Vhils (aka Alexandre Farto) is here in Australia. Sadly (for me anyway) he’s up north in Sydney, so I won’t get to see him or his new show, “Dissolve” presented by Skalitzers Art opening tomorrow on the 21st of March. I DID however manage to get a really great interview with him (via email) over on invurt. Definitely worth a read. For me, Vhils brings a different angle to street art. His chiseled walls and sculptured realistic characters bring a depth and feel to street art that I really appreciate. I also love different techniques, tools and textures so Vhils ticks all of the boxes for me.
The show opens today (March 21st) and runs through to the 6th of March at 140 George St, The Rocks, West Circular Quay, Sydney. Facebook event page here.
I’m a huge fan of Vhils’ work so it makes it even harder not being able to see the show. Some of the preview photos look very exciting. Check them out below.
Vhils at The Rocks, SydneyVhils DissolveVhils DissolveVhils Dissolve
So I’ve decided to start a monthly post on Vandalog to try and capture all the goings on in and around Melbourne each month as there’s always a lot happening. For completeness sake and because I don’t want anyone to miss out on this, here’s a belated January round up. What a great way to start the year! Continue reading “Melbourne Monthly Madness – January 2013”
Numskull, Meggs, Roach, Rone, Sofles painted an awesome new piece in Hosier Lane Melbourne over the weekend. A great meeting of styles and colours. I love it.
“Perameles Gunnii” EASTERN BARRED BANDICOOT (open doors). Photo courtesy of Alex Mitchell.
After meeting and developing a friendship with Roa in San Francisco earlier this year, I’ve been really looking forward to him arriving in Melbourne! I’ve always known Roa loved his animals, but have never appreciated him as much as I do until now.
Roa was invited by Healsville Sanctuary to visit and meet some of their animals and paint some walls. Healsville is a very special place and there is no doubt that experience shaped the entire trip in Melbourne and also heavily influenced the exhibition. There’s nothing like seeing an artist meet an animal, touch it, play with it, and then go off and paint it.
Bones. Photo courtesy of Alex Mitchell.
Roa’s inspiration for CARRION, his show that just closed at Backwoods Gallery in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, was a direct result of the visit to Healseville. The animals, the staff and their passion for the animals and having access to things even most Australians have never even experienced really made a difference.
Wombat skeleton on the wall outside Backwoods. Photo courtesy of Alex Mitchell.
So how did this impact the show? In so many ways! Firstly, all of the works were Australian native animals. But the installation, as Roa’s shows often are, was something else! The experience began even before entering the gallery, with the scent of something strange to come. Roa painted the wall in the alley way leading into Backwoods with a giant wombat skeleton. The strange smell kept luring you closer and closer, I won’t say it was a pleasant smell, far from it – soon you’ll understand why.
The entrance – CARRION. Photo courtesy of Alex Mitchell.
Upon entering Backwoods punters were greeted by a green wall with CARRION painted in red. To the right was a shed built inside the gallery, inside were several videos showing a wallaby autopsy (Roa got to watch and film this at the sanctuary). Rather confronting for those not knowing what to expect.
The shed with the Wallaby autopsy. Photo courtesy of Alex Mitchell.
Fish tanks were assembled throughout the gallery with a set of pipes joining them together for air flow. Inside was the cause of the smell, native Australian animals (a possum, a wallaby, an echidna, a kookaburra and several other birds) being slowly consumed by flesh eating beetles! If you were surprised by the autopsy video this was even more of a shock to some. Bones and various other found items were also scattered throughout the gallery.
Dead Kookaburra. Photo courtesy of Alex Mitchell.
The paintings, all of native Australian animals, were beautifully painted and came in a range of sizes and complexity (in terms of how many moving parts/doors they had). My favourite pieces were the Bandicoot, the Echidna, the platypus and the Honey Possum. Continue reading “Roa – “Carrion” at Backwoods Gallery, Collingwood”
Rone has been busy since returning from San Francisco. He’s been painting lots of walls in Australia in various different new styles and has been involved in a number of collaborations. Loving all the new pieces around Melbourne. He is currently in Miami painting some amazing walls. Here’s a few of my favourite pieces. Also check out the great video by Callum Preston.
Roa left Melbourne a couple of days ago. What an amazing month or so it has been. After arriving in Melbourne from Puerto Rico, one of the first things he did was visit Healesville Sanctuary. Healesville Sanctuary is a not-for-profit conservation organisation dedicated to fighting wildlife extinction through breeding and recovery programs for threatened species and by working with visitors and supporters to reduce threats facing endangered wildlife. The Sanctuary is a very important part of Roa’s whole visit to Melbourne, a major part of his show at Backwoods Gallery, Carrion, which I will go into more detail about in my next post.
Wombat (Vombatus Ursinus)
The first day was all about Roa meeting the animals. He got the royal treatment from the Sanctuary and all the keepers, getting to go behind the scenes and really meet the animals, touch, feel and hold most of them.
The next few days were a combination of painting some of the animals he met, and preparing for the show. He painted three pieces while at the Sanctuary, the most exciting would have to have been the Platypus (Ornithorhynchus Anatinus) on the water tower (featured in the video). I was lucky enough to be there with Roa and experience the breathtaking views, hip hop, pizza and beer. A perfect afternoon 🙂 Continue reading “Roa at Healesville Sanctuary”
Just got an email from Reka with some photos of the end of his European tour. Lots of painting. My favourite pieces are the ones in Bovisa Milan and Urban Spree Berlin.
Apart from the artwork itself, another of my favourite things to collect is books about street art and graffiti. Yes the internet is a great way to capture and preserve the artworks as they quickly disappear, but there’s something about holding a book in your hands, the quality of the photographs and colors of the works feel different on paper.
I’m really excited about this book! Land of Sunshine is Dean Sunshine‘s first book. Dean is Melbourne’s resident paintspotter. He’s always where the action is, tirelessly capturing the best of Melbourne’s graffiti and street art scene (in fact I bumped into him just the other day in Hosier Lane). Dean’s photo blog Land of Sunshine is well known to anyone into Melbourne graffiti and street art.
The book features the work of over 100 artists and also focuses in on some of Dean’s favourites: Adnate, Be Free, CDH, Deb, Drab, Heesco, Kaff-eine, Makatron, Phoenix the street artist, Slicer, Suki, and Urban Cake Lady.
The book will be available at General Pants stores Australia wide and at NGV bookstore at fed square. Also available via Land of Sunshine from mid November for local and international shipping. Here’s a couple of shots from the book.
All crew members. Photo courtesy of Michael Danischewski.
Since forming in 2006 the AWOL Crew have been producing some amazing work. (The crew is: Adnate, Deams, Itch, Li-Hill, Lucy Lucy and Slicer). This is the collectives first group show since they painted the NGV studio (National Gallery of Victoria) mural back in 2011.
With backgrounds predominately in graffiti it’s great to see the guys pushing their artistic skills. Each artist with their own signature style, but also as a group, the collaboration between the crew for Fabric, seamlessly combining elements of each others work into pieces is hands down the best work I’ve seen from the crew.
The exhibition itself was also somewhat unique and different to most shows. The show was announced a while ago and was to be held at a secret location (announced the day before the show). Not knowing what to expect when I arrived made it even more special. The space was amazing. An old gas works warehouse suited the show really well and provided the perfect backdrop for the art.
Make sure you check out the video. Also, here’s a few shots from the show.
After the Funeral, ink on cafe wall, Brunswick July 2012
Kaff-eine is another of my favourite Melbourne street artists. Since first discovering Kaff’s characters pasted in Melbourne’s alleyways, I quickly fell in love with her work.
Kaff-eine paints using a number of different media, including aerosol, pigment ink, watercolor and acrylic paint. Her characters light up drab grey walls and alleys and bring real character to Melbourne’s streets. Her characters evoke emotion and feeling, in particular the sorrowful character cradling a dying swan is one of my favourite works!
‘Reveal’, aerosol + acrylic paint on cardboard February 2012
Kaff-eine has been part of numerous group shows, and has her first ever solo show opening in November called “Boneyard” at “Just Another Project Space” in Prahran. I can’t wait!
I caught up with Kaff-eine a few weeks ago and had a great chat. Here’s some of what we talked about:
LM: Tell me about your background. How did you get into street art?
Kaff-eine: I’d stopped drawing a decade beforehand. I was at Uni, discovering new street art all around Melbourne as I went to and from Uni, but never thinking about painting myself. Then I met a new bunch of friends who really encouraged me to get back into drawing, and a couple were into street art, so I thought about drawing again, kind of followed my street artist friends around, tried it and loved it. It changed the way I saw urban spaces, and my own artwork. I started pasting my work up, but discovered that I preferred to paint directly onto surfaces. So I’ve been doing it ever since.
A Funeral in December, aerosol on disused shop wall, Brunswick July 2012
LM: What does your name mean?
Kaff-eine: Aw it’s pretty basic. Everyone who knows me knows that caffeine is my drug of choice. So I tweaked the name a bit, and used it. Without caffeine there’s no Kaff-eine! And the hyphen works too, I think in German it translates as something like ‘coffee one’. So yep, that’s suitable too.
