Fintan Magee is a Sydney-based artist and muralist who is at the forefront of the Australian large-scale mural movement. Born in Lismore, NSW, Fintan cut his teeth painting A LOT of graffiti in Brisbane, before transitioning into a career as an artist.
Prolific both in the studio and in public, Fintan has painted murals and exhibited his paintings all over the world. His work is often informed by his keen interest in politics and global events, often dealing with environmental and human issues such as climate change and migration.
We caught up with Fintan to dig into his earlier graffiti days, current artistic practice, recent travels, and most importantly, what he had for breakfast.
When did you start writing graffiti?
I started writing graffiti when I was 14. If I remember correctly my first piece was at Southbank in the summer of 98–99.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Highgate Hill, in the inner south of Brisbane. Both my parents were artists. It was before gentrification hit the area and before the heavy buff hit Brisbane, so it was still heavily bombed. Graffiti was everywhere at the time and was very influential on the kids in my neighbourhood growing up. Half the kids at my school had a tag.
Tell me something about growing up writing in Brisbane.
Brisbane was always an underdog city culturally. In the 90s when I was growing up it was still trying to shake the cultural backwater reputation of the Joh Bjelke-Petersen era. The upside of being somewhere with a perceived lack of culture is you get to build your own. This has always meant that young artists in Brisbane embraced the DIY culture strongly and the city had an ‘anything goes’ feeling in the 90s. Brisbane had a very healthy punk scene that died out in the early 90s and I feel Hip Hop and graffiti kind of filled the void left when punk died. So many good crews came up at this time DTS and WTCS were, by far, the most prominent. Graffiti was very competitive and localised by the time the mid-2000s rolled around when I came of age. Also, train bombing was crazy at this time. So many whole cars got done in this era. For me, it was a fun time to be Brisbane and a fun time to be writing graffiti. 
Tell me something about your life and art now. How is it different from when you were coming up? What do you call what you do now?
Well, I don’t have to rack paint anymore, which makes my life a little easier. I went to art school when I was in my early 20s and it kind of ruined my graffiti. When I was 25–26, I started to move away from the graffiti aesthetic and apply what I was learning in art school to walls. From here I was able to transition into a more legitimate art career and I started making a full time living from my paintings.
Where do you call home, and where in the world are you right now, specifically?
In my studio right now in Sydney, Australia.
You came up painting in Brisbane. Why the move? I remember you being pissed about the situation politically in QLD.
I love Brisbane, I have such good family and friends there, but you can outgrow the city pretty quickly. It’s a pretty restrictive place creatively. I was there during the Campbell Newman years when all sorts of conservative fuckery was happening and it just wasn’t a fun or free place to be at that time. I could move back now though. It’s getting stupid expensive to rent in Sydney and I need a bigger studio.
How do you describe your work?
I am primarily a realist painter and a storyteller. I read the news way more than is healthy, so I react to what’s happening around me, I guess.
Can you tell me more about the themes of your work? Specifically, the impact the Brisbane floods had on your paintings. You seem to always deal with underlying themes of displacement and injustice?
Yeah, my mum’s house went under during the floods, so that was a crazy time for us. It became a pretty central theme of my work for a few years and climate change also featured in my work a lot.
Are you willing to talk about what else you got up to during the floods?
Haha, I don’t know where this is going. During the floods, we were chilling, after the floods we were sweeping a lot of mud out of my mum’s house.
Let’s get situational. Describe your ideal painting scenario? What’s your favourite painting environment/surface?
I have always enjoyed painting big walls – old walls texture. If not, I prefer to stay in the studio and escape the sun.
What did you have for breakfast?
Avocado on Toast. If it’s not that it’s muesli.
Tell me about your colour palette? Which colours are you into?
Lately, I have been working in a primarily cool blue colour palette. I am colour blind though, so my colour schemes are often a mess.
You’re always travelling to make your work; can you name drop the places you visited in 2019?
2019 was a good year for travel. We made it to Vegas, Tahiti, Spain, India, Oregon, Vancouver, etc.
Now tell me where in the world have you visited that had some kind of impact on you? Why?
For me, my most memorable recent trip was Tehran, Iran. It is such an incredible city with amazing culture and a really strong art scene. The Iranian’s are also incredibly friendly and welcoming people. The government there looks incredibly repressive from the outside, but the day to day people live their lives without much encroachment of government’s religious laws. These days the religious police are not as up in everyone’s business like they used to be. The country has such a large youth population and I think there could be really meaningful change there in the coming decades if Trump doesn’t fuck it up any further.
Show me the best artwork you’ve ever created: Tell me about this piece and why you like it the most.
The work in Goa is still my favourite. I was in Dubai before this project and saw how foreign workers are treated there. It got me thinking about the cost of human labour and what builds opulence. So, having four workers holding a column had a good meaning to me. It was also just a fun project to work on. 
Now show me one of your favourite pieces of artwork that another human created. Tell me what makes it special?
Grant Wood is one of my favourite painters. He was a social realist and primarily interested in the day to day lives of working Americans. This work appeals to me because, first of all, the composition is perfect, the scene paints an idealistic and dreamlike picture of small-town America, while being oddly dark and feverish. The worker toils over an unplanted field that also reads as a bottomless bit or dark void. The clouds are ominous, and everyone is working as if there is a storm approaching. Nothing is ever what it seems in a Grant Wood painting, he balances new world optimism with an often-harsh reality. He was a closeted gay man living in the American mid-west during the great depression, and two world wars, so you can see how his environment affected his work. I love how he balances optimism with a cynical darker underlying truth.
In your earlier days of graff, no doubt you were lurking around places you shouldn’t be. In these situations, it’s inevitable to run into interesting characters or some kind of trouble. Tell me a story of something ridiculous that’s happened to you, while painting, over the years.
I have a lot of these stories. I was painting in a commuter yard in southern Portugal in 2008, with my girlfriend at the time. We got rushed by a group of 6–7 writers who were trying to roll us for our paint. They were local kids and mustn’t have been over the age of 14–16, but they had me heavily outnumbered. I stayed and tried to talk to them and give time for my girl to getaway. They didn’t want to talk and one of them hit me over the head with a plank of wood straight away. It’s a long story, but I was able to fight them off and escape. When I got back to the hotel and met up with my girl again, I was puking from running. I looked down and realised the sleeves of my jumper were completely ripped up. I realised the plank of wood must have had a nail in it, and when I was blocking with my arms the nail was just missing me but ripping my jumper up. By some miracle this nail never stabbed me and I was fine the next day. Never saw the kids again though and they took all our paint. We bailed to Lisbon the next day.
Favourite letter?
S is by far the most balanced and aesthetically pleasing letter. So, for me it’s S or E
What do you get up to when you are not painting, any hobbies? Hot tub yoga? Or kite flying?
I go to the gym. Beyond that, painting is literally all I do. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs. LOL.
Dead or alive, who is the historical figure that you most admire?
I don’t know where to start with this question. I will just choose four: William Buckley, Roger Casement, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Ned Kelly. I have always been fascinated by the stories of outcasts and rebels.
What’s bumping in your headphones/ studio speakers at the moment?
Slowthai, Alyona Alyona, Yazoo, etc etc
Moon landing. Fact or fiction?
Fuck outta here with conspiracy theories man.
Hahah. Yesss!!
We’re at a bar and I’m buying. What you drinking?
Jameson on the rocks.
What’s the last movie you watched, or book you read?
I just saw two movies on a flight from Sydney to Perth. The Peanut Butter Falcon, and Hustlers. They were both excellent.
The last book I read was The Life and Adventures of William Buckley. It’s an old book about the true story of a convict that escaped and lived with an indigenous tribe for over 30 years. It’s a crazy story and one of the best looks into traditional indigenous life in Australia I have read.
Favourite quote?
Be like water.
How do you want to be remembered (what’s written on your tomb stone)?
Just dump my body in the ocean man. I don’t want a tombstone.
What’s next?
I go to Paris in a couple of months, then bouncing around Europe for a minute. Just going with the flow really.
Follow @fintan_magee on Instagram.
Luke Shirlaw is the founder of Artillery Projects – a graffiti art publisher, and visual studio specialising in mural production, graphic design, and content creation. Follow him on Instagram, or subscribe to Artillery’s ‘The Drop’ for exclusive email interviews.
