exhibited and produced murals within Greater Melbourne, Sydney and Wagga Wagga, as well as internationally, in California, Michigan, Texas, Hawai’i, London, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico and India. MEGGS’s artwork has been acquired by the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) and National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) permanent works on paper collections and are also included in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Museum of Art and History Lancaster, California and the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indianapolis.
In 2019 MEGGS returned to Melbourne and rejoined the Everfresh studio creative space and continues to produce large-scale public murals and private commissions within Australia and abroad.
