Artist Will Light Up Sydney at 2013 NYE’s Party

Former guitarist for band Mental as Anything, New Zealand visual artist Reg Mombassa, 61, has been named the City of Sydney’s NYE13’s creative ambassador. This year’s theme will be “shine”. Kylie Minogue had Sydney embracing last New Year’s Eve, while 2011 was a time to dream, thanks to industrial designer Marc Newson. Mombassa is best known for his designs for fashion label Mambo, including his iconic dog image. “A lot of state functions are a bit too seriously presented and considered, so if I’m doing it, it’s going to be ridiculous,” Mombassa said. “It’s not a totally blank canvas as it’s a family event so you don’t want to get too gloomy, which I do with some of my other art.” Mombassa, whose real name is Christopher O’Doherty, was a founding member of Mental as Anything, which was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2009. He left the band in 2000 to focus on the band Dog Trumpet, which he began with his brother Peter O’Doherty. Mombassa has been a finalist in the Archibald, Sulman and Dobell prizes. A new show, Hallucinatory Anthropomorphism … Semi-Abstract Paraphysical Manifestations of the Collective Unconscious, includes work created for this year’s New Year’s Eve event and will open at Watters Gallery in East Sydney on 19 June. His design work for Mambo includes an image of the Sydney Harbour Bridge with the slogan “Blood Sweat and Beer” beneath it. A number of characters designed for Mambo were turned into large inflatable characters for the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.