Another massive month in Melbourne in April with some great events, shows and work on the streets. This month I’ve also decided to include a bit more on graff and also some work off the streets in some of Melbourne’s awesome abandos.
There’s been an explosion of panels running in Melbourne recently, including a couple of whole cars. Whilst some of the pieces are not the best in quality it’s still rad to see so much graff on trains again lately. Are the authorities asleep? Or is it our lack of trains to meet demand to blame so they HAVE to run them? The best of Melbourne graffiti Facebook page is a good place to keep up with what’s running, they cover anything running each day on the Melbourne rail network (good and bad). Here’s my favourite flick from the page for April.
DOES had his show “Endless Perspectives” in a construction site in Collingwood. Hard hats were donned and fans were led through the site in groups of ten to view the works, an interesting location for a show, something I haven’t seen done before.
Also make sure you check out his final video in his “Endless Perspectives” series (You can find the rest of the series on his Vimeo page).
Ed in Focus makes rad videos and he has created yet another awesome one from the annual paint up in Croft Alley. Artists include Itch, Jaw, Choq, Makatron, Paris, Peril, Shida, Conrad Bizjak, 7seas, Nior, Heesco, Hancock, Karlosh, Flea and more.
Ed also released this video of Makatron and friends painting a giant whale in Richmond. Nice work Ed. An epic piece.
INSA was in town in April. He painted a few pieces alone and did number of rad collabs with Dabs Myla and Rone.
Check out the GIF-iti image below of the animated INSA and Rone piece. One of the coolest things I’ve seen INSA do. More of his work here, the title of the article being very apt “The Paradox of GIF-iti: Street Art You Can See Only Online”, I love this sort of innovative street art.
Also I love this throwie INSA does. So good. More of his work here.
Melbourne hosted the 3rd annual CARBON Festival in mid April. CARBON Festival is a “A Festival of contemporary Design, Style & Culture”. CARBON is a series of forums with guest speakers that are at the top of their game in their industry.
The line up was pretty massive this year; Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper, Will Robson-Scott, Mark Drew, DABS MYLA, Ronnie Fieg, Jeff Hamada, Eddie Huang, Andrew Montell, Lawrence Schlossman, Shawn Stussy, Simon ‘Woody’ Wood. Acclaim Magazine, Just Another Agency and The Opening Hours made some great videos that give you a good idea of the weekends events, check them out below. What a rad weekend.
There were 4 forums consisting of building a brand, contemporary art & design, new media and film & photography. Check all the details out here on the CARBON website. I ran a live blog from the event for Invurt you can check that out here.
I loved the Contemporary Art and Design and Film and Photography forums. Hearing Martha and Henry speak about their heyday was such an amazing experience, complete with great slideshows. Dabs Myla also gave an intimate view into their history, detailing how they met and painted together, each learning from each others style, and how they got to where they are today – working together and spending each and every moment side by side. Eddie Huang was also great.
Sadly the interviews with Barry and Martha I had organised fell through at the last minute, but The Opening Hours got a great one with Barry McGee and also Dabs Myla.
Arty Graffarti also posted lots of great stuff on CARBON, check the blog out here.
Some mad walls and abando shots from Dean Sunshine.
AllThoseShapes is another of my favourite Melbourne street art photo blogs. Some great finds during April.
Shida had his latest show “Ecstasy in the Abyss” at Backwoods Gallery in Collingwood. I’m a big fan of Shida’s unique style and it was great to finally see his work in a gallery. His latest work featuring lots of fluro colours and his signature sharp lines is awesome.
Shida has also been painting up a storm on the streets while back in Melbourne, check out more flicks here.
I always like to finish up the month with Dean Sunshine’s top ten. Featuring 3 member of AWOL this month; Adnate’s giant portrait of an aboriginal child and Slicer and Deams‘ awesome pieces in an abando are some of my faves.
Photos by Luke McManus, Rone, AllThoseShapes,, David Russell, Invurt, Arty Graffarti, The Opening Hours and Dean Sunshine
Video from DOES, Just Another Agency, Edinfocus, The Opening Hours and Acclaim