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Hush – Sirens at Metro Gallery Armadale

I finally got down to see Hush‘s show Sirens at Metro Gallery in Armadale yesterday. I couldn’t make it to the opening, so I’m glad I didn’t miss this show.

I’ve been a fan of Hush for a while now and seeing his work up close makes me love it even more. His pieces combine Japanese Geisha and Russian Babushka dolls, tags and torn raw surfaces and dripping paint to create a mesmerising effect. I stood and looked at the main wall piece for ages admiring the detail. Clearly the Melbourne art community also love his work, the entire show sold out in days.

From the Metro Gallery website:

Metro Gallery is proud to present ‘Sirens’, the first solo exhibition in Australia by UK artist Hush. Described as a ‘sensory assault’, Hush’s work is a visual treat, a layering of colours and a fusion of anime, pop-infused imagery, graffiti and graphic design.

Fascinated by Asian graphic novels and inspired by the likes of Mimmo Rotella, Roy Lichtenstein and Sir Peter Blake, Hush has a unique style that has led to worldwide acclamation. He was recently recognised in London Independent’s list of ‘Top 20 Up and Coming Artists’.

‘Sirens’ continues the artist’s style, effortlessly fusing traditional Eastern art with Western traditions of action painting and graffiti. Inspired by the portrayal of the female form in art, the artist depicts Eastern-like women set within backgrounds filled with layers of rich colour. Patterns, ranging from geometric repetition to florals reminiscent of delicately decorated vases, are not solely confined to the background but often take on a new dimension, forming graceful kimonos, hairstyles or headpieces. Tagging and graffiti transition from street art to the studio, to form part of these patterns.

Hush has continued to evolve his style with this new offering, creating deeper, richer pieces than anything he has produced before. “I’m stripping pieces down, over complicating others to show a complex body of work to educate the viewer and bring them deeper into the process of making the work.”

Photos by Lukey

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Adnate – Lost Culture at RTIST Gallery Prahran

I dropped into RTIST Gallery yesterday to check out Adnate‘s show Lost Culture. WOW. Very impressed. Another member of the renowned AWOL Crew doing great things.

Combining his amazing hand style and painting skills he explores different cultures through a series of amazing portraits incorporating both ancient typography and his signature lettering.

From the RTIST website:

Adnate has established himself as a unique Street-Portrait Artist. His realistic style is the signature to his work, using spray paint as his main medium.”

Beginning as a graffiti writer more than 10 years ago, Adnate spent most of his youth painting the streets of Melbourne with his letters. He has continued to paint walls in multiple continents, flourishing as an internationally recognised street artist.

In recent years Adnate broke from his obsession of painting letters and begun to study the human form. It was then he quickly realized his passion for portraiture. Inspired by Renaissance artists such as Da Vinci and Caravaggio, he taught himself classical chiaroscuro techniques to communicate drama and emotion in his subjects.

For his most recent exhibition ‘Point of View’ in Berlin, Germany, he took inspiration from his travels through India and Europe. “I’ve seen a lot of faces that have been burnt into my memory. Particularly the kids that experience the lives of adults in India, to people losing their faces in clubs in Berlin. Each piece was an interpretation of a person I saw or met.”

Adnate’s next exhibition will be held at the renowned RTIST Gallery in Melbourne, Australia. This time he has chosen to focus on the historical cultures of Tibetan, Persian and Indigenous Australian. Each with their own alluring beauty and spirituality, they have surpassed cultural genocides due to the depth of their rich culture.

Lost Culture is open now through June 24th.

Photos by Lukey

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Competition time: Tickets to the D*Face/Smirnoff collaboration launch

D*Face and Smirnoff have teamed up to create an inventive limited edition collectable bottle. To celebrate the exciting collaboration, D*Face and Smirnoff will be hosting an exclusive party encompassing a surreal art experiment in East London on Wednesday 13th June where attendees will each receive a piece of art by D*face.

Vandalog is able to offer one lucky winner a pair of VIP tickets to invite-only party.

To enter, just leave a comment with the name of the gallery that D*Face owns. Make sure to leave your real email in the comment, so that we can be in touch. Only Vandalog will be able to see your email. The winner will be selected among those who answer correctly and notified via email on Wednesday morning.

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El Mac in Cuba with Primary Flight

The guys from Primary Flight recently traveled to Havana, Cuba with El Mac, where he painted this mural. The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Europe and Union de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba also helped to arrange the project. El Mac’s piece is titled El corazón de un sueño palpita entre mis manos (The Heart of a Dream Beats Within My Hands).

Click image to view large

Photos courtesy of Primary Flight

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Morley and Lazarides Team Up Once Again

Fast Songs

Once again, Los Angeles street artist Morley has joined forces with the gang at Lazarides to release several limited edition prints. Editions of forty, each of the four unique prints are signed and numbered by the artist. They are printed on Magnani Litho 300gsm paper and are 70cm x 50cm costing £95 each. The two pictured are my favorite but to view the others and purchase the prints head over to The Outsiders.

Time Machine

Oh and if you haven’t heard already, Morley is coming back over the pond for his first solo exhibition with Lazarides at The Outsiders in Newcastle. Adapting his wheatpastes and parachute men for indoors has been interesting in the past for group shows the artist has participated in, so the Newcastle show will really be a test whether he is able to transport audiences into his charmingly witty world whole heartedly.

All Images Courtesy of The Outsiders

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Mare139 show at Skalitzers

There are a lot of writers from the subway era who have tried to break into fine art. Some are great. Some are, quite frankly, not. Mare139 aka Carlos Mare is one of the better ones, and certainly one of the most underrated ones. Through his captivating sculptures, he has been bringing graffiti into the third dimension for decades, and his b-boy sketches look like what Picasso would have sketched if he’d lived to see breaking (and wasn’t so easily distracted/inspired by young women).

This week, Mare has a solo show of his b-boy pieces opening at Skalitzers in Berlin. Physical Graffiti: Art of the B-boy Dance opens on June 9th at 7pm, there’s an artist talk on June 12th at 6pm, and then the main opening dates for the exhibition are June 13th through the 30th.

Mare at work

Photos courtesy of Skalitzers