WOW! It’s been way too long between posts! I feel bad that I’ve not been sharing all the goodness that is Melbourne over the last few months, so here’s a catch up of what I’ve missed and other cool stuff happening in and around Melbourne. Also my New Years resolution for 2015, more posts on Vandalog! 🙂
Streets and Walls
There’s never a shortage of new stuff going up in Melbourne, here’s a selection of some of my faves snapped by Melbourne’s finest paintspotters over December. In summary – Lister was in town briefly, he painted and did a few ad takeovers, some super fresh graff by some local and visiting legends. My faves are Jack Douglas’ monster, Senekt’s fluro body parts, RASHE’s pieces, a couple of dope Putos pieces and of course the absolute burner by Bales and Skale.
More shots here, here and here.
Who’s new in the Zoo?
The great thing about Melbourne is that there seems to be a constant and healthy addition of new (and/or visiting) artists. I love noticing new tags, slaps, and pieces appear, especially when they are prolific and everywhere I go.
Over the last few months I have been loving work by ABYSS 607 (from Canberra) with his tribal characters, many hidden away in abandos (Thanks AllThoseShapes).
Goon Hugs (prolific sticker FIEND with a super clean and unique hand style) slaps his stickers everywhere including some full shopfront/billboard takeovers (and other assorted objects – like an abandoned car for example). Check out his Tumblr GOON PIZZA – a great coverage of some of Melbourne’s most prolific bombers.
Hizzy Dizzy/H20E, who’s style I love.
Stencil artist Dolus who seemingly appeared out of nowhere with a heap of new stencils – some of his stencils I don’t particularly like – but others I love – like these examples below!
Pretty much anywhere you go in or around Melbourne you are bound to see a Nost throwie or a Prizm character – both members of Melbourne’s ID Crew – here’s a couple of recent extra colourful one’s from the bombing machines (they usually they do their damage in just 2 colours).
A new throwie I’ve noticed around my hood recently that has sparked my interest – especially in chrome – is “Gaser” ..
This tag “OKUZ” I’m seeing all over the place – I like the placement and the way the tag is framed with details – each one being unique.
And to finish up – I love rollers – big crispy rollers, here’s a few of my faves from recently from some more of Melbourne’s biggest bombers – BTM JETS and AFPAC.
What else has been happening?
The Cutback Documentary Launch – In December as part of Invurt I had the pleasure of being a part of the launch of the Cutback Documentary by Rachael Bentley.
A labour of love for Rachael, Cutback was filmed between 2011-2014 in Sydney, Melbourne, Berlin, NYC and London and features interviews with many local and international artists as well as important personalities from the local and international art community such as Meres from 5 Pointz and Sandra Powell and Andrew King (renowned street art collectors and advocates from Melbourne). Check out the trailer below.
CUTBACK LAUNCH PROMO from Rachel Betley on Vimeo.
Wait – the project doesn’t end there though – CUTBACK also continues online, and will continue to evolve as more content is added – Spend some time on the site – you can check out the many interviews and other bits and pieces here, including my interview in Hosier Lane here and one with Vandalog’s own Lois Stavsky here.
If you are in the US or UK and interested in hosting a showing of the documentary – please contact me.
Awesome things people are doing:
STREET ART NOW. Dean Sunshine.
My good friend Dean Sunshine launched his 2nd book STREET ART NOW, 2 years after his original book LAND OF SUNSHINE. The book is a massive step up from the previous one in so many ways. Not only has Dean included shots from his travels within Australia but also some from his various overseas adventures. The quality of the book, in particular the photos in STREET ART NOW are much improved from the 1st book due to Dean’s new camera and his awesome publisher. The hard cover is also great, I love hard cover books.
Since leaving this book on my coffee table, every person that has visited has spent at least 20 minutes admiring the amazing art, so well captured by Dean. This is a great book and definitely worth checking out. You can purchase a copy online here. Check out some of the photos from the book below.
STREET ART, PUBLIC CITY.
Yet another talented friend, Alison Young, renowned Professor of Criminology in the School of Social and Political Sciences at Melbourne University, finally published her book late last year – one I’ve been hearing about and looking forward to for a while now. Street Art, Public City is the 1st ever academic study of street art Melbourne, New York, Berlin and Paris. The book draws on interviews with over 60 street artists and graffiti writers in cities around the world, and looks at the ways cities, police and councils respond to street artworks.
I had to include my favourite quote from the back of the book:
“My favourite criminologist in the world” – Banksy
I’d have to agree with Banksy on that – not that I know many other Criminologists to be honest.
This is a subject that I am very passionate about and spend much of my spare time on (working with councils etc) so I can’t wait to read this and hear what Alison has to say. You can grab yourself a copy online here or here.
VNA Issue 28. (Nicole Read, David Russell, Eddie Zammit and Alex Mitchell)
The latest issue of VNA features photos from 2 of my favourite Melbourne photographers as well an article on an important member of Melbourne’s street art community. These are the people that constantly bring you what you love and so important to the scene.
1st off Nicole Reed with her great cover shot of Mike Giant and more shots on pages 5, 70 through 85 from when he was in Melbourne late last year. The article is written by another good friend Eddie Zammit (of T World).
David Russell‘s shot of old mate Smug‘s piece in Melbourne on pages 32/33.
And finally a great article on Alex Mitchell, curator of and the man behind Backwoods Gallery in Collingwood, one of Australia’s best street art gallery from which I have posted many many shows.
And finally.. Another cool new place we discovered.
The Powerhouse.
In December I heard of a new project in an old power station in Geelong (A well known abando for some years) known as The PowerHouse Project. Over a couple of weekends in December, some of Melbourne’s (and Australia’s) finest street artists and writers came together and painted much of the power station.
The space is pretty impressive. I’ve included a couple of shots of the outside to give perspective and a few of my favourite pieces – more shots here and here and here. Rone‘s piece on the broken windows is amazing as well as Duke’s electric burner on the inside!
Thank you again to all the artists, paint-spotters, bloggers, crews, galleries, and street art fans for another great year and all your great shots and input into my posts. Looking forward to sharing what is happening in Melbourne more regularly in 2015.
Photos courtesy of: David Russell, Nicole Reed, Dean Sunshine, AllthoseShapes, and Luke McManus
Video courtesy of: Rachael Bentley.