Whether offered as free art on public walls, paintings for sale in galleries, random clandestine life drawing happenings where strangers meet at his secret Sydney studio to draw naked bodies together, or by way of books and merchandise ‘dug from the personal boxes of Lister’s stupid crap’ that can be bought online, Lister’s punkish brand bridges high and low art in a way that keeps painting relevant as society goes digital, while offering a Messianic balm. The universal appeal of his gangsters and vanquishers reaches a wide, youthful audience. By bringing the humanities to the masses on his divine Millennial mission, Mister Lister is democratizing culture. —Caia Hagel