SHOALHAVEN’S largest mural will begin to reveal itself to the public this week as world-renowned artist Guido Van Helten brings a massive blank wall to life.

Mr Van Helten is from Brisbane but has made a name for himself around the world, turning the sides of buildings into beautiful and enormous portraits.

While his preferred medium is aerosol cans, of which he expects to use about 40 on this project, he thinks of himself as a muralist rather than a street artist.

“It comes under the umbrella of street art because it is on a building but I tend to think of it as just art that happens to be on a wall,” he said.

Over five days Mr Van Helten will transform the rear wall of the former Betta Electrical building which faces the Egans Lane car park.

Normally working in black and white he has decided to enrich the tones this time by adding another colour.

At a function to welcome Mr Van Helten to the Shoalhaven on Monday afternoon he would not reveal his chosen image for the wall, only that it was a reproduction of a photo taken in Nowra by the late Jeff Carter.

“I have always been interested in this part of NSW. In the lead-up to this project I spent time looking at Nowra images in the National Archives and there is always an image that speaks to me,” he said.

Shoalhaven Mayor Joanna Gash welcomed Mr Van Helten to Nowra as she launched the THOROUGH_FAIR art project.

The mural and THOROUGH_FAIR is part of the ongoing Nowra Alive scheme and is a week-long event that will turn a disused CBD laneway into a live gallery walk.

On Wednesday from 4pm the launch of the THOROUGH_FAIR public event will see local residents mixing with street artists and musicians in a melting pot of food, music and art.