Artist asks: Where has the culture gone from Kings Cross?

He has been lauded by the world’s most famous street artist and his pieces are collected by the rich and famous, but Sydney artist Anthony Lister just wants to know where King Cross’s culture has gone.

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Questioning what has happened to Kings Cross in the wake of the lockout laws provided the inspiration for Sydney artist Anthony Lister for his latest exhibition.

Lister will take over former strip club Porky’s when he opens his Culture Is Over show on Wednesday.

“The Cross is dead in comparison to what it used to be … it seems that quite a lot of culture has ended there,” he told Confidential.

Anthony Lister at his Marrickville studio. Picture: Dylan Robinson

“It is pretty sad to be working in the Cross 10 years after the first time I did a show there and see how far over actually the culture is.

“I wonder where it has gone; I wonder why it has gone. It is just what it is.”

Lister, 41, is regarded as one of our top street artists here and internationally, with celebrities including Hugh Jackman, Pink and Barry Otto owning his pieces of his work.

Hugh Jackman. Picture: Roy Rochlin

US singer Pink. Picture: Martin Bureau

The world’s most famous street artist, Banksy, is a fan of Lister’s work, and has been quoted as saying: “Anthony Lister seems to piss good art in his sleep.”

Of that, Lister said: “It is affirming to have that. I think everybody pisses art in their sleep, it just depends on whether or not someone is willing to acknowledge it.”

Some in the art world would describe Lister as an enigma, an artist who has an air of mystery about him and who pushes boundaries with his work.

Lister’s latest exhibition question where the culture has gone from Kings Cross. Picture: Dylan Robinson

“I like the idea of mystery,” he said. “I am not sure I am actually interested in pursuing any real activation of being a manifestation of that but I personally take that as a compliment.”

While Lister’s work can sell for tens of thousands of dollars, he regularly paints graffiti pieces across Sydney, mostly in the inner west.

“I am into the freedom of visual speech,” he said. “If we have a right to vote, we should have a right to right to vote every day, and the only way to vote every day is to write that vote on real walls, not just Facebook walls.

“Graffiti art used to be a lot more prevalent than it is now though.”

Anthony Lister: The Flower Show.

Anthony Lister: Culture is Over.

Originally published as Artist asks: Where has the culture gone from Kings Cross?