FEATURE July/August edition 2026: Stormie Mills at AGWA

His first solo at Jack Sue Gallery in Perth in 1999 sold out in minutes. Since then his work has appeared in galleries, public spaces and private collections across Australia, the UK, USA, Europe and Asia. More recently he has been invited as a guest of honour at the 2027 Florence Biennale. Now, after four decades of shaping how we see street art, All the secrets are buried between the oceans and the mountains, a major survey of the work of Venice and Perth-based artist Stormie Mills at the Art Gallery of Western Australia will be his first ever solo in an Australian state gallery. The landmark exhibition features a selection of works from across his career alongside a new body of work reflecting his global movements, personal history and the encounters that have informed his distinctive practice since he first began painting in 1984. A defining figure in Australian street art, Mills has played a pivotal role in advancing street art as a recognised contemporary art form, helping shift public perception from underground graffiti to a respected and influential movement.

His commitment to community is equally significant. Mills’ work is included in the Western Australian education curriculum, and he regularly conducts workshops in prisons, youth centres and CARE schools, focusing ondrawing, self-expression and journalling. He believes there should be more places for young people to paint, just as there are sporting fields for those interested in sport.  

Born in Wales, Mills arrived in Australia with his family at the age of three. After attending 11 different schools across Perth, at the age of 16 he was “getting in trouble for graffiti” and was sent to a small seaside village in Wales to live with his grandmother. “It was very much like Perth in a way. I just went down the end of the street and painted and everyone around knew it was me,” he says. “It wasn’t until I went to bigger cities like London and New York that I understood that people really needed it as a sense of identity.” Still 16, he had travelled to New York where a veritable feast of street art opened his eyes to what could be possible. “I experienced street art in a much broader sense in that there were lots of people in New York producing artwork all over the city. It wasn’t just on the trains, it was everywhere, particularly in the ‘80s.”

In his early twenties, back in Perth, Mills was living in an East Perth warehouse with no electricity or water. “I kind of approached it with the idea of the romanticism of being an itinerant artist,” he says. “I think at the time I was working as the mural arts officer at the City of Wanneroo and showering the train station as well as being dedicated to pursuing an artistic career. I was living in two different worlds”

Drawing on his life experiences, Mills’ whimsical characters reflect isolation, yet carry messages of hope. While All the secrets are buried between the oceans and the mountains at AGWA explores the notion of secrets, he says it also explores Perth itself. “It’s this city between the mountains and the ocean and that it’s this long strip of space that as a city we occupy, but it’s also where people keep secrets. So it’s kind of talking about that philosophy of what’s going on within ourselves and our capacity to look at ourselves and what we hold secret and dear,” he says. 

The exhibition is bookended by two massive 12 metre works and includes a range of street art works from his own collection and loaned from collectors, as well as portraits representing his parallel traditional practice. “The portraiture that I’ve included in this show is paintings of my friends and associates, people that I have known for a while whose work I respect and it’s how I see them as another artist that I know,” he says. “They have an armor or a pseudonym about themselves that other people I think read differently. I guess some artists just don’t want people to know who they really are.”

Mills’ own first name is no secret. “Oh, it’s Jamie,” he says, having been nicknamed Stormie when he was young. “I guess I was a bit of a wild child,” he says. “But art gave me something to hold onto. I want people, especially those doing it tough, to know that no matter where you are in life, there is always hope,” he says..

All the secrets are buried between the oceans and the mountains is on show at AGWA from 1 August until 8 November. 

BONUS PODCAST: listen to Lyn Di Ciero speak with Stormie Mills on Artoble, the free-to-download app.