On Monday, April 18, East End institution Frank Viana (Frank the barber) was honoured for his 59 years of service to Adelaide with a surprise party and the naming of a lane off Vardon Avenue as Frank’s Lane.

The lane is also home to an amazing mural of Frank by artist Nick Phillips, which was commissioned as part of this year’s Adelaide Fringe Street Art Explosion program. The program, which matched bare walls with eager street artists, brought walls to life around Adelaide for this year’s Fringe and many of the artworks can still be seen around the CBD and suburbs.

Speaking at the event, Adelaide Fringe Director and CEO Heather Croall highlighted the great collaboration that had taken place between venues, business owners, artists and councils in order to make the Street Art Explosion program possible.

“We knew the mural of Frank would be incredible, but we never expected for it to result in a lane being named after him. It’s fantastic way to recognise one of the East End’s most iconic characters,” Heather said.

Artist Nick Phillips said “after brainstorming with local business owners and landlords Steve and Theo Maras, it was decided that there was no one more deserving of a larger than life mural than Frank. It took around five days to complete and hopefully it’ll be there for a long time to come.”

As well as Our Street Art Explosion map is available online (hyperlink) and makes a great way for Adelaideans and visitors to spend a day (or more) exploring every corner of the city and beyond.

Relive the painting of some of the incredible works (including Frank the barber) from this year’s Street Art Explosion with these time lapse videos: