The mural depicting the founder of seminal Dunedin Sound band The Chills was completed yesterday, on a wall beside Cumberland St (State Highway 1), opposite the Leviathan Hotel.
Mr Phillipps, 61, died unexpectedly on July 28 last year.
Artist Bruce Mahalski said he had known Mr Phillipps since he was about 17 years old, both getting into bands at around the same time.
"Obviously, his one was a lot more successful than mine."
The mural, which took between four and five hours to complete, was a tribute to his friend and also served to promote Tūhura Otago Museum’s "Martin Phillipps and The Chills" exhibition, which included a display of the artist’s guitar and leather jacket given to him by Martyn Bull.
The museum was also a partner of Wild Dunedin’s New Zealand Festival of Nature, of which this year’s theme was "Otepoti Dunedin Rocks!"
"And so what better thing than a famous rock musician?"
Some fossils painted on the mural also tied into the theme, he said.
While he did not anticipate the mural would be a permanent installation, Mr Mahalski hoped something "bigger and better" could be created to honour the man.
"I would hope that there will be some other projects that honour Martin down the line, and also some of the other great bands that have come out of Dunedin as well."
The new mural replaced one of a yellow-eyed penguin (hoiho) Mr Mahalski painted in April last year.
There were still three hoiho of his displayed in another mural near Princes St, and he was happy to paint more, he said.
