INVURT

Around this time last year, we did our first snapshot of some of the cool sites that we read on a frequent basis that deal with Australian and New Zealand art and other creative endeavours. Every day our editor, Facter, reads through a mountain of blogs and websites, looking for cool events, exhibitions and artists to speak to – it takes a lot of time and effort, mostly because there are so many great sites out there that follow Oz & NZ art – but its completely worth it!

Last year our roundup included such sites as Dont Sleep Magazine, Nothing To Nobody, Melbourne Art & Culture Critic, Everfresh, Nice Produce, Kompound, Just Another Agency, ArtistsWA, This Life, Design Federation, the sadly missed We Make Stuff Good and the ever inspirational weAREtheIMAGEmakers.

Again, this is not a top of the top, nor an indication that if its not in this list then its not the best! There are just way too many sites out there for that we read through, and each one of them offers something different. Instead, this is just a small collection of some of the sites we’ve come across in the last year or so that have piqued our interest, and we thought we’d share them with you..

So, a huge thankyou to all the blogs from our list last year, and to all of our recent favourites listed here. Without all of your amazing efforts in documenting all of this cool shit, our day to day reading here at Invurt would be all the poorer …

Six Years Later Magazine – launching this year, Six Years Later is a fantastic print magazine, but their blog is also pretty damn cool. You should take a look at both, they’re equally worth the read.

Land Of Sunshine – well, you know him either from here with his monthly Top 10s, or from his awesome blog, Land Of Sunshine – in terms of coverage of Melbourne street art, Dean Sunshine is the man. With a wide range of collections, events and snaps from visiting artists, this is one of our definite go to blogs to check out whats been going up on the street.

T-Squat – These guys go from strength to strength. Editor and resident photographer James Watkins has a great eye for the eclectic, and though they cover everything from music to sports and everything in between, they also do great coverage on both established and emerging artists from around the globe. It’s a one stop feast.

Curvy – We love girls, and we love girls doing art, and we love girls writing about girls doing art … okay, you get the drift! Curvy celebrates all that is feminine and creative, and their blog is absolutely fantastic. With a great crew of bloggers behind the keyboard, and with plenty of inspiriting work pumping through the site, we head to Curvy on a regular basis.

Artygraffarti – new kid on the block, Arygraffarti, is really starting to get up there. With regular, frequent posts from his wandering around both Melbourne and other cities (when he gets there) this is a mint little low brow look at new stuff thats appearing. He also has a bit of event info on there of stuff happening around Melbourne, and its well worth adding to your reader feed.

Chasing Ghosts – these guys have been off on a sojourn around the globe for a while, but they’ve now settled back in Melbourne and have begun documenting and putting up great photosets on their bog as well as on flickr. With great attention to detail and a wonderful eye for not only the artwork, but its positioning and surrounding environment, these guys have it down.

Acclaim Mag – after a major site redesign sometime last year or so, Acclaims online presence and quality of content matches its print version. With everything street, urban, music and fashion related, if you’re into your all round street lifestyle, this is where you should be checking regularly – a great aussie based mag that we love!

Strutten – we adore this collective! Having only launched earlier this year, Strutten already have a loyal following, and we go to them for art and design related news up in Queensland. They have a great bunch of people posting, who are all collective artists themselves, and they also delve into the cafe and music culture. They love the city of Brisbane, and they’re great champions of what’s going on there. <3

The Opening Hours – The Opening Hours has their finger on the pulse up in Sydney, and more besides – both the photos and coverage of events is superb – this is our kinda blog!!

Disassociated – John Lampard does an amazing job at tracking events across the country, across all genres of art, with the Australian Art Show List. There’s also some great blogs posts on there outside of the event stuff, following film and other creative industry stuff – its very much worth a read.

Street Arse – of course, lots of love for the crews over in NZ, and Street Arse is our favourite. Shows, news and bits and pieces galore from the New Zealand street art scene.

Wellington Wall Street – and, still on the NZ tip, representing Wellington street art, heaps of great pics of work springing up in the city.

Stupidkrap – though a little quiet lately on the news front, Stupidkrap is a great site full of awesome content. Not only that, but their online store has a huge range of artwork and prints from all across Australia.

Dangerfork – speaking of prints and all things inked, another newcomer, Dankgerfork, has been carving a niche for itself down here in Melbourne. We can see these guys going a long way, and their recent popup store in Collingwood is a great testament to the quality of their work. Check back here often for all kinds of limited edition works from a bunch of wicked artists.

Project4000 – Have spent some time growing up in the Far North, we love anything coming out of Queensland, and Project 4000, along with Strutten, is our lifeline to what’s going on up there in Brisvegas. They follow a lot of streetwear orientated news, but their art and event coverage is also pretty cool and they have a bit on Brisbane street art here and there.

Philthosophy – this site maintains a running list of all the art happens in Melbourne, listed out per date. Theres a lot there, and she covers as much of it as possible in the lists – its a handy reference if you want to check out the creative life in the ‘burn!

Knock Knock Magazine – a relative newcomer, this magazine is already busting out with its first issue and looks set for a really bright future. We love it already!

Ironlak – well, this one is a no-brainer, really – just follow their blog, alright?

Special Mentions – International Blogs We Love

We do read a hell of a lot of international blogs as well, and though we don’t cover international stuff, well, we don’t need to – there are so many great places that do that already. These are just some of our favourites …

• Arrested Motion
• VNA Magazine
• UnUrth
• Juxtapoz
• Fecal Face
• Urban Artcore
• Hooked Blog
• Vandalog
• High Fructose
• Wooster Collective

We hope you enjoy all of these blogs and websites as much as we do, and, if they have a facebook page, show them your support by liking them and following their efforts!!

We’ll be doing this roundup on a quarterly basis now, so if you have any sites you’d like us to check out that you think we’d love, just let us know.

Art Series Hotels, one of the sponsors of the Outpost Project  along side the National Gallery of Australia, will be hosting a series of topical forums consisting of panel discussions on the many varying issues facing Street Art today.

Leeloo – an online design store and blog – has put the call out for Aussie artists wishing to showcase their styles for an upcoming exhibition. The show will be held in conjunction with The Finders Keepers December Sydney Market “the bi-annual market which supports independent design, art and music with attendance in the thousands”.

“After the success of last year’s exhibition this year we present another instalment of On The Wall!! The artworks will be displayed at CarriageWorks within the foyer for the duration of the markets and will celebrate our ongoing mission to support independent Australian artists.  Artwork will be for sale during the exhibition and there may be the possibility of selling prints of the artworks.

Submissions will be open from…October 18th 2011, for two weeks, with the closing date being November 1st, 2011 with no exceptions.”

Check out the Submissions Page of the LeeLoo website for all the criteria and contact deets and Good Luck with your entries … stay tuned right here for an article on the exhibition soon!

Who: YOU
What: On The Wall – Exhibition Submissions
Where: onthewall@leeloo.com.au
When: Entries close November 1st

Check out their fine Facebook for more info!

Who doesn’t like free shit? and when that free shit involves a trip to NYC to take part in a kick ass art exhibition, all for just submitting a piece of your own kick ass art then all the better.

Jeremy Gaschk, the curator of Rtist Gallery and one hard working dude, sent us a few words around the comp:

"The winner of this comp will be flown to NYC to paint a mural there, paint supplied by Ironlak. The top 20 entries to the comp will be exhibited at the The Boroughs festival. Where their work can be sold. The Boroughs festival is going to be dope, it’s a NYC inspired culture festival, featuring The New York Dolls + loads more music, the best skaters, film, fashion, surfboard shaping etc…

To enter this comp you just need to buy a ticket to the festival. It’s $60 and it’s running in every major city around Oz. It’ll be a dope day out, plus you can hopefully make some money out of it by selling your painting there, or even better still get flown to NYC. For dudes in NZ I guess you could give your tick to a friend in OZ? The comp will be curated by the curator of Rtist Gallery, and the art will be judged by the crowd and a selection panel.

For more info on this check out the comps website page HERE

The works must be A3 in size, with Black & White colour palate with a choice of either blue and/or red included. Photo’s of the work must be submitted by 26th of September."

Looks pretty mad, and if you’re artistically inclined and want to make your way over to NYC to paint up, best get onto it now!

Who: You!
What: The Boroughs Art Competition
Where: Submit online, then fly OS
When: Entries close September 26th, 2011!

Go here to enter and to get more info!

Time to get back to the Press Mill Wednesdays, where we recap all of the “mainstream” press surrounding the art we all love. The column was put on the backburner for a little bit whilst we did some behind the scene restructuring, and now, given there is a little more free time on this editors hands, we’ll be able to get back into a few more special columns for you.

So, right into it …

• Deb, Amuse, Simon Clouston, Jess Cook and other street artists all raised money for the environmental group Borneo Orang-utan Survival – $11,000 worth, last week – wonderful.
• A great little article in the Age about the recent painting in Union Lane by some young creatives, under the mentorship of Paul Round. Great to see this kind of thing!
• There has been a lot of news in recent times as to the proposed re-vamp of the Keith Haring mural in Collingwood – The Age had another article on it a week or so ago.
• Theres a “Phantom Knitter” on the loose in Hobart, and the ABC tried to track them down … nice little piece on some cool yarn bombing.
• Sounds like Sydneys China Town is getting a revamp – including a bunch of “street art” – Jason Wing will be doing a big piece, which sounds pretty cool  … but, you know, it hurts my head thinking about the hypocrisy, considering the new NSW laws against street art and all …
• A really nice and heart warming, positive piece a young guy using a spray can as physical therapy – you go, Sam Ford!
• Students at Goondawindi State High got up in a big way and painted  their local PCYC – this is a fantastic example of integrating street art into the curriculum – more more more.
• Some recent news on the case against a NZ artist who is being sued in court in a civil action by the Auckland City Council – I’d like to know where they dig up their figures, apparently it costs around $100/$200 to remove one tag – really? ffs …
• Owen Dippie is making splashes both in NZ as well as over in NYC – this Herald article covers it all pretty well – he’s been going large!
• Finally, there is a really, really great article up on Voxy about all the artwork that is going up in Christchurch, celebrating all of the police who did heroic things during the quakes – a cool example of the beautiful uses of urban art …

That’s it for this week – see you back with another regular Press Mill in a fortnight.

It’s been a few weeks since our last Press Mill, but there’s been a fair bit of news across both Oz and NZ in the past few weeks, so here’s our informal wrap up of what’s been going on in the mainstream media in terms of street art, and its ilk, across Australia and NZ…

Most of the recent media attention has been focused on the New South Wales governments new anti-graffiti legislation, and its been overwhelmingly a sad read this week through a slush pile of relatively crap, sensationalist and biased articles. It’s unfortunate also, that with the introduction of these new laws, several councils have also removed their support or get rid of several legal walls across NSW – and this, to us here, just defies all logic. We guess, according to the NSW government, that unless its a semi abstract pastel coloured painting with the image of a beach in the background, hanging in some gallery cluttered with zimmer framed connoisseurs, it just mustn’t be art.

• Links to news articles on the new NSW laws are here, and to be honest, this will all depress you. Young artists now face criminal court, increased fines, and can be stripped of a drivers license – wtf? Graff artist JONES from Lismore has good words about it all in the Northern Star … this is a pretty balanced article from the SMH on opinion points on both sides, nice.
• Apparently, with no statistics or any real research research, the CEO for “Keep Australia Beautiful” has stated that legal graffiti walls –increase- the rate of illegal graffiti and he also wants to get rid of them, despite clear statistics from local councils across Australia that have shown that legal walls actually decrease it … umm, sorry Peter McLean – wot? 
• Lets just get the depressing news out of the way, right? In Adelaide, St Peters council just buffed over a legal wall that had been done by eight different artists on the side of the Bond Gallery – don’t these fool councils actually check these things first?
• The anti-art keeps on rolling, and expect to see lots of beautiful “Council Grey” adorning the walls of Yarra Ranges … again, if there were murals on these walls, what need would there be to buff them? This is coupled with the awesome talents of the Warner Awareness Education Group who are going around to local schools teaching kids the valuable “art is a crime” lesson.
• Oh look, we finally got around to some nice news – we love Yarn Bombing, and there is a bunch of it going on in the Clarence Valley! Well done Grafton Regional Gallery on supporting it all.
• Everyone in Brisbane should vote for Ray Smith in the upcoming mayoral race, it sounds like this guy actually has a clue about the arts, and wants to actually put money and some consideration into laneway projects for street art in Brisvegas – good luck, Ray.
• Someones been going around painting dumped mattresses around the Sunshine Coast – they look pretty cool! Grand idea.
• We saw C.O.P. Magazine a few months ago, and theres an article in the Mt Druitt Standard featuring Jo Alvarez. If you don’t know what C.O.P. is, its a magazine aimed at and that covers, female street and graffiti artists across the globe – and its really cool.
• Here’s a great article on this years Northern Exposure festival in Northcote next week, which this year has a very specific street art theme with its Small Works Small Spaces component. Dope.
• Why is it that when mainstream media sees something creative out on the streets that’s a little different, they always invoke the B word? Regardless, this sounds like it was a pretty cool idea that happened up in Brisbane last week.
• NZ artists are up and supporting Amnesty International this week – I think we’ll post an event about this one shortly!
• Lots of support for kiwi artist Eno in the last few weeks, after his run ins with authorities and the media after his attempts at beautifying his city. Much respect, bro.
• Theres a cool article up today with Frank Liew from Qubic & Hypebeast up at the NZ Herald – a great guy doing great things for creatives. Heres ten of his favourite things.
• George Shaw and Anne Rush are pushing for more public art to be done in Nelson in the leadup to the Rugby World Cup – such a great idea, and its so good to see people championing these kinds of things. Shaw is also the organiser of the Oi You Urban Art Project, that we’ll be covering later down the track …

Okay, that’s enough information overload for now, we’ve probably fulfilled our drabagoogle quota for the week – hope you’ve enjoyed this weeks media wrap up!

We like to stay away from any bias here – we do love Melbourne street art, and if you take a look through the pages here, sure, there are a shitload of events and such happening in Melbourne – but the same can be said for every other city in Oz too, its fkn heaving. In the past few weeks there has been so much going on across the country that its been hard to keep up, and it doesn’t look like slowing down any time soon. Australia’s street art scene is rocking, as is its entire “low brow” scene – and it has been for some time. Adelaide is pumping, Perth is producing swath of great artists, Brisbane creatives and the cities galleries are putting on amazing shows, Sydneys scene is, without a doubt, one of the best in the land and the rest of the country is following suit!

Why do we mention this? Well, two reasons – one, someone mentioned to us that we’re pretty Melbourne-centric. Fair call, but shit, you can see how much is happening here for yourself, and we cover as much as possible outside of here at every chance we can get! Secondly? Well, because in each city across Australia there are small havens of explosive art dotted amongst the metros areas – and, in the coming weeks, we’re going to be doing exposes on suburbs around Australia that have a high concentration of creative oomph. We have a few lined up, but at this stage they’re mostly Melbourne, because that’s our ‘hood here, but if anyone out there has suggestions for places you’d like us to cover elsewhere, or if you’d like to do a small write up and send us some pics of one of your favourite suburbs, adorned with mad art, then just contact us … because as much as we do love Melbourne, and as much as we cover a lot of the ‘burns shit here, it aint the be all and end all of all the cool stuff happening, both continentally, and across the ditch …

Oh yeah, and on that, you may have noticed that our love isn’t confined to just these shores any more, and as of last week we are full swing into our coverage of New Zealand street art and its ilk – we already have some great interviews, event and exhibition news, and we hope you enjoy our new section!

Anyways, hey its been a while between shit-talking – on to the wrap!

News and Miscellanea …

• Askew has opened up a new online shop – lots of cool merch from a very cool artist!
• So it was released a few months ago, but we saw it up on Nice Produce, so we’ll link to it too – Rackgaki is a great Japanese graff doco from a  few years ago – watch!
• Acclaim put up another Carbon recap video – this one is grand! Very inspiring and great to watch. Oh yeah, they also just went digital as well, woot!
• We’ll throw it into next weeks Transmissions, but here’s the preview video for the Everfresh studio at the NGV that starts next week.
• Nice Produce have a sale going on right now – you can get a whole bunch of dope Aussie artist wares for cheap – some amazing clothing on there!
• Support the amazing Dont Sleep magazine by going to buy some of their new shirts!
• We’re so not beyond pimping our mates – that’s what the wrap is for! haha … and our good friend Fergus, a well known local DJ and internationally acclaimed music producer,  has just released a bunch of new tracks in a glitch-hop-ish side project, Oddphonic. We recommend a listen, stat.

Pics And Images From Around The Traps …

• Those cool Prahran cats, T-Squat, have put up a great bunch of pics of recent street art activity in the Prahran area – things are definitely a-changing …
• We love Drab, what can we say? And we also love what Heesco painted, live, at Urban Art Throwup at the BSG last week (the show is still on, get down and see it!).
• The Opening Hours posted up some great pics from Makatrons latest adventures. They also have some great pics of Listers upcoming work for his Europe show.
• Check out this great bunch of pics from Ironlak done by members of the TMD, RTR and FDKNS crews over in New Zealand – mint.
• Dean Sunshine posted up some really cool stuff this week as well. Pics from the Fibre Femmes opening last Friday (which was an amazing show!), as well as a new collection of Melbourne Paste Up images – love this site.
• Lo-fi posted these grand images that Numskull and Roachy did on the El Capo cantina in Sydney
• Those wicked West Coasters, Last Chance, put up a bunch of pics from their recent exhibition up at Port Headland last month!
• Strobed also put up some awesome images from Bennets Oranges & Lemons show up in Sydney at the now, sadly closed but never forgotten Oh Really Gallery.

Also, don’t forget to check out the Transmissions for lots of cool Oz-centric videos from the past few months! That’s a wrap from us this week, have a good one!

So, we said this would be a fortnightly column to summarise what’s been happening “in the press”, but I believe that it is now going to be on a “when Fletch can be assed on humpday” column – but, there *will* be one at least every month …

So, read on for all the latest news from your media conglomerate friends ..

• There was some live art performed last week up in Cairns by international artist Dragon 76, to raise money for Japan Day Of Hope – cool.
• Grab a view from a different perspective – the Borneo Post did a cool article on Melbourne street art this week – always great for Oz to get recognition from far flung places for its art. Yes, you read it right – the Borneo Post.
• An interesting article in the SMH about This City Speaks To Me, which came out a few weeks ago – the book covered quite a few street art influenced warehouses in Melbourne, including the infamous Sketch City.
• Great little article about a mural being painted up in Coffs Harbour – always good to see more urban beautification.
• Oops! They banned the Thirsty Camel ad – gee, didn’t see that one coming! If you haven’t seen it, actually, check out this reaction piece to it from CDH that we loved – that’s how you do it, Camel dudes.
• The Blue Mountains Street Art Collaborative had an article on them late last month, talking about the lack of funding for their workshops and activities. This is a huge shame – they’ve been forced to stop the program due to lack of government support. When will the government actually learn that this kind of thing can often be an essential engagement with youths in regional areas? Do not get.
• Then we see articles like this one – where a local wall in Marrickville is being revived as a legal wall for artists. Good work, Marrickville Council, really nice to see that you’re keeping up with the times.
• As we’re covering New Zealand now – well, we can’t not mention the array of, near often sensationalist and intrusive, articles and debate running through Nelson at the moment. Its good they’re talking about it, and figuring out how to best implement street art friendly policies, as long as they treat the artists with respect, in all ways.
• Stuff the debate stuff, there are other really cool things happening in NZ that are in the media as well,  including a bunch of Yarn Bombing going up in Queenstown, and this really cool mural going up in Wellington at St Bernards College. Nice.
• Too much politics, too many “ideas” on how to make “artists pay” for beautifying the street – so we’ll  just link to this article about some ridiculous, debt incurring, HECS type plan in SA and leave the politics for today.
• The last article we saw, was this one – good ‘ol Lismore, some fond memories of visits there. This article is all about The Back Alley Gallery – a new gallery that will turn an ordinary alleyway into a pasteup laneway. Mr Eyres? You’re our hero of the week – good luck with everything.

That’s enough mainstream crap – back to our regular programming …

Another busy week comes to an end, and all of us here are full steam ahead with a bunch of projects and fun shit. Busy busy busy, cool cool cool.

We have a great art session happening this weekend in Perth, with Dibs, ToniTone, Poise, Deej, NVS and Suloh putting some licks of paint up on a dance studio. Makatron and Gore are painting a wall across the road from our studios at the moment, and in a few short weeks we’ll be transforming the inside of the whole Rival Revolution studios complex with the help of a lot of talented people … lots of cool shots and video to come for sure.

So its still full steam ahead on everything … the new site design is still coming along steadily (when I have time to work on it … sorry, spare time? What? When?) but we’ve now fully assembled our core team and are raring to go – maybe its time we did introductions?

Starma – is our new event and general office manager, I’ll be palming all that kind of shit off to him, he’s much better at it than I am.
FacieB – is one of our new writers, and she’ll also be working closely on the first of our side projects that we’ll be announcing pretty soon ..
Leah – another of our writer extraordinaires, she’s already done a bunch of pieces, and we love her laid back style!
Peach – is the creative director of .. yep, another side project we’re setting up that! She’s also a generally amazing office assistant.
Crutch (Lisa) has just come on board this week to work on our NZ section – that’ll all be starting up next week, hopefully!
Mel – will be helping us out occasionally with a bit of writing and photography in amongst her work with her Baby Trees project
Lara – is our new official Melbourne event photographer, so expect a bunch of shots from around here real soon (if anyone interested in coming on board for other cities,  just let us know!)

I mostly wanted to introduce them as a thankyou for all the hard work they’ve put in so far, and all the hard work that’s soon to come. It’s a great team, with an incredible amount of passion and talent (and patience with me), and I’m really stoked to be working with all of them – please make them all feel welcome!

Anyways! Enough of all that bullshit from me – here’s the wrap!

News and Miscellanea …

• Obviously this weeks big thing was all the feedback from the Carbon Festival – we did a full wrap including a bunch of links and the live blog transcripts here. Great event, and, really, keep an eye on it for next year – you’ll want to go.
• Stupidkrap studios have updated their website, and they’re including more news, interviews and such to go along with their online store – really enjoying what they’re doing with it, and looking forward to seeing me to come! We need more of that kind of thing down here – kudos guys!
• We also forgot to mention that Ben Frost from Stupidkrap launched a new website the other week, very cool.
• Everfresh posted up a cool link to a new interview with Melbourne graffiti artist Lush – hilarious.
• Rekas blog had a great link over to Kid Zooms recent interview with Juxtapoz – West Oz’ers doin it good n proper over in the NYC.
• Almost completely out of the ballpark, but I can’t go past posting this recent interview with a personal favourite – Retna. ’m sure he’ll have something to do with Australian art soon … right?
• Now, completely out of the ballpark, but this is the wrap and miscellanea, and its the only place we ever put this stuff! I have to put in a plug for one of our favourite bands, and good friends, Freak Technique who are playing at Red Bennies in Melbourne this Sunday – they’re amazing, go see them. – and as long s I’m mentioning shit outside the box, also go and check out pics of the new Qubic store that just opened up, totally fresh – gunna have to stop by there next time I’m over that way …

Pics And Images From Around The Traps …

• Some nice work up again from TwoOne for one of his upcoming shows!
• Some nice shots from Ironlak of the Back Burners show at LoFi up – I also really loved this Askew piece!
• Randomly saw this Beastman vs Yok painting posted up on flickr – (cant remember where I first saw it!) these two together, damn!
• You should all know who the talented Michael Peck is, so have a look at this great new wall piece that he did up in Sydney.
• .. you’ve also probably seen this, but its hilarious, and if you look at just one of these images look at this one! Ah, cause and effect … haha
• TEZ over at Nice Produce did this awesome character up in Newcastle with the people at the urban art/graff SAW project – mintox.
• Theres some great new photos of the recent Cat Rabbit exhibition in Melbourne up on the No Vacancy website.
• Did we cover these images from MEGAs show at the Fed Square Atrium yet as part of the Carbon wrap? If we did, too bad, here they are on Project 4000 – totally love it.
• We saw a post about this artist, Pencil Rebellion, over at This Life, after he just featured in Desktop Magazine, and wow – robots. Wow.

Also, don’t forget to check out the full listings of all the shows happening this weekend and into the near future on our Calendar! Also, don’t forget to like our page on facebook, we do a lot of out-of-blog updates, news and pics over there!

That’s all from us for this week, have a great weekend all!

So its been a little bit between wraps, Easter, busy, yada yada yada .. but here we go with this weeks one, and what a week ahead …

Before we go on though, We’ve decided to change the format of the wraps a little bit – we wont be doing a run down of all the exhibitions on anymore, mainly due to the fact that everything is now usually in the calendar so its easier to check out (even though we still need to fix up its clunky formatting!) and listing everything may be a little superfluous. This will, however, give us more of a chance to use the wrap to recap the current news and cool stuff that’s happening that doesn’t fit in our usual events and interviews ..

As always, we’re open to suggestions – if you want the events listings still, or have any other ideas, just let us know or drop us a line on our facebook page.

News and Miscellanea …

• Carbon Festival of Style, Design & Culture is on this weekend, and we’re really looking forward to it. Well be representing there and covering the event, with the possibility (technology permitting) that we might be doing some live blogging from the event on Saturday and Sunday. So, keep an eye out here on the website for that if you’re not able to attend the gig yourself – regardless, we’ll be putting out updates and photos over the course of the festival either here or via facebook…
• The other  big event on this weekend, that we’re also going to squeeze in, will be Ladie Killerz #4 – we’re pretty excited about this one as well – looks like a mad fun weekend of femininistically skilled  appreciation and theres going to be a hell of a lot of great art created and on display …
• We only just caught this today, but the amazing girls over at Just Another Agency have been holding an ebay auction of works in order to assist the Japanese tsunami victims – theres some amazing art up there for the bidding, and its for a more than worthy cause – you have til tonight to get in and get some bids down on all that beautiful work!
• Our friend Lauren Biedrzycki (formerly of Gorker Gallery) is in the midst of setting up a pair of very cool galleries, Colour By Numbers, in both Sydney and Melbourne. Shes looking for some supportive help to do so via Pozible. By donating, theres also an amazing chance to own some works by some of the best that Oz has offer. We’re going to have a chat to her about it all soon to get the lowdown, but in the meantime check it out, take a pledge, and help her raise the necessary cashola!
• Following on from their successful show, Artboy vs Fanboy: Videogames, Artboy Gallery are once again putting an open call out for artists who are interested in participating in their next group show, Artboy vs Fanboy: Comics. The show will, obviously revolve around interpretations of comic book characters – so if you’re interested in being a part of it, or have a love of comics, get over to the Artboy website and download an entry form.
• Two great publications have come out in the past two weeks, firstly is the latest issue of Nothing To Nobody, which keeps impressing, and secondly, Clouded Thoughts released issue #10 – both are great magazines, and you should grab copies of both!
• Everfresh teamed up with the Carbon Festival and Superspecial Screen Printing to put out a new shirt, and its definitely one to grab – find it here.
• Melbourne based charity Traditional Healthcare have teamed up with Melbourne Street Art and Surface POP to hold a charity auction in June, and they’re calling out to artists to help donate some works for the event – we’ll have more details on the show itself over the next few weeks ..

Pics And Images From Around The Traps …

• A great collection of pics was posted up on Dean Sunshines blog today from Slicers opening last night at RTIST Gallery – we got down to the show, and we were pretty blown away by it all. We interviewed him yesterday so check it out if you missed it. He also posted up a really cool collection of painted doors that were pretty fascinating.
• Strobed posted up some really great photos from the opening last week of This Little Teapot – we loved the whole theme of the show, and it looks like the execution was second to none.
• We love these pics that Adnate posted of some of his painting in Mumbai, and we also loved a whole bunch of pics that Makatron put up of his recent visit to Brazil, check them out on his website – Oz artists getting up overseas = grand.
• Some amazing shots from LoFi’s Back Burners exhibition are up – damn cool! Want!
• For some damn reason we missed covering both the Brisbane and Syndeys Go Font Yourself book launches (fsk!), we’ll be fixing that for the next two, but in the meantime take a look at the shots from over at Nine Lives.
• Pierre Lloga, who we interviewed a few months ago, has put out his first few pages of his online comic, Cave Roy – check it out!!

Okay, that’s about it for the wrap this week – if you have anything you’d like to see us add to next weeks, drop us a line!

We had some good feedback on our last Press Wrap, so we’re going to keep it running for a little while and see how it goes … so, once again, we’re rounding up the past fortnights media news about street art, graffiti and all that ilk – so read on …

• Theres an interesting new web site that is using crowd sourcing to track “vandalism” here in Australia – Vandaltrak “asks the community to submit photos of graffiti and to pinpoint the location of the incident on a map. It then uses the location data to determine under whose jurisdiction the clean-up falls and forwards the report to the appropriate group.” – check the article here and on the SMH.
• Theres a little article up on the Adelaide Now site on the recent opening of the Indelible exhibition.
• This is just perplexing – the new NSW Attorney-General also wants to suspend a graffiti “vandals” license – does this strike anyone as odd? Some would wonder what exactly graff has to do with driving a car, and others would like to throw the book at them …
• Stonnington Leader had a cool article on stencil artist Ralph Kempken – trams rule.
• A whole bunch of Australian news outlets just picked up on French artists OakOaks challenging work … always great to see mainstream media so fast on the uptake when it comes to these kinds of things!
• It was pretty amazing to see an Australian art critic pick up this years Pulitzer – kudos to Sebastian Smee. Like them, hate them, agree with them, disagree with them, critics are an essential part of art culture, and its great to see that one of the worlds most prestigious awards has reflected this.

Thats about all we’ve seen in the past two weeks – if you spot any media pieces that you’d like us to link to, just contact us and we’ll be happy cover it …

Another action packed week of the creative kind with big shows opening up all over the country. All of us here at Invurt have been busying ourselves and coordinating our team of art addicted crazies. We’ve got so many projects in the works that we might not have time to eat or sleep for a while … Fletch has been off for a well deserved break the past few days and we’ve been filling in for him – but enough about us …

For a comprehensive list of what’s on, check out the calendar of events.  Also, if you haven’t already, go and like our Facebook page and get running updates of all the news and articles via your friendly stream, or, add us to your favourite reader via our RSS feed.

Enjoy your weekends. Stay cool.  Be creative – and as always, thanks for the support …

Melbourne Shows

• As always, a busy week in Melbourne. Opening last night was Steven Ives anticipated TOY, which runs from Tuesday 5th April till 19th at Eckersley’s Open Space Gallery.  Let your minds be warped by Ive’s engaging brand of sculpture. Imagine your favourite toy, and then think technical mutilation. Got it?
• We’ve waited for another show from Miso for ages! She’s finally delivered with the opening of her exhibition at No Vacancy last week. A cross medium virtuoso, Miso tells many a visual story until till the 17th April. Hurry.
• Mark Whalen AKA Kill Pixie still has his show on at The Madman Void till April 17th. My god, you have to see it. This guy makes our brain explode in a good way.
• The Big Show runs from Tuesday 5th April and runs till 19th April at the Eckersley’s Open Space Gallery,
• Rethink Refugees – The crew at Michael Koro Gallery are putting on an exhibition this Wednesday, in conjunction with Amnesty International. Go check out some amazing work for one of the worthiest of causes.
• RTIST Gallery – Friday, April the 1st saw another addition to the reinvigorated and renewed arts and culture vibe in Prahran in the form of RTIST Gallery, with their un-official launch and group exhibition, featuring over twenty of Australias coolest and talented urban artists.Checkout a preview of what’s to come at this fantastic new space.
• Cam Scale – Introducing a fun opening of the new Rancho Notorious gallery at 1000 Pound Bend, they have their first solo show coming up with none other than Cam Scale, who recently wowed the crowds at Melbourne’s Secret Wars.
•  Rachee Renee & Zsandor – Let Go! – VIC
  This exhibition is going to be a sick! Sana Mana Chollo!
  The show will “explore a personal journey into the past, digging out cobwebs of forgotten life tales, and shedding them onto the canvas to make way for the new.” TRUE.
• DOES – Between The Lines – His artwork takes root in graffiti art and the letter form is his primary love. Using letters as a foundation, DOES has, over the years, diversified into paintings, prints, drawings, commercial designs and murals. His exhibitions feature a variety of acrylic, digital, marker and aerosol works. and opens next Thursday

Sydney Shows

• Sensual, beautiful, downright sexy, Kelly Thompson shows us how it’s done with her show Pyjama Party at The National Grid Gallery. Open until the 22nd, this show will literally flirt with your eyeballs.
• This Little Teapot – A celebration of the humble teapot, this concept show is a must for those in the area: “Fifty fist-sized teapots have met their fate at the skilled hands of a select group of established and emerging artists. With the fabulously diverse line-up consisting of painters, print makers, photographers, graphic designers, typographers, digital, textile, and street artists, there’s sure to be eye candy to satisfy any sweet tooth.”
• The Empty Exhibition – A collaborative show celebrating Empty magazine’s 20th issue. A major feat for an iconic publication. Make sure to pencil this one in.

Adelaide Shows

• Indelible – Come and bear witness to ‘Indelible’ -graffiti redefined. Indelible features a handpicked selection of Australia’s most innovative and infamous: APPLES, GIMIKS, MEKS, MONK, MUGER, OKIES, ROGER, VANS and our special guest DOES of the internationally acclaimed LoveLetters Crew.”
• Day & Night – Espionage Gallery – Renowned illustrator and stencil artist Joshua Smith brings you Day and Night, a photography group show at his new born gallery, Espionage.

Queensland Shows

• The Super Heroes -This is a new kind of portrait of society in technicolour, both enchanting and ominous, that bears witness to the wrestle between the present, the past, and the spectre of what is to come. For a growing number of critics and collectors, the street artist’s work delivers a graphic bang that cannot be ignored.”
• Unleashed – The exhibition will challenge perceptions of street art and include a variety of art forms including installation, sculpture, video, textiles and two-dimensional works.” Looks great, so if you’re around Moreton Bay at any stage between now and the 16th of April, get down there.

WA Shows

•  When It Rains It Pours – If you’re in Port Hedland on April 16th and June on FIFO, living, fishing, passing through or just on walkabout and soaking in some Pilbara sun, get in and see it – hell, jump on a plane if necessary – it’d be worth it!

Miscellaneous Bits & Pieces

• Our very own Mel Balkan has produced a documentary for the Babytrees project, helping to fund the building of schools in Cambodia – and they’re having a screening of the short film this weekend at e55 – and we’re happy to support this worthy cause!
• E.L.K. is going strong – in addition to his amazing cover article on the front of this months Australian Art Monthly, he has a print of the cover image for sale over at Stupidkrap – get in and get one before they’re gone!
• A bunch of really cool shots from various shows were posted online, including shots from the RTIST Gallery opening over at Dont Sleep Magazine
• Really cool post up on Sirums blog of what everyone got up at at the Matreya festival – check out the pics.
• Seriously, go China. Saw this article on Metro blog about activist-artist Ai Weiweis “disappearance” – always have a hard time understanding how this stuff happens in the modern day.

That’s it for this weeks guide to what’s on and happening over the weekend and into next week – apologies for the slight hiccups whilst we worked out how to fill Fletchs shoes for a few days, not as easy a task as it seemed! Respect!

This is Press-Mill Wednesdays (we were going to call it WTF Wednesdays but thought this title was maybe a little less abrupt) .

Press Mill Wednesdays is a new fortnightly column where we’ll be summarising all the crap, cool, scary, delightful, misguided, spot on, angry and supportive articles that have run through the more “mainstream” press week in and week out. We thought it would be a cool way to keep you all up to date on what is happening in media-land, and what the current opinions and issues are out there … and, maybe even spotlight a few artists along the way, who have been showcased in the press – if we can do that as much as possible, we’ll be happy…

This is an experimental column, and if we feel it doesn’t work or if anyone has rational issues as to why we shouldn’t link to news articles, we’ll discontinue it. Also, if anyone has issue with any specific links to public domain articles, just let us know and we’ll remove them. We will admit that this column will show a little pro-bias towards graffiti, street and urban art (that said, we don’t condone illegal activities – we just understand that it is a part of the culture, and that it is being combated incorrectly), but we’ll attempt to keep it as neutral as possible, as always, where we can. There is a lot of goodness out there in “mainstreamland”, so don’t let all the negative media get to you – we’ll do our best to weed through it all, and find the good, as well as the bad …

• The big one for the past week, is that new NSW Attorney General feels that the government should “emphasise more the anger that society feels toward the damage done by graffiti.” with his new plan to toughen of NSW graffiti laws, he also thinks that artists should go to jail for it – apparently painting pretty pictures more than once is a “serious offence”, so much so that the artists who do it should be thrown into jail with all the murderers and rapists, because, allegedly, street art and graffiti are gateway crimes. There’s a great blog entry on the ABC showing the other side of the argument as well – have a listen to it.
• Cairns artists are apparently running out of space to get up on the walls – they’ve been working really hard to get the back lanes and uglier spots looking beautiful again, but they really need more spots, and more support from local businesses (ed. having gone to high school and lived in Cairns for many years, I love seeing this shit happening up there). If you know anyone up there that has a business and could use a lick of cool paint, let them know.
• We don’t hear too much news from up in the NT, but this show looked like it was pretty cool – it included an urban street art laser exhibition, and the comment from the curator, Carol Phayer,  was pretty cool – “Street Art seeks to connect the everyday viewing audience with the streetscape and in doing so link the community back to the creative, cultural and natural landscape.”
• Strathmore Secondary College is encouraging their students to brighten up the environment by painting colourful and rad murals – its nice to see councils and educational institutions teaching the up and coming artists of tomorrow that street art can be beautiful.
• Skaters & artists honoured a fallen mate as a part of Mannings Youth Week Celebration, where “youths learnt the finer points of professional graffiti art during a session at Manning Regional Art Gallery, and came up with their own concepts and designs for the mural to adorn the skate park.” – grand.
• Apparently Graffiti is on the rise in Ballarat and the police there are “working hard to tackle the city’s growing graffiti problem” – if you’re in Ballarat, you might want to go and check out Eureka street, because apparently its “just become a big billboard for everyone else to spray tags on there.” – they should just get someone to paint the wall up – maybe someone should give Ballarat City Council a call or something …
• It’s a little older, but we liked this article of a piece that was done down in Tasmania by Hobart artists Trent Fischer and Lukan Smith on the MyState Financial building – cool stuff, dudes!

There’s so much more – but that’s enough for this first round. If you see something in the news and general media thats interesting, and relevant, and want to send us the link to include in this column, then please feel free to contact us and we’ll put it up for you …

Man, another really busy week – cramming, openings, planning and getting things well underway for the year! I wont bore you with what we’re up to, beyond to say to try and keep Thursday April 21st free, as we’ll be having our official launch party (okay, so its a little delayed ha!) that night in Prahran … but we’ll have more details on that next week …

Don’t forget to check out the Calendar out for what is running, and go and like our facebook page for other updates and such during the week. For now, thanks for another fun week, thanks for reading, and enjoy the wrap!

Melbourne Shows

• Tonight you’d better get yourselves down to Prahan for the unofficial RTIST gallery opening and group exhibition – man, this’ll be a fun night!
• Mark “Kill Pixie” Whalen opens up his show White Out in Collingwood tonight – his work is pretty grand.
• We went and had a quick visit to check out Rekas solo Down Low Too Slow at Backwoods last Friday night, and it was everything we’d wanted it to be – amazing work, 3D glasses, brilliant colour work, and a kick ass installation sculpture that just has to be seen! Check them all out on his website.
• Drewfunks show Black Linings is on at No Vacancy, and if you –still- haven’t gone to see it, or haven’t read the feature piece we did on him last week, we don’t know what you’re waiting for – mosquitos, fish and rabbits rule, ok?
• Last night we had the pleasure of getting to the opening Night Shift, Cam Scales new solo show at Rancho Notorious, and were blown away by the mans detailed and hauntingly beautiful work – our favourite? A piece looking up Johnson street, standing where Per Square Metre was located … that and his telephone booth with smashed glass, well, amazing work. We interviewed him yesterday, so go have a read and go see it.
• We also briefly got down to Misos show Les Lumieres at No Vacancys project space last night and loved her folk inspired work, with installation assembled wooden doors and paper cutouts forming a good portion of it, its a great showcase of what she’s been doing lately. Koan from Nice Produce posted up some great shots of the show today, so go there and take a look – and have a look around the rest of the site, its a huge favourite of ours.

Adelaide Shows

• Last night Joshua Smith opened a group photography exhibition, Day & Night, at his gallery, Espionage, so if you’re in the ‘Rad, see it!

Queensland Shows

• Group show extraordinaire, Unleashed, is still on, and, if you’re in the area, you couldn’t hope for a better sampling and display of various Australia street artists – sweet.

Sydney Shows

• Kelly Thompson’s Pyjama Party show is still on, so go and check out her gorgeous portraits!

Other Miscellaneous Bits & Pieces

• E.L.K. has made the cover of Art Monthly Australia – and man, its fkn great. Go like his page, follow his work, and hey, if you love his work as much as we do, he’s trying to raise money via crowdfunding for a new body of work, so show your support with a small donation.
• Theres been a heap more work going up at Fed Square in their studio project space, with SDM hitting it this week as part of the running competition – saw it last night, and its brilliant, go check out the pics and more info about the SDM crew on their website.
• It’s not technically Oz, so we didn’t put this video up in the Transmissions yesterday, but this is a great little reel about the TMD crews trip over to Miamis Art Basel – pretty cool.
• Last month we somehow missed the release of this amazing book, Street Fonts – our copy should be in the mail from amazon soon– we’ll try not to salivate over it when it arrives.
• Ironlak just posted up a whole mess of photos from their BBQ Burner paint up last year – great shots, great artwork.

Aight, thats enough for this week – have a great weekend all, and see you next week for more …

As it should be – the past week has seen so many announcements of new shows, artists getting up, new galleries and a crapload of events happening around Australia … and its great to see. Australia Street Art is some of the best in the world, hands down, and all the derivations of the “genre” that we love to cover is going fkn gangbusters – the more the better, and the better for the artists getting out there,  in our books.

Friday wraps we usually reserve for our miscellaneous bits and pieces and news, so here’s some from us, a rundown on what we’re up to lately, as well as some info on upcoming shows and such ..

Invurt Workshop & Rival Revolution Studios

We posted up a new page this week, with details on our new workshop space within the Rival Revolution complex in Prahran. We had a preview last night in conjunction with a new market night we will be running on a monthly basis with the guys from RR, and had a bunch of people come down to check out what we’re up to. Though we’re still very much under construction, its great to finally have a base of operations, an office and general workspace, and we’re keen to have  creatives involved with us at the space – everyone is free to come and visit, just drop us a line.

We’ve also had some amazing artists come in and paint the space as well, including Heesco, Sim2, Mishap, Katie Houghton-Ward, Enix, Props, Ex-robot & Heidi Philips – all of them putting a riot of colour into an inspirational space. Theres more to come though – and if you’re interested, theres still a few smaller spots left if you want to get something up – its running out quick though, so contact us asap.

Prahran in general, seems to be on the up again and theres some great things happening – after many years of gentrification, archaic and irrational Stonnington near zero urban art tolerance, The Great Millennial Ed Hardy Invasion, and the burgeoning underground arts culture towards the Northside of Melbourne, its pretty exciting to see all the new stuff seeping back into the Prahran/Southside area. With RTIST,Signed & Numbered, T-Squat, Obese, Surface POP, Artboy, Rival Revolution,our new workshop, oh, and Blue Bar (ha!) and a heap of other stuff now in the area, all within ultra short walking distance of each other, well, damn – its starting to look like Prahran is fast becoming a great new “old” place to check out all this stuff … or so we think, anyways haha.

We’ll be running a monthly market event in the space with RR,  called Nothing .. and if anyone is interested in selling wares, art, or whatever, just let us know. Next months market night, Thursday April 24th, will be the official “Invurt” launch, so to speak – its bout time we had one, and you’re all invited, we’ll be having a bit of live art, DJs, lots of cool stuff to buy …and we’ll put out more details on that soon. We’ll also be running a bunch of other events in the future, from live art to screenings, the markets of course and a bunch of other events planned – its a great space, so if you’re interested in working on something with us there, let us know.

We also put up a new submissions and participations page, and we’d love it if anyone wanted to send stuff through stuff for consideration for publishing, guest blogging, or whatever – we’d like to open our doors to include the community around Australia, so feel free to send us stuff! 

Lastly, we finally, after much testing and frustration with freakin wordpress 3.1, have an event calendar up and running! Now you’ve got an easier way of seeing whats on, where, and when, without having to always scroll through the posts to find the info – we hope you find it handy!

To get more regular updates on what we are up to (we try to keep it to the Friday wraps here on the blog) just go like our Facebook Page – we often do updates there during the week.

So, that’s whats been happening in our neck of the woods – it’s been a really busy last two months or getting it all set up, but we’re all pretty damn excited about it – but for now, yeah, yeah, I’ll shut the fsk up and get on with the wrap …

Melbourne Shows

• Surface POP has a group show opening tonight, and theres some great work in it, so head to St Kilda and checkit.
• Reka has his show opening tonight at Backwoods! Can’t wait to see it, the teaser bits and pieces really were pretty teasing and we love his shit.
• Heesco still has his amazing show, Mongo Hustle, portraying Mongolian street artists, on at At Large gallery in Northcote – it was a really great opening, and the work is exquisite. Cool shit.
• Rancho Notorius has Up The Bend running , there grand opening group show -  if you’re in the city, go see.
• Drewfunk, who we talked to earlier in the week  ma-n, we went and saw the preview of it Wednesday, and the opening was reportedly amazing, but all that all nothing compared to the work in the show – some gorgeous ink work, so head to No Vacancy and see it.
• Sean Whelan still has his show on until Sunday at the No Vacancy project space as well
• Enix has work up for showing at Lounge in the city as well – his work is fkn great!
• Finders Keepers Markets is on this weekend!! It looks great! Sunday is the day we’ll be heading down to check it out, but its on all weekend …

Sydney Shows

• Kelly Thompson opened up her show last week, Pyjama Party – such gorgeous illustrative work of some hot as girls to boot.
• Tom Ferson opened up his first solo show this week, so head to Oh Really and see what its all about.

Queensland Shows

• Theres a great group show on in Redcliffe at the moment, with Unleashed: The Rise of Australian Street Art, a cool collection of work.

Miscellaneous bits & pieces ..

• You may have already seen it, but check out all the broo-ha going on over in NZ about the wall that Askew did that was recently buffed, and all the idiocy surrounding it. Go sign the petition as well.
• If you haven’t taken a look at Land of Sunshine yet, do so – Dean has some great coverage of art around Melbourne. With his site, Melbourne Street Art, Dont Sleep, Kompound and others, we always get our correct dosage.
• We can’t forget as well, Miss Blimey Pirate has put out a new comic drawn up by the talented hands of Pierre Lloga – get yourself a copy, and a copy of Nothing To Nobody while you’re at it!

Thats it for the event wrap, go check out the calendar if you want more details on everything running at the moment. It’s been a big wrap this week, but thanks again for reading, and see you Monday!

Oh yeah, a Friday Wrap! We know we say this every now and again, but apologies for the lack of a weekly wraps lately – things have been a little crazy in the last two or three weeks. Between work trips, setting up our new workshop & studio space in Prahran, working on a new music project, putting together artwork pieces for shows, and still fitting in socialising so we don’t go insane – well, we (well, I) are(am) a bit behind on a couple of things – but we’re still running along and playing catch-up as best we can!

We have a few things lined up already for the next few months as well – we’ll be launching our new workshop space soon, we’re going to enter into some guest blog territory, we’ll also be hopefully doing some live art stuff, as well as starting a writers event once a month or so … so, shit. All systems go.

All that said, there is some awesome stuff happening at the moment, and some really cool shit coming up – so read on for our weekly roundup …

Sydney Shows

• E.L.K. opened up his solo show last Thursday at Oh Really Gallery, to an amazing response, love and much kudos. Personally, we’re amazed by his work, having seen a lot of it when we visited him in Canberra the other week.  He has a piece in next weeks Rancho Notorious opening, as well as another solo show down in Melbourne in May – so keep an eye out, as he’s definitely doing great things, as always.
• DOES has also opened up his solo show at Lo-Fi Collective this week – this Dutch artist really has something special, and his letterforms work is fkn beautiful. Speaking of which, he’ll be doing some live painting tonight and tomorrow night – check out the Ironlak facebook page and Lo-Fi for more details.
• The stunningly talented Jodee Knowles has her show opening up next week as well, we just interviewed her here, so check it out!

Melbourne Shows

• Artboy gallery has their group show Artboy vs Fanboy: Videogames on tonight, and it’ll run over the weekend. Yours truely has a couple of pieces in this show, alongside some really fantastic artists – so if you want to check out some great video game inspired art, come down to Prahran and swig some beer with us.
• We love Heesco, and if you’re not on this Mongolian artists bandwagon already, you will be shortly – we interviewed him a month or two ago, if you missed it. Check out his show Mongo Hustle next week at At Large Gallery, because its going to be massively cool.
• The highly anticipated opening show of the new Rancho Notorious gallery is on next Saturday the 19th – Up The Bend will have a crapload of great artists showing work, and is a great addition to the 1000 Pound Bend venue – so looking forward to all the shows at this new gallery!
• Phoenix opened up his show In Here Out There last night at Surface POP – great crowd, and so much amazing art to be seen – hats off to Phoenix for a remarkable job at putting it all together, and for all the work he’s been doing around the streets in the past few years. Well done also to the Surface POP crew – Theres already cool pics at Dean Sunshines blog (a favourite of ours) so go check those out, then go see it in St Kilda!
• Sean Whelan opens his show, Visitor, at Backwoods gallery next week as well – if you haven’t made it to Backwoods yet, now’s a perfect opportunity to get there.
• The Penthouse Mouse events are on over the next few days – check it out for lots of up and coming designers, fashion and art.
• Just saw this event at the Michael Koro Gallery, a bit late, but it looks like a great first show for them – Phil Edwards and Tess McKenzie will have a bunch of work on display. Find details here, it opens tonight!
• Likewise, another show we missed posting (argh) opened at Paradise Hills last week – Seductive & Subversive, and it really does look fantastic, based as it is on “themes around fashion, beauty and the body.” Go to the Paradise Hills site for more details.

Adelaide Shows

• Ghostpatrol has his solo show, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants opening next Thursday – we’re big supporters of his work, we loved chatting to him last year, and he has a whole slew of shows coming up across Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. Stay up to date with him and his shows on his website
• Sam Evans opened up his show last night at Gallery on Waymouth, and it looked funky as – if you’re in Adelaide theres no excuse not to check it out!

Other random bits & Pieces …

• Check out all this weeks videos on our Thursday Transmissions – lots of cool stuff there.
• We usually only ever encounter the Herald Sun when we run out of toilet paper and steal it from the neighbours yard to stave off  bathroom tragedies, but couldn’t help spotting this article that’s been doing the rounds in regards to Lush – there is nothing but wrong in this article. Once again, the HS shows itself a bastion of truth, honestly and virtue – yeah. Right. Tards.
• Lost of pics and info posted from the massively successful Project 5 event, it pulled in a bucket-load of money for charity, and lots of great exposure for the artists, charity, and the art itself – the guys at aMBUSH and associates did an amazing job with the whole thing. Check out the Flickr page for all the images from the auction.
• Looks like last nights Secret Wars was an amazing success, again, and the hard fought last semi-final was taken narrowly by Ken Taylor over Drewfunk. Ken Taylor goes in to battle Scale in the finale – and its going to be a big one, keep up to date with Secret Wars at their website.
• Issue 6 of T-Squat is out, featuring a bunch of artists including local OZ artists Adnate & Nathan Trapnell
• Theres a cool reading list on Melbourne Street Art over at Melbourne Art & Culture Critic
• This is from last week, but our friends at Just Another Agency had their cool abode featured on The Design Files as well.

Okay, we’re totally outta gas, again, if we’ve missed anything, just hit the Contact Us up the top right there. So much going on, only so many hours in the day – but we give major thanks to every artist and creative on this wrap, for giving it their all and for sharing their talents with the world – totally fkn mintox – keep on keepin on.

Floods, cyclones, rain – its all just another week of mayhem across Oz, and if I wasn’t such a cynic I’d be shouting global warming doom from the rooftops (okay, so 2012 is obviously the end of the world via zombie apocalypse, but I’ll hold out on my scepticism til then).

The other week saw us put up our new logo, and this week saw a whole bunch of galleries getting back into the swing of thing, and a whole heap of announcements – it finally feels like 2011 has totally ramped up, and we’re all excited.

So here’s the run down for what’s on, and what’s coming up in the next week …

Melbourne

• Toy To The World finishes up tomorrow! Get down there for some last minute bidding on some of the awesome toys that were in the show, and help raise some money for the Victorian AIDS Council
• Ed “UnwellBunny” Bechervaise opens up his solo show “Fast Forward” tonight, we’ll be heading there – so should you.
• No Vacancy opened up its first show of the year last night, with the Oz launch of Feiyue – couldn’t make it down to this so no pics, but I heard really good things – have to check it out over the weekend.
• C3 at the Abbotsford Convent opened some new shows this week, with Darren Henderson being one of the artists displaying works.
• The next round of Melbournes Secret Wars is on next Wednesday – this one looks like it’ll be a doozy of a battle, so get your asses down there. The first round of the Sydney comp started last night, and it looks like Kon narrowly won over Alex Lehours – would love to get up to Sydney at some stage to see these ones.

Sydney

• LoFi are back next week with a new show, this time featuring the Well Dressed Vandals and friends.

Adelaide

• Numskull opened up his solo show, Strange as Fiction last week, and its still running at Weymouth Gallery
• Espionage Gallery opened up its doors last week, and we’re assuming that its open show is still going – really keen to hear more about this gallery and what its doing over the next year, so we’ll keep you updated …

Miscellaneous bits and pieces …

• Don’t forget the High Water art auction that Nine Lives and a bunch of others have put together to raise funds for the victims of the recent QLD floods, go check it out.
• Very cool interview with Kid Zoom, the man of the moment (deservedly so), over at fecalface.
• Last Australia day some of the EF crew did some work at the Lost In Bass party, heres some cool shots over at Rekas site – Makatron has put up some pics of some of some work at Rainbow Serpent (Which I am just recovering from hearing all about every day for the last week).
• Those cool exports, Dabs Myla, have a new look website up and running – go check it and their blog to keep up to date on all their US shenanigans
• Cool video we saw over at Dont Sleep of the Ironlak team in the US doing the 2010 Primary Flight show
• We’re loving this automated spray rainbow. Sick.
• Take a look at this cool jewellery thats been produced in conjunction with a few well known Oz street artists, Vans, Shem, Meks and Teazer – wow, very very nice.
• Have we ever mentioned how much we love the Streets Of Melbourne blog? Regularly updated, great cross section of work – go read.

As usually, I’ve probably missed stuff, so apologies for that – enjoy your weekends (after you read todays upcoming interview with Pierre Lloga, that is! haha) ….

Well, its been a really, really busy last two weeks for me, and today is my last day before I take a couple of weeks off work and head over to see family and friends in Perth. We’ll be taking a little bit of a hiatus during this time, or at least I will be – that said, its hard for me to keep away from this blog, so there may still be events and photos posted … and, of course, if I see anything cool going on while I’m in Perth, I’ll more than likely do some kind of update about it …

So, just a few things before I go …

Logo Competition – if you haven’t seen the details for our logo competion yet, go have a look – I extended out the finishing date to the 30th as a couple of extra people asked for a bit more time – and theres also a couple of pretty awesome entries. So you have until the end of the year if you’d like to send us through something.

A Few Things Happening

• These Days Gallery in Perth have opened their fantastic online store – over 50 prints from a bunch of original and diverse artists, it looks like another grand online addition for purveyors of art – great to see it up and running!
• The second issue of Nothing To Nobody was released last week – and it looks like an awesome issue, packed full of goodness – go buy your copy here for only $2!
• Kompound has some great shots of last weeks Lush exhibition opening at Backwoods Gallery
• So you’ve probably all already seen pics from Kid Zooms show in New York, but heres some good ones too.
• Some amazing shots from Nine Lives Gallery of their end of year Standard Service show
• If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the official Tiger Translate video from the Melbourne event last month
• The first concept art for the new Battlestar Galactica series, Blood and Chrome was posted up this week and .. hang on, wait. errr, sorry, got a little excited there =P haha

Well, thats about that – we’ll be back in full force in the new year, pretty excited as I have some great plans for the site, and, well, life in general – 2010 was pretty good, but I reckon 2011 is going to kick ass

Have a great xmas, a cool new year, and thanks again for all of your support throughout our first year!!