INVURT

Several months ago, we saw some images from one of Ghostpatrols latest projects – the painting of a massive wind turbine out in Hepburn/Dalesford, Victoria.

Now, the video for the project and a whole bunch of new images that haven’t been seen before have been released – and what a project it looks to have been!!

"I’m super proud to have been part of this amazing project. The Hepburn Windfarm is australia’s first community owed co-op windfarm. The pairof turbines power Dalesford and the surrounding area.

I proudly accepted my friend Simon’s challenge to paint ‘Gale’. I assembled my team,
dived into my research and undertook some serious risk assessment, feeling very lucky
to have been trusted to paint such an amazing structure. We pitched our tents under
the giant blades and got down to work. As far as I know, I’m the first artist to ever paint a
mural on a wind turbine (and I can understand why).

The whole process was super humbling. The community of Dalesford and Hepburn
welcomed us and showed us the strength of spirit and passion required to make a
difference in the world and confront the serious issues of energy and our responsibility
to the environment.

::super thanks to: Scottie, Andre, Bernie, Tarryn, Simon, Tracey and Arved
::photo and video production: Bernard Winter."

Check it out, and a whole bunch of images as well – more to be found here.

There is a huge swath of talent amongst Melbournes independent comic book artists, and you can always be sure that the works that they produce are cutting edge litanies. From the daily to the macabre, the fantastical to the conspiratorial, these artists take on all the challenges of communicating the foibles and fallacies of  our times.

Fleshtonez, the next upcoming group show at Paradise Hills, follows in this vein perfectly – though, not exactly in the way expected. Erotica is a definitive genre in our modern day, a ubiquitous element amongst the creative realm – and though not all artists focus on the genre solely, they will, surely, touch upon it at some stage in their creative journeys.

"FLESHTONEZ is an opportunity for eleven cutting-edge, Melbourne-based comic book artists to explore the erotic side of their practice. Free from the presumption that strong sexual content can demean the work, each artist can create their own unique take on erotica in contemporary graphic art.

Whether the result be playful, profound or disturbing, by doing so the artist has at once tapped into a rich vein of personal material and contributed to a broader discussion on sexuality, a more crucial facet than ever of the current zeitgeist."

By taking such artists as M P Fikaris, Katie Parrish, Michael Hawkins and the rest of the comic luminaries in Fleshtonez, and letting them run unfettered though their erotically charged imaginations curator Michael Hawkins may have just created a … okay, okay, I’ll avoid the bad puns, really grand show show – we’re really looking forward to seeing what work is up on the walls on the night!

I really made an effort to not mention my hopes for at least some suggestion of tentacle pr0n in this writeup. Ah. Shit.

Too late.

Who: Michael P Fikaris, Simon Hanselmann, Emily Hasselhoof, Michael Hawkins, HTML Flowers, Jnr Blue, Katie Parrish, Lee Lai, Elliot Lamb, David Mahler, Marc Pearson, Josephine Waite
What: Fleshtonez group show
Where: Paradise Hills, 8 Doonside St, Richmond, Melbourne VIC
When: Show opens Friday 31st May from pm til 10pm and runs for two weeks.

Check out the facebook event page as well as the Paradise Hills website for more info!

Admittedly, this is the first time we have heard of Skount – for which I am actually slightly dismayed – because his work both in the gallery, as well as out on the streets, is fucking rad.

That bastion of brand spanking cool in Sydney, The Tate, will be playing host to this Spanish artist tomorrow night for his first Australian show – "Fragments Of Mythological Dreams", and it looks like an amazing show.

“Dreams are not just messages (coded messages, at that), but are also an aesthetic activity, a game of the imagination that has its own value. Dreams are proof that fantasies – emotional immersion in the visualization of events that have never and may never occur – are one of the profoundest necessities for human life. The characters that come from my imagination are my own possibilities, those that never came to bear, or those still on my horizon.” – Skount

Inspired by the classical Spanish theatre of his hometown, Skount’s oneiric masked characters beckon the viewer from the urban environment into their mysterious and playful dreamscapes. The great playwrights of Skount’s youth formed a lasting impression, where he regards life as a wonderful play, in which everyone has a role. Driven by the fundamental desire to free his own mind, Skount’s creativity knows no bounds. With a background in graffiti, his artistic expression spans paint, paper, music and performance, to video art, sculpture, and installation. Skount’s irrepressible curiosity for other cultures has inspired him to travel and study different forms of creativity and traditions around the world. Currently based in Amsterdam, Skount has worked and exhibited throughout Spain, Europe, China, Mexico, Israel and the United States.

Now for the first time in Australia, The Hours presents ‘Fragments of Mythological Dreams’, an exhibition of new paintings and installation by Skount. In this exhibition, inspired by Ancient Greek myths and legends, Skount presents a reality, drawing a relatively cohesive oneiric spectrum with mythology. Recounting a pictorial discourse by which we enter into a world of dreams, created to explain the universe, the origin of the world, natural phenomena and anything for which there is no simple explanation. Through this new body of work on canvas and paper, Skount investigates this complex philosophical world full of arguments about the nature, properties, causes and effects of natural things, especially the human being and the universe."

Skounts work edges across bizarre dreamscapes, theatrical nuances and unrelenting facets of carnivalesque brilliance – if you want to see something unique and beautifuically produced, head down to the Tate in Sydney tomorrow night for his show.

Who: Skount
What: Fragments Of Mythological Dreams
Where: The Tate, 345 Glebe Pt Rd, Glebe, Sydney
When: Show opens Wednesday 15th May from 6pm til 9pm

Check out Skount as well as The Tate for more info.

It’s no secret that we are some of aMBUSH Gallerys biggest fans – the amount of grand shit that they have done for artists over the years is priceless in its worthiness. One thing that we have always loved about aMBUSH is the fact that they play no favourites, and promote art and artists from the sheer love of it – there is no commercial gain behind it all, they’re a truly altruistic bunch of people.

In line with that, aMBUSH also grant exposure and the use of their space to both established artists, and the up and comers amongst the fold  – and their next group show, Visions From The Aether, promises a great glimpse of fresh faces and new directions.

"In Greek mythology, the god Aether represented the highest plane of heaven and the purest, lightest form of air that only Zeus could breathe. Throughout the development of early philosophical and scientific discourse, the concept of Aether was used metaphorically as an alternative and preferable explanation for the apparent ‘nothingness’ that filled vacant spaces. Aether represented a fifth element alongside those four that were tangible – Fire, Water, Earth and Air – and served as the foundation for scientific exploration of the propagation of electromagnetic radiation through space.

Today, as well as its use in scientists’ vernacular, the word ether refers to an imagined place beyond the earth’s atmosphere; elastic, intangible and comprising infinite potential for other-worldly manifestations. It is this – the allure of possibility in a realm unbound by the laws of physics – that the artists of Visions from the Ether explore in the multidisciplinary exhibition.

Comprising the work of Aaron Noakes, Dakota Gordon, David Crystalface, Jack Hammond, Mez, Nick Matthews, Oliver, Ox, Sebastian Grant, Slug and Tom Groves, Visions from the Ether is a collection of photographs, street art, digital works and pieces from other fine art media. The exhibition, which opens on Friday 17 May from 6 – 9pm, is spread across the two expansive spaces of aMBUSH Gallery and will launch with Oliver’s live jazz/hip hop production.  Complimentary ice cold Little Creatures Pale Ale beer will be served on the night.

Visions from the Ether is proudly presented by aMBUSH Gallery and launches on Friday 17 May 6 – 9pm and continues Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 May 12 – 4pm."

Head down to aMBUSH Gallery and check it all out for yourself this Friday night!

Who: Aaron Noakes, Dakota Gordon, David Crystalface, Jack Hammond, Mez, Nick Matthews, Oliver, Ox, Sebastian Grant, Slug and Tom Groves
What: Visions From The Ether solo show
Where: aMBUSH Gallery, 4a James Street, Waterloo (Sydney)
When: Friday 17 May, 6pm-9pm

Check out aMBUSH Gallery for more details on the show, as well as the facebook event page!

We checked out HAHA‘s (Regan Tamanui) latest show “Metamorphosis” at Dark Horse Experiment on Friday night. It was great to see his awesome stencils again. A great series of stencils blending HAHA’s chosen subjects together, some of them were there in the crowd. Some of them featured himself. Very cool. I also loved the installation with all the used stencils scattered on the floor and the mad piece on the wall. Thanks to David Russell for the photos as usual.

HAHA – Metamorphosis

Here are some shots from a recent project I worked on for Kiss FM, up stairs at the Lounge on Swanston Street in the CBD, where we spent the day on the roof top in the sun with GENT 48, GETO, METHOD, RACE and BLUE from SDM and ADN crew, and a big thanks to Giant for supplying the paint.

A new monthly post from resident Invurt photographer David Russell – introducing “Through the Lens with David Russell”

Dave doesn’t miss a beat around Melbourne wether it be gallery shows, street work or abandos. Dave has decided to do a monthly round up of some of his favourite works he finds on his daily missions. Thanks Dave keep the photos coming.

DOES

Something special for you today that I really wanted to share! After two and a half months travel in Central America (expect a whole bundle of Sojourn articles coming up from all across Mexico and Guatemala!) I arrived this week in NYC. As luck would have it, dynamos José Parlá and JR were having an opening tonight at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery in Chelsea! Read on for the media release, to give you an idea of what it was all about …

"The Wrinkles of the City was started by JR in Cartagena, Spain and has been reprised in Shanghai, Los Angeles, and most recently, Havana. In 2012, JR and Parlá photographed and interviewed dozens of senior citizens who lived through the Cuban revolution, flyposting colossal black-and-white portraits of their subjects on the walls of city buildings. Parlá, who is of Cuban descent, interlaces the images with palimpsestic, calligraphic writings and color. In a city devoid of commercial imagery, JR and Parlá’s enormous yet intimate portraits offer a stunningly humane contrast to the endless repetition of political icons.

This exhibition will consist of twelve large portraits from the Havana iteration of The Wrinkles of the City project along with a site-specific installation."

Although it was mighty packed inside, there was some really great work on display – most of it imagery from the many walls they’d worked on – but there was one piece, was that "site specific installation", that I fucking loved …

Check out the pics from the opening below (excuse the not so grand shots, I’m not the worlds greatest photographer!) to give you an idea of how it all was – and check out all the pics of the work in the show here.

I went down to Metro gallery in Armadale on Saturday to check out the live painting by Adnate, DVATE and Shida.

Shida – Painting live at Metro Gallery

Adnate – Painting live at Metro Gallery

Adnate – Painting live at Metro Gallery

Adnate – Painting live at Metro Gallery

DVATE – Painting live at Metro Gallery

DVATE – Collab piece – Painting live at Metro Gallery

DVATE – Collab piece – Painting live at Metro Gallery

 

Before I left Melbourne, I had been an avid reader of Ha-Has "The Unreal Adventures Of HaHa" blog – in which he was documenting his travels overseas. Always hilarious, always thought provoking and conspiritorially cool. After a lengthy stay overseas, painting and showing across the eurozone and asia, HaHA has now returned to Australia – and he’s about to have another solo show

"Metamorphosis is an exploration into the archetype’s of the human psyche. As humans, we create the archetypes that exist amongst us as individuals, and as a part of a couple, a family, a tribe or a nation.

Here HAHA investigates these archetypes by means of stencil: fusing portraits of people together to find a link or connection between couples, or by fusing man with machine and beast.

The viewer is presented and faced with questions about the archetype within relationships, transhumanism & the beast man.

HAHA (Regan Tamanui) is one of Australia’s most notorious and prolific stencil artists. He called the Blender Studios home for many years before extending his art practice with an extended, overseas trip.

Now he is back, and is having his first solo show since returning to Melbourne at Blender Studios’ gallery Dark Horse Experiment."

Wish I could be in Melbourne to check this all out – its going to be ahell of a show, and its been way too long since I’ve seen one from HaHa! Ah well, you guys enjoy the shit out of this one for me!

Who: Regan Tamanui
What: Metamorphosis solo show
Where: Dark Horse Experiment, 110 Franklin St, Melbourne
When: Show opens Friday 10th May from 6pm til 9pm and runs til 1st June

Check out the facebook event page, and of course, Regans website for more info!

We love Metro Gallerys oingoing live painting days – we’ve been to quite a few of them in the past!

This weekend sees Melbourne street art Maestros DVATE, Shida and Matt Adnate get together to paint a bunch of panels in the gallery – you all probably know how these guys are, but if not then rest assured they are some of Australias finest – we’re sure they’ll paint up a storm!

Head down to Metro Gallery this Saturday and see it all for yourself!

Who: Matt Adnate, Shida, DVATE
What: Live Paint Day @ Metro Gallery
Where: 1214 High St, Armadale, Melbourne
When: Event runs 12pm til 5pm Saturday 4th May, 2013

Check out the Metro Gallery website for more information

Aucklands K Road is infamous for its street art, and this group show, gathering together some of NZs coolest and finest, looks like it’ll be a great showcase of work – live!

As part of the running First Thursdays events, Alfresco will be a “rad street art festival up and down K’Rd, 10+ walls being painted by 10+ street artists from all around the country. Come watch these artists do what they do best LIVE in person and watch K’Road be transformed with colour across our walls”

“Karangahape Road is a long time home to art and cultural activity that doesn’t fit amongst the typical mainstream vernacular. It abounds with mythical figures and local legend from across multiple generations.

It is an area of Auckland that is fighting to retain all that is good about grit and grime, to celebrate the eccentric and erroneous. All the while ensuring that it remains a relevant and vital creative community that is recognised for its value as a rich depository of cultural artefact and activity.

All Fresco is both a response to the traditions of Krd, and to the paucity of street art in the Krd district. The character of a community is reflected in many things including the evidence of an engaged and ongoing public dialogue. And in an area noted for it’s character, a distinct lack of sites hosting relevant and revolving street art is something to be addressed.

The value of this event isn’t just in the opportunity it provides to artists, or even
the spectacle and experience it offers spectators. It’s in reestablishing and re-affirming the qualities of a part of our city that makes it the most well know, most notorious and fabled strip in the country.”

Thats a lot of wall space to be painted up on one single night, K’Rd is going to look mad!The week before his solo show, even HaHA will also be in Auckland on the night doing some live art for the opening!

There will also be an exhibition on the 2nd May at Method & Manners studios. Head down and see it if you’re anywhere near the North Island!

Check out the full press release here.
 

Who: BMD, Eno, Erin Forsyth, Deus, Dagar, Mica Still, Wert159, Xoe Hall, HaHa,
What: Alfresco street art festival (First Thursdays event)
Where: Up and down K Road and Method and Manners studios, 6 Upper Queen Street, Auckland
When: Exhibition opens at 6pm til 9pm on 2nd May, and the paiting goes on from the 3rd, 4th and 5th.

Check out the Alfresco and First Thursdays website for more info!

As you probably know, Futura was in town in March for the Hennessy vs Futura bottle launch. He designed their new bottle in their latest artist collab.

This post is something a little different to the norm. We ummm’ed and ahhhh’ed about the format for ages, should we transcribe it, should we make a video, should we edit it, should we chop it into smaller clips? We ended up deciding to just post it as is (with some work on the sound levels). It was such a special experience for us, it felt like we were watching a documentary.

Futura x Hennessey

Way back in October, we brought you news of a new project that I’ve been working on with Jo Jette, a brand spanking new print magazine by the name of Damn It! Well, it’s done, printed and all ready to go – and we’re having a party to celebrate!!

Designer and Publisher Jo Jette has been working on the amazing Nothing To Nobody for a few years now, which, sadly, has just released its awesome final issue (Jo will be working on Damn It! from here on out!) This dynamo of a lady has crafted what I think is a stunning, collectable piece of visual beauty, and written a slew of grand articles. For myself, well, I’ve edited my ass off on this one, and if you’ve been reading Invurt for a while then you can expect a whole bunch of full feature articles from yours truly on artists from across the globe!

We’ve already released the magazine for purchase over the internet (go grab yourself a copy!), so now its time to invite you all to the launch!!

"Tired of the same old same old? Want to feel like you’re doing something positive when you shell out your hard earned cold cash for a magazine? Want value for money in a convenient bag size read? Then say hello to our little friend – DAMN IT!

DAMN IT! is a brand spankin’ new, biannual, 96 page, limited edition magazine run by Publisher & Designer Jo Jette (of Nothing to Nobody magazine), and Editor in Chief Fletcher Andersen (aka Facter, of online art webzine, Invurt). We put every cent we have into the publication, so that each issue will kick the can of the previous one.

Each issue we feature juicy articles on super talented peeps – illustrators, photographers, typographers, painters, writers, and other creative types as well as reporting on the more serious side of things from around the world.

We also shine a Bat-signal on some of the amazingly selfless work done by caring peeps setting up and running not-for-profits all round the world. We’re not afraid to put our money where our damn big mouths are, and we pledge to donate $0.50 from each copy of DAMN IT! sold to the not-for-profit we feature in that issue, which in our first ever issue is Skateistan, a not-for-profit set up to teach kids to skate in Afghanistan, Cambodia and Pakistan. Skatistan also teach journalism and art to their students, 40% of whom are girls.
Plus we’ve adopted a Polar Bear for our first issue to accompany our article on Polar Bears and Arctic conservation, but just wait ‘til you see what we are sponsoring for issue 2!!

Launching officially on 2 May at the Just Another Project Space in 153 Greville St, Prahran (Melbourne) from 6-9pm, and we’ll be giving away a Hamburger YoYo to everyone who attends. Yes, you heard us right – so join us for a drink!"

It’s a bittersweet feeling, knowing that the mag is being launched, and my not being able to actually attend the launch party! Lamentations aside, both Jo and I are stoked at how the mag has turned out, and we’re sure that you’ll all love this first issue (we hope!) – its been a long process and a lot of hard work, trial and trepidation, but its something we’re pretty proud of.

So, we’d love for you to al head on down to the launch party next Thursday – grab a mag, enjoy a read and let us know what you think!!! Massive thanks to the team at Just Another for letting us use their awesome Just Another Project Space for the launch, we couldn’t be happier with the venue!!

Don’t forget, that if you can’t make the launch, we have released the magazine for purchase over the internet here! We’re already deep into planning Issue #2 also, so your feedback is more than welcome – we also have extremely affordable advertising space available for full page ads in the next issue and beyond.

Massive thanks to everyone for all of their support, especially the artists and advertisers who are featured in the first issue!

Who: The first issue of Damn It! Magazine features articles on artists and creatives such as Lee Romao, Greg ‘Craola’ Simkins, Ken Taylor, Chris Peters, Poise, Adam Oehlers, Ink & Clog, Skateistan, Polar Bears of the Arctic, Naoto Hattori, Tom Hussey, and Hit+Run and some special artwork from Chris Hancock and Eleven, photography from Nicole Reed and much more.
What: Damn It! Magazine Launch Party
Where: Just Another Project Space, 153 Greville St, Prahran, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
When: Opening will be one night only, Thursday 2nd May 2013 from 6pm til 9pm!

Check out the facebook event page for ore info as well as the Damn It! Magazine website!

When Sean Morris put together the remarkable group show "Lets Go, Magic Weirdos" at Paper Mountain in Perth, we had no idea that it would have a sequel – but it does, and this time it will be held in London!

Lets Go, Magic Weirdos is succeeded by the brilliantly curated Magic Weirdos Never Die – which once again sees Sean gathering together a diverse array of talent that has the magical underpinnings of weirdosity as its theme.

"As Scawfell street officially opens for business we are thrilled to present “Magic Weirdos Never Die” – a group exhibition featuring 11 contemporary artists from 4 different countries, curated by Sean Morris. Following on from the successful group show "Let’s Go Magic Weirdos", held last year in his hometown of Perth, Western Australia, the ridiculously talented Sean Morris is at it again. This time he’s bringing his work and bunch of impressive, magical weirdos to London.

The line-up includes Australian art heroes Ghostpatrol and Kyle Hughes-Odgers, Spanish comic artist Berto Fojo, the prolific Luke Pelletier from the States and killer London based illustrators Suzie Kemp, Jasper Dunk and Jon Boam. Along side these phenomenal names will be the usual awesome depravity from Londoner James Unsworth, the black metal space demons of Madrid’s Manuel Donada, beautifully strange and politically charged drawings from Florida’s Dillon Froelich and the white trash fables of Sean Morris himself, who hits London just 2 weeks after a successful solo exhibition in Madrid."

With such an incredible lineup of fantastic artists, this is a show that if you’re in London, you really need to go and see. The first show was brilliant, this one will be just as much – what wonder does Sean Morris have in store for us next??

Who: Sean Morris, Kyle Hughes-Odgers, Ghostpatrol, Berto Fojo, Luke Pelletier, Suzie Kemp, Jasper Dunk, Jon Boam, James Unsworth, Manuel Donada, Dillon Froelich
What: Magic Weirdos Never Die
Where: Scawfell Street,6A Scawfell Street, E2 8NG London, United Kingdom
When: Show opens Thursday May 2nd from 6pm til 9pm

Check out the facebook event page for more info!!

Rone x Victoria’s Secret

Rone x Victoria’s Secret

Rone x Victoria’s Secret

Rone x Victoria’s Secret

Thanks to Rone for the photos.