Melbourne, the capital of Victoria and the second largest city in Australia, has gained international notoriety for its diverse range of street art and associated subcultures. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, much of the city’s disaffected youth were influenced by the graffiti of New York, which subsequently became popular in Melbourne’s inner suburbs, and along suburban railway and tram lines. Melbourne was a major city in which stencil art was embraced at an early stage and around the turn of the 21st century, other forms of Melbourne street art began to appear, including woodblocking, sticker art, poster art, wheatpasting, graphs, various forms of street installations and reverse graffiti. Prominent international street artists such as Banksy (UK), ABOVE (USA), Fafi (France), D*FACE (UK), Logan Hicks, Revok (USA), Blek le Rat (France), Shepard Fairey (USA) and Invader (France) have contributed work to Melbourne street art along with a local contingent including Prism, Meek, Kaffeine, and Rone.
