Accor Hotels has commissioned internationally renowned artist Owen Dippie to design a piece of artwork on its 25m wall on Custom Lane in downtown Auckland. Dippie's accustomed to painting large scale pieces, his arguably most-viewed outdoor piece is his three storey high portrait of Tania Cotter on Auckland's Southern Motorway. Dippie's artwork for Custom Lane is based on his tiki, to represent his distinctive style and also as a tribute to this country. "Over the years this tiki has taken many shapes and forms and has in turn become something unmistakably Aotearoa. The artist has been painting his large scale realist portraiture on the streets of New Zealand and New York for more than a decade.

Source: New Zealand Herald June 25, 2017 17:03 UTC