INVURT

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!!

As a P-towner, I’ll probably never get used to the schizophrenic Melbourne weather, and its been a rainy week this week here in Melbourne – amongst it though, there have been some cool things going on, and theres even more cool stuff coming up here and elsewhere in Oz – read on for more info and for our Friday wrap of all things good and creative …

Melbourne

• Go Font Yourself #6, the last in the series, opened in Melbourne on Thursday at No Vacancy. Great photos of the opening here.
• Theres two Secret Wars events this week – one in St Kilda in conjunction with Grill’d on Sunday, and the regular (not that theres anything regular about these shows!) battle on Wednesday.
• Karlosh has his show opening up at Black Cat in Fitzroy this coming Tuesday.

Sydney

• Creature Feature opens up tonight, and it looks to be a great group show containing a whole bunch of monstrous goodness.
• Westsyde Connections massive live and art sale is on this weekend – get down there, and also go support them in their fight against the Salvos.
• Dont Push Mong, a skate inspired group show, opens up tonight.
• aMBUSH Gallery opened up Ignore Mainstream last night, and we heard it was pretty damn cool – only open until Sunday so get in there.
• What looks like an amazing show, Microcosms also opened up this week at Lo0Fi – this ones only on until Sunday as well.

Brisbane

• Paper Tales is on at Nine Lives gallery  – it’ll be on until the end of December.

Other bits n pieces ..

• Damn, almost missed this, but IRENE are having an DIY art sale this Sunday – looks like fun!
• Cool video posted via Everfresh featuring Phibs is an excerpt from the upcoming Bomb It 2 – looks like they’ll be covering TwoOne as well 
• There are some cool sneak peak images of the upcoming Nothing To Nobody #2 here
• Last Chance studios have some studio space available in their Williams St demesne- check out their facebook page if you’re interested.
• Some more great photos from the Kami & Sasu exhibition here at Nice Produce – theres also a cool screen print from them available.
• Lots of great pics from Anthony Listers opening at Chalk Horse gallery on the Opening Hours
• A bunch of JAA girls have works in Miami Basel this year at the Feminality Art Show – check out the preview here.
• Umm, wtf at this Swedish remake of Style Wars? lulz.
• This Life have a cool interview with Numskull, who just wrapped up his recent show in Sydney
• New Curvy & Muscle Up are being released – you should get a copy.
• - Tiger Translate was pretty cool – Kompound has some great pics from it up on their site.

Thats all for this week, I think, contact us if you have anything you want us to post up and such – and enjoy your weekend!

Once again its been a busy week in the lead up to the xmas season – some last shows all over for different galleries, and a whole bunch of different events going on.

This week we did a mini review of three shows, the A3 Small Art Show, that opened last week to a packed out For Walls Gallery (go check out the facebook page for a catalogue of all the work, and the pieces that haven’t sold yet – its for charity!), Cardbordia and Toy To The World. We also did a great interview with the talented Max Berry, and we also managed to grab some great words with Urban Cake Lady.

Anyways, here’s a rundown of all the cool stuff you can go see over the weekend …

Melbourne

• Tiger Translate on on Sunday. We posted about this earlier in the week, and since then we’ve been able to get a really good overview of whats going on. A whole bunch of artists, great music, a competition worth checking out – if its not too late, and they have any spots left, sign up to their facebook page and keep an eye out for any entry places left – can safely say that it wont disappoint.
• Some friends and I opened up Cardbordia week, great crowd at the opening – but beyond that, it was just a fun show to put together and, imho, worth a look to just check out the crazy we created!
• Kami & Sasu’s Omni is still on at Backwoods gallery – this also opened last Friday – really looks amazing – its a must see show.
• about:blank also opened last Friday at Paradise Hills – a show with a difference, low brow meets high tech – they’re going all out to bring us different and interesting shows.
• As I mentioned earlier, the A3 Small Art Show is still on at For Walls Gallery – go, go, go.
• Short, Sharp & Sweet opened up on Thursday night– a melding of graff, pop and comic imagery, this one looks great.
• Scottie “Bonsai” Neohs show Birds On Oak is still on at the No Vacancy project space at Fed Square til early December

Sydney

• Anthony Lister opened his show, Memories Not Included, this week. We briefly talked to Lister about it last week and did a small feature on the show. The Opening Hours also has some great shots from the opening.
• Jumbo and Zap open their show, Planetarium, tonight! IT looks grand also.
• aMBUSH Gallery opens the IM/Ignore Mainstream group show next Thursday.
• Nice Piece of Art, with PT & Jessi Cat, opens at China Heights last tonight – girls girls girls galore.

Brisbane

• The group show, Paper Tales, opened at Nine Lives Gallery this week.
• Spare Parts, at the Brisbane Powerhouse, is still on until the 5th of December.

Canberra

• The good folks from Metro Gallery have taken a show, Exterior Motives, up to the ACT to coincide with the NGA’s Space Invaders show – check it out.

Perth

• If you’re there, you already know about it – there is a whole bunch of street art related stuff going on at the Beaufort St Festival this weekend – we didn’t get a chance to cover it, we were way too busy this week, but you can check out some of the cool stuff going at the festival over at our friends ArtistsWA

Other bits and pieces

• Curvy and Muscle up have been having their release shows! Grab a copy of it as soon as you can.
• Loved this new piece from Makatron – crazy cat cool.
• Cool Kami & Sasu print available at Nice Produce – also check out some pics of their opening night.
• Reka has a feature in the latest Hi Fructose magazine – great to see a local artist getting himself featured in one of our favourite mags! Go get a copy.

That’s pretty much all we have time to get to today .. again, if we’ve missed anything, just let us know.

Ez.

Afternoon all – hope and trust that you’ve all had a great week, and that you’re all prepared for a great weekend to come! Just a bit of housekeeping news first up – we’re really happy this week to have taken on a great addition to the crew in the form of Leah Burgess – she’s here learning the ropes and has already completed a fantastic interview with Jumbo (of Jumbo and Zap fame, of course), and its  great! Personally, I couldn’t be happier, I was starting to get just a little overwhelmed with all the stuff that’s going on these days – and her positive take and enthusiasm for all this shit is sure to be great thing for Invurt.

Anyways – now we get to the busy weekend that’s ahead .. oh man …

Melbourne

• Our show Cardbordia, opens tonight at At Large Gallery in Northcote – its turned into quite a cool little installation, and the end product is looking pretty crazy cool – come join us for some beers in amongst all the other things going on tonight
• Kami & Sasu have their opening tonight! I saw pics from their Melbourne Central mural, and an awesome preview of their work at Nice Produce, and it looks fantastic – I’ll get in there tomorrow, cant wait, then I’ll head over to Paradise Hills …
• Which also has a show opening tonight! about:blank looks like something a bit different, and  oh so cool. Art meet technology – my favourite thing.
• Scottie Neoh, aka Bonsai, has a show at the No Vacancy Fed Square space also tonight! Four great shows in one night .. crazy. I just noticed I had the event info incorrect for this one, its at the Fed Square space, not at the Jane Bell gallery … sorry!
• Jack Douglas’s new show also opened this week – its on for a bit, so go see it at Blue Tile Lounge
• The A3 Small Art show opened on Wednesday at For Walls upstairs from Miss Libs, and it was a huge success, over 200 people through the door and a third of the pieces sold – a great fundraiser for Room To Read – its on for a little while, so go check it out.
• Also! Tomorrow is Toy To The World – and it should be a lot of fun, so come down to Section 8 during the day and check it out and see a bunch of artists painting up plethora of toys.

Sydney

• Next Thursday, Anthony Lister has his latest solo show at Chalk Horse – we just did a small feature on him and the show, and damn it looks like it’ll be great.
• Alexandra Lekias opened her show last night at Friends Of Leon gallery – it looked really great from all the preview images.

Brisbane

• Paper Tales, curated by Bec Winnel and Courtney Brims opens at Nine Lives Gallery next week, Thursday the 25th

Perth

• I only just really saw it today, alas, but These Days gallery has a show with the Windows on Williams crew featuring artist Jessica Singh – more details are here, but damn such a great illustrator. Go take a look at the show, as well as the other cool things happening on Williams St.

Also, keep an eye out for all the Curvy & Muscle Up launch parties happening around the place!

Bits and pieces from around the traps …

• Loved this small feature on ABCs art nation about Paradise Hills and their recent Connect Four show – have a look!
• i’m a self confessed fan of TwoOnes work, and I love the stuff he’s been doing for Wabi Sabi in Collingwood the past week or sose, check out the pics on his blog
• This ones a recap from last week, because I want to make sure that everyone is aware of it “The Salvation Army, of all people, an organisation that in the past has actually run support programs for graffiti artists, is now taking Sydneys Westsyde Connection gallery and studios to the High Court in order to have them remove a mural that was done by street artists from the backyard of their gallery. They have a petition up, so you should go and sign it and show your support.”

Alas, that’s all I can get to today – sorry if I’ve missed anything – have to bail out and go do finishing touches to our show tonight. Have a great weekend and enjoy all the cool art on show this week, wherever its at!

Ez.

Its been a busy week in terms of exhibition announcements and various bits of news – looks like everyone is doing end of year shows, and its awesome to see so much happening in the lead up to the x(pissup)mass season – the more the better, as far as we’re concerned. So, heres just a general wrap of whats coming up in the next week, and a few cool things we’ve seen around the blogsphere …

Exhibitions

• Melbourne - Dirtfish has a show opening tonight at Artboy Gallery. We had a cool interview with him here.
• Melbourne - The A3 Small Art Show opens up on Wednesday 17th at For Walls gallery – there are so many great works in this show, its unbelievable! Its all for charity as well, so check it out.
• Sydney - Go Font Ur Self has started its run of shows with its Sydney exhibition as of yesterday – it’ll be in your town soon!
• Sydney – Perth artist, talented illustrator and crazy-detailer Alexandra Lekias has a solo show opening at Friends Of Leon next Thursday, the 18th.
• Brisbane - Spare Parts opens up tonight at the Brisbane Powerhouse, this show looks fantastic, lots of customised prosthetic limbs on show from some amazing artists!
• Brisbane – the amazing Vexta, who we talked to a few months ago, has another solo show opening tonight, the 12th, in New Farm – she’s rad, so check it out.
• Perth – Great little group show opening tonight in the form of All Of This Will Be Yours Some Day – go check it out.
• Perth – Dont forget that the Chopping Block is on this weekend, as a part of the Norfolk Lanes festival down in freo – lots of street and urban art goodness both on display and being produced!

Various bits and pieces

• Kami & Sasu have been working on a wall at Melbourne Central this week in the leadup to their exhibition, which should be finished tomorrow according to the guys at Nice Produce
• I’m sure you’ve all heard of it already now, but details were released in the past week or so about the Underbelly Project in NYC – a 100 plus artist project carried out in an old abandoned subway station – incredible news and pics coming out from it. There are also some great writeups about it on Images To Live By and Vandalog. Cant wait to see the doco for this one.
• I’m a little unsure of the details on it, but it looks like the Salvation Army, of all people, an organisation that in the past has actually run support programs for graffiti artists, is now taking Sydneys Westsyde Connection gallery and studios to the High Court in order to have them remove a mural that was done by street artists from the backyard of their gallery. They have a petition up, so you should go and sign it and show your support. All I can say to that is for shame, Salvos, for shame.
• Totally loving this new Bliss n Eso video for their single Addicted – fkn wicked display of animated graff from two of the best, Askew One and Deus – and theres a behind the scenes clip here.
• This Life posted up a cool interview with Nate Gamble, about art, tattooing and graff – big fan of Nates work, and the This Life blog, so go read it.
• I haven’t done a wrap for a little bit, so I didn’t mention this when it was released two weeks ago, but if you’re reading this blog then you have to go and read issue #23 of weAREtheIMAGEmakers – if you love this kinda art then its a must – it’s been a source of inspiration for me for some years now.
• Bridge Stehli rocks, and so does her body-paint Graff on Graffers series – check out part #7 here.
• Theres also some cool pics from last weeks Petro solo show opening at Backwoods up on their site
• Theres also a whole bunch of wicked pics from the opening of the seminal Space Invaders exhibition at the National Gallery in Canberra the other week, over at the Everfresh blog.

Thats it for this week, I think! – hope everyone has a great weekend!

Ez.

Melbourne

• Ghostpatrol had his solo exhibition Warps Points and Seed Vault save points open last night. Melbourne Art & Culture Critic has a short review of the exhibition here – I checked it out when it seemed to be at its most busy, some wonderful work in there – looking forward to seeing it when its a little quieter. We did a really cool interview with the man himself here.
• Nicole Tattersalls solo exhibition, “Patchworked” opens tonight – I saw a couple of her pieces when I was picking up some of the work left over from my show last night, and it looks great! Also check out the interview we did with her.
• Paradise Hills opens their door for the first time tonight, with their group exhibition “The Grass Is Always Greener”  opening up tonight in Richmond
• A new print gallery, Signed & Numbered opened up in Prahran this week, featuring work from a whole slew of our favorite artists. I’ll be checking it out over the weekend to see what its all about – but in the meantime Design Federation did a cool little piece on it the other day – they also sell their prints online.
• Of course last, but certainly not least – Semi Permanent started today! (If only I could have got the day off this 9-5er, alas) – and in grand style, we have the Just Another Group show – the official SP Melbourne exhibition opening tonight. Yesterday we did a great interview with Toby and Melika from Just Another Agency, the brains behind the show, so have a read, and get on down tonight for a great show – seeya there!

Other news and cool shiz

• Everfresh have some great pics up from their Sydney book launch – looks like a fun night was had by all.
• Some cool pics up also of Twoone and Thomas Jacksons Sydney show, the Absence of Man
• The Melbourne Sweet Streets festival is looking for volunteers to help them out over the duration of the festival – check out the info here. One of the items on the program for the festival is a Stencil Class for Secondary teachers – a great avenue for anyone wanting to help educate students about the greatness that is stencil art.
• This Life put up a great interview with Eleven & Co, loving the calligraphic styles of his work.
• We Make Stuff Good keep bringing out the Semi Permanent info goods with an interview with Leif Podhajsky  – this was the first exposure I’ve had to his work, and it was a great introduction – someone I’ll now be keeping an eye on.
• Its been on a bunch of blogs, but I saw it first at The Opening Hours – Brisbane City Council in all its glory decided to completely buff an amazing legal wall done by Anthony Lister – well done BCC, I’m loving the whole retro Sir Joh era policies! Yay to supporting culture and the arts! :|
• Okay, so I love rockets – and so does Lauren Orchowski, she went around the US taking photos of all those old 50s and 60s rocket ship playgrounds and produced a book of photographs, called “Rocket Science” from all her shots – some fine urban decay of these cool rusting ships.

Thats about it, fairly quiet this week in the rest of Oz, but if I’ve missed anything please let me know – and, as always, if you have any news or events you want us to cover, please just send us a message.

Ez.

Its been a busy week all round, with my exhibition opening as well as a large number of show announcements and events – I thought I’d try to get a bit more regular with the weekly wraps & roundups, as well as link to a few cool things I’ve seen during the week…

So heres all the stuff thats ‘a happenin … and frak, theres a lot going on at the moment!

Melbourne

• Tonights opening is in the form of Exhibit A, a great collection of street artists plying their crafted works at Collingwoods The Projects art space. I’ll be heading to this one after work for sure.
• Ghostpatrol has another solo show coming up next week, Warp Points & Seed Vault Save Points,  at No Vacancy next Thursday – I’ve seen some of the previews, and the work is second to none – this is a show you cant miss – and we just posted up this interview with the man himself, so check it out.
• Jae Copps solo show My Illusions Architect is still running at Gorker Gallery until the 19th September – I had a chance to wander through there the other day and loved it. We did a really great interview with him as well.
• Semi-Permanent Melbourne is on next week, and if you haven’t got your tickets already best get in there and purchase them. They have an opening show next Wednesday that is free for all, at the GPO in the Bourke Street Mall, starting around 6pm.
• A new gallery in Prahran opens up next Thursday in the form of Signed & Numbered – so glad we are getting more stuff on the southside, and it has a fine range of artists on display.
• My first solo show, Inhabited Times, had an awesome opening, and its still running until September 16th. This Sunday, September 12th, I’ll be at the At Large Gallery from 12pm til 6pm, doing some drawing, giving away a few sketches maybe, and chatting to whoever comes in. Come drop by and check it out, and if you have any questions about the blog or anything else, feel free to come spin some shit with me.

I’ll get to next Fridays openings next Friday, coz I’m pretty sure thats enough for anyones brain right now …

Sydney

• Everfresh have their Sydney Black Book Launch tonight at Ambush Gallery– if its anything like how the launch here looked last Friday, its going to be a very cool show. I got my copy of the book this week, and damn it is one fine publication, full to the hilt with some amazing work and a great run down on the crew and what they’ve been up to the past few years. If you’re in Sydney, get to the show or go buy the book.
• Twoone and Thomas Jackson open their new show, The Absence of Man at China Heights gallery, a show looking at the power of nature in, obviously, the absence of man.
• Ears opens his Warpaint exhibition tomorrow night at the cool new Lo-fi Collective gallery in Darlinghurst – so it looks like a fun weekend of art in Sydney
• Alas as last week was a such busy one, I missed putting up a notice about the Collected Thoughts Exhibition in Paddington – it runs until the 22nd of September, and has some wonderful artists in it, so check it out.

Brisbane

• Shida & Georg Whelan have their duo show opening tonight, Nec Spe Nec Metu at Nine Lives Gallery – looks dandy as hell – great to see all this stuff happening in brisvegas!

Other news and cool shiz

Heres some cool stuff I’ve seen this week in my meanderings across the web …

• The guys and girls at We Make Stuff Good put up some really cool interviews with Wooden Toys Timba Smits and Beastman, who will both be at Semi Permanent next weekend. Loved them!
• At Large Gallery just got in a good supply of new Ironlak, so, you know, if you need some paint and are in Northcote, you can grab that while you’re checking out the shows they’re putting on ..
• The Opening Hours has some cool pics up of the opening for Dont Go Into The Attic at Lofi gallery
• This Life has some great pics from the Everfresh Black Book opening last Friday night
• I also loved this teaser video that Callum Preston did for the EF Black book.
• Myers in Melbourne has an awesome installation piece from Merda up as part of the Basement project– I’ve been following its construction & progress over the past few months, and damn it looks grand all finished – a total labour of love. This video of the project by Duro Cubrilo is also very cool.
• Cant really go past my favorite international vid this week from Brazils Os Gemeos. Loved it to bits.

….*breath* .. see, told you – so frakin much going on lately … forgive me if I’ve missed anything!

So take it easy, and have a good weekend yo.

Morning all – firstly theres been a bit of a lack of updates in the last week or two, its been a really busy time for me, and theres a lot on that I’ll get around to after tonight is over, so firstly many apolgioes for that.

So I’ve been working my ass off the past few months to get my first solo show up and running – everything is now hung and its looking great – so if you’d like to come check it out, pop down!  Lots of illustrations, prints, drawings and other mixed media works, some dresses as well as custom toys – I wanted to do a whole range of stuff for my first solo, and its all really come together, and I’ve had some mad help along the way too.

I wont give too much away, but heres a couple of photos from setting up and the At Large gallery, the finished hanging looks awesome and I’m really, really happy with it!

Also opening last night was Jae Copps exhibition My Illusion Architect at Gorker Gallery, hoping to get down there tomorrow to check it out, it looks amazing!

And, to cap off a big weekend, as you all probably know (unless you live under a rock), Everfresh are also launching their Black Book at 1000 pound bend tonight! (I can never figure out how to get that pound sign!)

All in all, a huge weekend ahead, and I hope you all have a good one – back to regular scheduling next week, hope to see you all either at my show or afterwards at the launch … ez.

Well, its been a pretty rough last two or three weeks here  - fighting off a massive flu, followed by a super-resistant infection of plague proportions, coupled with some dodgy bastard breaking in to the office at a friends bar and stealing my laptop (privacy be damned, they have him on CCTV, give me a photo of the fucker!) with a hell of a lot of stuff that hadn’t (stupid, stupid I should know so much better) been backed up … so, forgive me for having been a bit light on updates and such here, but hopefully after this weekend things will be  back on track again …

Coming up tonight, don’t forget that Meggs has his solo exhibition at the new Backwoods gallery, which, incidental, is also the opening show for itself – looks funky.

New week, Wooden Foundations will be opening, and the show is shaping up to look amazing – I was hoping to get up a great feature last week with Twoone to couple with this show, but, alas, thats correct – its being re-written (did I mention how much I hate thieves?) – at least I still have all the notes and photos! Don’t forget to check out the Wooden Foundations blog (which has some pretty amazing stuff on it) to keep up on what they’re doing in the next week.

At Large Gallery is currently also running the Northern Exposure Group Exhibition – I managed to drag my pestilent carcass out to that last Friday for a little while, and the quality of the work there is second to none – a wide range of styles and a high degree of talent on show. Theres some awesome photos of the show and the opening up as well – this is running until next weekend.

We also saw that Reka has a new exhibition in the works, no details yet, but make sure you keep up both here and on his blog for more details coming on that.

Don’t forget also to pick up a copy of Street|Studio, I had plenty of time whilst on the couch the past two weeks to read it cover to cover, and I have to say that not only was it informative, but all kinds of inspirational. They’re actually launching it in London (And Brissy, Adelaide and Sydney), over the next month), and I know theres a few of you that read this blog from those spots, so go and check it out if you’re keen.

Thats pretty much whats going on at the moment, but stay tuned for more events, interviews and general other shit – and hopefully the plague has now passed and I can get on with giving you regular news and shit on whats going on.

Ez.

Big month all around. Not so long after Per Square closed its doors, there’s another gallery springing up in Collingwood. A collaboration between Ghostpatrol, Meggs, Alex Mitchell, Rone and the girls from Diamond Dozen, Izzy Callagorie & Edwina Hanneyse, Backwoods looks set to give us a bunch of great exhibitions in the future, with a bunch of great artists on show.

“So Meggs, Alex Mitchell, Rone & myself have been trying to get this Gallery off the ground for the last 6 months but have been pushing it back just so it was done right. It has all come together with the help of Izzy Callagorie & Edwina Hanneysee from Diamond Dozen

The Gallery will be focusing on solo shows of international & local artists who border on the fringe of street & fine art. The opening exhibition: Meggs “king for a day’ opens on the 25th of June.”

Sounds awesome – a Meggs solo sounds a great way to open it too!

Via Ghostpatrols blog, Deathtron. More information can be found on the Backwoods Website.

On Wednesday June 9th, Revolver Upstairs presents the sounds of popular DJ and street scene aficionado Hans DC playing an improvised set to the mad painting skills of Drewfunk.

There need to be more of these types of events happening – lets hope that this kind of thing springboards more events like it. Really, theres nothing like a beer, good tunes, and great art to keep smiling through the winter months – should be a fun evening!

Who: Drewfunk & Hans DC
What: Live Painter/DJ Improv
Where: Revolver Upstairs, 229 Chapel St, Prahran
When: Wednesday, June 9th, 8pm

Check out Drewfunks website here for some awesome art, as well as Hans DCs blog for more info on his gigs, and plenty of other cool shit.

It’s with a little sadness to have read tonights announcement that Collingwoods Per Square Metre gallery will be shutting up shop as of May 31st. Per Square held the first exhibition opening I went to when I first moved to Melbourne, and it was an opening that would introduce me to the awesomeness that is Melbournes urban gallery vista.

Having hosted artists such as Bernard Romerona, Dabs & Myla, Sear,
Dvate, Porno, Ling, Mayo, Sigs, Jack Douglas and a whole bunch of others, they’ve always been a personal favourite.

We’ll let their own words do the talking, but, from us – thanks for the shows dudes, looking forward to your next venture and I hope I speak for everyone in hoping it’s fkn soon :)

Via Per Square Metre Gallery.

Moving to another city in order to pursue an artistic dream, let alone another country, is one of the biggest challenges any artist can face – and yet, collaborative duo Dabs Myla have not only overcome challenges in doing so, but have flourished within their adopted scene. In the past year since their move, they have further enamoured fans worldwide with their unique  artwork, and now, with their second solo show being presented at the Per Square Meter Gallery here in Melbourne, they are set to unleash the fruits of their artistic sojourn onto their home town.

Thankfully, they had some time to speak to us to give us a run down on what they’ve been up to of late, and let us know their how their invasion of Los Angeles has been progressing …

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This Saturday, Ghostpatrol & Miso are holding an open studio event in Melbourne.

“hello,
it’s time for an OPEN STUDIO
come along

feel free to bring along friends,
in the past we’ve been flooded with people so get there early.

-Dave Ghostpatrol”

What: Open Studio event
Who: Ghostpatrol & Miso
Where: Studio 2, level 3 / 329 Little Collins Street {cnr. Elizabeth}
When: Saturday March 27th, 11am to 3pm

Via the Ghostpatrol website.

There would be no stretch of the imagination involved if one was to suggest that Melbourne artist Makatron has been making waves in the past year with his exhibitions, murals and street art. As part of the Everfresh crew, who have a large array of colossal murals and more subtle pieces spread across both Burn City and the world, it can also be said that he, along with the rest of the crew, are at the top of their game.

As an individual artist, however, his work conveys a thoughtful, and at times chaotic, interpretation of personal interaction with both the environment and the people contained within it. His extensive travels, coupled with his unique personal experiences and his love of the grittier underside of urban art have all combined to present a unique, emboldened style that has garnered him a solid body of fans.

Invurt recently had opportunity to conduct an in-depth, thought provoking, and generally kick-ass interview with Makatron, wherein he explains his work and ethos, and where racing a courier bike through the streets of Sao Paulo fits in to it all …

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