Tributes are flowing for celebrated artist Josh Muir, a Gunditjmara, Yorta Yorta and Barkindji man, who has died aged 30.
Muir's vibrant prints and large-scale projections have adorned trams, the National Gallery of Victoria's (NGV) exterior, as well as the Richmond Football Club's 2017 Indigenous guernsey.
Born and raised in Ballarat, he won numerous awards including the prestigious National Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander Art Award.
The late artist's family has granted permission to use his name and image.
His work is held in major collections across Australia.
"It's a great loss, not only for him as a young person, as a young Aboriginal artist, but just as an artist as well," Koori Heritage Trust chief executive Tom Mosby said.
Muir, who spoke openly about his struggles with addiction and mental health, found solace and joy in his art.
Speaking to the ABC in 2015, Muir said he experienced homelessness, anxiety, and depression.
He said along with the help of his family and counsellors it was art that had saved him.
Many of his artworks, such as his 2016 projection for Melbourne's White Night called Still Here, celebrated Aboriginal survival despite settler colonialism, as well as his personal history.
Shanaya Sheridan, Muir's partner, said he was extremely proud of his art.
Muir died of natural causes on Saturday, she said, and his family and friends have been left devastated.
Ms Sheridan said Muir had aspirations to take their two children, Jamari, 3, and Jyla, 11 months, travelling and sightseeing — something he loved to do.
She said his biggest accomplishments were his children, but he was also an advocate for mental health and suicide prevention and a proud Gunditjmara, Yorta Yorta and Barkindji man.
"He always ensured he gave back to community and our youth by conducting workshops."
Andy Dinan, the director of MARS gallery and who began working with Muir in 2016, remembers him as an artist with "incredible energy" who loved to tell stories through his art.
"[He had] a big personality. When we would hang his show he'd walk in and see his whole body of work together, he'd love to try and … throw me up in the air and just kept screaming out 'Thank you, Andy'," Ms Dinan said.
Ms Dinan said since his death there had been an outpouring of grief and shock from the institutions and art communities Muir worked with.
Ballarat councillor Belinda Coates, who first met Muir when he was a teenager, said Muir left "an enduring legacy in the Ballarat and Australian arts communities through his distinctive and highly acclaimed work".
"His kaleidoscopic works with a street art aesthetic were often inspired by references from his youth and explored his personal story of struggles as well as joy," Ms Coates said.
