Mervyn Street - Shelton 2025

The 2025 APW Beverley Shelton Artist Fellowship was awarded to Mervyn Street.

APW was thrilled to welcome Mervyn Street back to our Melbourne print studio in early 2025 - to collaborate with APW printers on the creation of a stunning series of seven new original prints (intaglios, lithographs and relief prints). These powerful works depicted the important stories of Mervyn's family, his time as a stockman and their life on the station.

Mervyn Street was born on Louisa Downs Station in the Kimberley region of north- western Australia (around 1950).

He began drawing as a child - inspired by Hollywood westerns - using a water tank as his first canvas. Aged 14, he became a stockman on the same station where his parents had worked for most of their lives without pay - an injustice which would later inspire Mervyn to lead a landmark $180 million class action against the Western Australian government on behalf of thousands of Aboriginal station workers denied their rightful wages - with settlement successfully reached in 2023.

Mervyn's remarkable suite of original prints marked thirty years since APW printers first travelled from Fitzroy, Melbourne to Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley to work with Mervyn and other artists associated with Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency. Since that first meeting, many reciprocal projects have followed, resulting in an impressive collection of wonderful original prints and special life-long friendships.

This new body of work was debuted in the APW Gallery May / June 2025.