After years of exhibiting in group shows, I held my first solo exhibition, Making Bail, at iconic Melbourne restaurant Chin Chin, thanks to Holly and the team. The show brought together graffiti lettering stencilled onto large canvases, macro photographs of experimental paint palettes shot on a Hasselblad camera, and figurative and surreal works influenced by graffiti.

The work was dark, sharp and harsh, with a cynical edge and occasional bursts of beauty. Making Bail looked at the world through red, sleep-deprived eyes and a haze of spray paint fumes, peeling back layers of advertising, propaganda and the constant stream of nonsense we are fed every day. Drawing on graffiti, drugs, sex, violence and pop culture, the exhibition offered a glimpse into the internal world of an outsider more accustomed to creating under the cover of darkness.

The opening drew a great crowd, and every artwork in the exhibition found a new home.