Hello, Kia ora, I’m Kalib, born and raised here in beautiful Tauranga. My father passed away when I was 10. My mother raised my four brothers, one sister and myself once my father had passed. My mum and dad were creative artists themselves, my father was a portrait and contemporary artist while my mother had the same skill plus she painted landscapes and could take realistic portraits of people, re create them into cartoons but identified and key features that made that person stand out. I started drawing when I was 2 or 3 years old. I started observation and architectural drawing at the age 5-6 years old.

I have been painting professionally since 2004. Around the same time, I met Graeme Hoete Gman (later known as MR G). We went on our own creative paths and acknowledged and respected each other as the years went on. We later in 2008-2009 formed the crew ILLITE the crew that represented Tauranga was made up of myself, MR G, Owen Dippie and other artists.

I love art like I love my family, it’s the one time I feel truly free from the world, feeling as though I can take the whole world and re create it through beautiful art form. I love creating large and small scale murals on walls and canvas. I am a contemporary, multi disciplined artist producing landscape, cartoon, letterform/signage, Maori/cultural art work and many more.

I work well with kids/youth or large numbers of people in team environments. I have been invited to and also won numerous competitions representing Tauranga and showcasing my work all around New Zealand. Our crew BOS were a group of friends did a lot of awesome things for the community helping and creating opportunities for kids youth to explore and express artistic and entrepreneurial talents through funded commission jobs/workshops.

We also had a job painting commission jobs for Tauranga City Council, Chorus and other companies to try and minimise tagging. We saw great success in this method as we had a positive and helpful influence on all areas of Tauranga. These artists that may paint a wall and it gets tagged on, which can happen because of no community credibility. It is a shame that taggers don’t respect artists work but that is just how some people think towards art.