INVURT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sometimes when you’re travelling you are just in the right place at the right time – luckily
for me thats happened during my visit here to NYC.

Amongst that fortune was being able to catch up with The Yok and Sheryo last week in the lead up to their opening, and, of course, being able to attend that very same opening tonight at Krause Gallery down near the Bowery.

The calibre of work in display was second to none – having seen them labour over the work whilst I was visiting possibly gave me a greater appreciation of the whole thing, but seeing work in progress and then the finished products all up on the walls and installed is something else. On the surface, many off the images seem quite simple in their iconography – that simplicity, however, is only on a casual glance, in each piece there is a complex play of ideas and head-nods to a whole swath of cultural foibles and fancies.

From beautifully rendered porcelain pots to the firehouse white on blue plates, there is a measure of immaculate detail hidden within each of this duos works. Messages both written and placed upon paper or ceramic surface as near hieroglyphic entreats – and though some of these can be obviously translated, you also get the sense that there are some distinctly playful in-jokes between the two artists scrawled across their work.

The upstairs section of the show was formal in its presentation – that aforementioned white and blue sprayed across the room. The bars and plates, though made of fragile material had a strengthened presence that belied their canvases.

Downstairs however, was a loose assortment of painted walls and printed materials documenting the couples journeys across SE Asia, Mexico and here in NYC, their adopted home.

I loved this section – you don’t always get such a complimentary display in an exhibition of some of the more intimate processes and plans behind the finished product. Playful scrawlings on found pages and plans for walls painted and finished abounded in ramshackle manner – a perfect juxtaposition to the room above.

Often when artists collaborate, the seams between styles are in some evidence, instead of a perfunctory presence – yet of all the times I looked upon this work, I often found it difficult to discern, happily, where the Yok ended and Sheryo began – or visa versa.

For me, this is the essence of collaboration – that wavering grey area where two talents are able to combine into a distinct entity – something that the viewer, and even the artists themselves, have never seen before – and which would never have eventuates without such a close working relationship. Though this show was billed as two artists, it could have easily been one – such was the ease by which their merger of styles was both demonstrated and substantiated.

As I sit here, tapping into my phone and writing this over tea and post-show congee, I cant help bit think that this might be what NYC is really all about. Not the glitz and glamour and "oh New York is so fkn coool" and all the "art scene" bullshit, but about individuals, artists, having the opportunity and ability to present new shit in such a broad, dynamic environment – and being embrace for it. Not only did I see some amazing work tonight, but I also saw the "Pipe Dreams" of two artists literally manifested upon the walls of this grand old metropolis.

I love this city, and I love its artists, new and old, and I loved this fucking show.

Check out more of the photos from the show below – apologies for not being the best, I had to resort to my point and shoot after my dslr craped out … but I hope you enjoy them!

Amongst my travels over the last few months, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and visiting with a whole bunch of artists. Last week I had the chance to catch up with two favourites, The Yok and Sheryo in their Brooklyn studio as they prepare for their upcoming exhibition "Pipe Dreams" (we posted a whole bunch of photos from their Mexico adventures not too long ago also).

Not only was I able to get a great interview with the pair of them (for the next issue of Damnit! Magazine), but I was also able to get an awesome preview of the show in the works …

"Krause Gallery is pleased to present the highly anticipated exhibition of recent works by Brooklyn-based duo Sheryo and the Yok. While previously seen in group exhibitions, Pipe Dreams marks their first solo show in the United States since establishing the city as their primary residence last year.

Working with varying painting techniques, the artists have culled together collaborative pieces that represent their shared life together. From their nomadic travels the past year to in-jokes with their friends in New York, the Yok and Sheryo seamlessly combine their adventures into every detail of their work.

For example, their hand painted vases combine eastern & western elements to portray the values of ideology, devotion, relationships, dharma and karma, depicting a narrative from the rich tales of their journey.

From their fun filled art renderings with Chinese dragons, pipes, and geishas intermixing with the New York culture, Sheryo and the Yok put their own illustrative styles on imagery as they re-interpret the traditional folklore and fables of old Chinese times while injecting their own personal stories with their iconic styles.

Their most recent body of work for their upcoming show at Krause Gallery is full of adventure and intrigue as they departed the United States for countries like Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia. By traveling to their native countries as well as a few places in between, Sheryo and the Yok characterize their formative life experiences with the memories that are being made together. Another example of this can be seen in their newest body of work; after returning from warm Mexico to the rain and snow of New York they used their cartoons to reflect on the sunnier days behind them; beer, Spanish icons and surf boards began to be a part of each piece.

For their solo show at the gallery they will also be creating hand painted ceramic plates, vases, painted pieces on paper and canvases, a surprise installation downstairs along with Limited Edition one color 25” x 19” high quality screen prints. Pipe Dreams is a must see for any street art enthusiast or talent seeker of any kind."

Also check out the rad video that they’ve put out with some of the plate and vase action in it all …

Here is all the details for the show – and check out the gallery down below for a great preview of the show and a bunch of shots from around their studio! Also, check out the catalogue of all the work in the show – amazing.

Who: The Yok & Sheryo
What: Pipe Dreams
Where: Krause Gallery, 149 Orchard St, New York City
When: Show opens Thursday 16th May from 7pm til 9pm and runs for a month.

More pics from the studio visit below ….

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

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

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

DOES

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

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

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

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

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

Invurt ran a live blog last weekend from CARBON Festival 2013 at RMIT’s Storey Hall. You can check it out here.

I also just found a couple of great recap videos from CARBON and Just Another Agency. They both give you a good idea on what you missed out on. Can’t wait for next year.

Martha Cooper, Carbon 2013

Photos courtesy of David Russell. Videos courtesy of CARBON and Just Another Agency.

Throughout my journey across San Francisco, one thing that I kept a good eye out for was for all the stickers across the city. There aint nothing I love more than a good wad of slaps, and San Fran totally delivered on that front!

I previously posted about my journey checking out all The Mission street art, and needless to say, the place was packed with stickers!

Including a few I also left behind …

This had to have been one of the best stickers I saw hahaha.

One thing I particularly loved was the abundance of stickered newspaper boxes.

Even ATM machines are not safe from the onslaught of radness.

Down in The Haight, stickers seemed the norm on every surface – I especially loved all of these.

Nowhere escapes the slap – out on a pier in the middle of the water, the Bay Bridge gorgeous in the background, these were some of my favourite stickers in my favourite spot!

I also visited the California Academy of Sciences whilst I was there – I fkn loved it and would recommend visiting, and as someone else had already left a little something, I decided to leave my own …

Check out all the photos of the San Francisco street art and graffiti stickers I spotted below – these were all over, and they are fkn mad. I’ve got one more post of my adventures in San Fran coming, then its on to Mexico … enjoy!

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We’ve been hot on the trail of Paul Deej’s work for quite some time – we interviewed him way back in 2010 and since then he has had some damn fine shows. This time, Deej hits Kurb Gallery in Perth for what may be his best yet – Harlequins.

"On Saturday the 27th of April, Kurb Gallery in Northbridge will play host to the third solo art exhibition by accomplished Perth artist Paul Deej, entitled “Harlequins”.

“Harlequins” marks the end to a series of artworks recently completed, exploring the theme of the female clown, or “harlequin”, in an array of styles, moods and mixed media.
Always on the quest to capture the beauty of the female form and face, he has created a body of colourful and bold work that represents his love of comic book and street art, while adding a graphic designer’s touch.
In the past 3 years since his highly successful first exhibition “Nicely Toasted” at ABD The Gallery in Northbridge, Deej has worked diligently and shown pieces in a plethora of exhibitions locally and nationally. His last solo show was the successful “El Deejo” Exhibition at The Grey Door Gallery in Claremont in late 2011.

About The Artist

Paul Deej has been a professional Artist, Illustrator and Graphic Designer for 12 years. Originally known for working within the digital realm, around 3 years ago he started painting canvas and murals in the traditional style of acrylic paint and aerosol, and found he had a overwhelming desire to capture his minds eye on this raw medium based in reality rather than a computer screen.

With a short time on the gallery scene, Deej has been a part of 20 solo and group shows within the past three years.

Deej has also made a name for himself over the years as a part of the ever growing Australian Hip Hop community in Perth and the eastern states, creating literally hundreds of event posters for local and interstate acts as well as many award winning album covers. Deej is also closely affiliated with the West Australian music collective known as Syllabolix.

With a passion for throwing around paint and a workaholic attitude for creating artwork, there is plenty more on the way from this esteemed Perth artist"

We’re looking forward to this one – its been a little bit since the last mad show in Perth, and this one is going to rock!

Who: Paul Deej
What: Harlequins solo show
Where: Kurb Gallery, 312a William St, Northbridge, Perth WA
When: The exhibition runs for one week only, from Saturday April 27th until Friday May 3rd.

Check out Paul Deej’s website as well as the facebook event page, and Kurb Gallery, for more details.

After his great show in an construction site in Collingwood DOES releases his final video in his Endless Perspectives series. The best city in the world, Melbourne. Featuring some iconic local scenery and amazing painting by the man. Enjoy.

Part 5: Melbourne – Endless Perspectives from Digitaldoes on Vimeo.

After having spent a really good amount of time in Kuala Lumpur and checking out the streets and walls of Singapore, I picked up stumps and headed over the Pacific on the next part of what has now turned into an epic adventure; San Francisco – I’m in Guatemala right now, so San Fran actually feels a world away!

That said, I fucking loved San Fran. Apart from my shock at how badly the homeless situation has worsened since my last visit there ten years ago (wtf America, how can shit get so bad, seriously?), I have to say it was pretty amazing. San Francisco is a city of so many facets that, well, there’s just no way I can cover it all here. Instead, I’m going to split my visit up into two pieces – one from an amazing day trekking through The Mission district, one covering all the stickers I saw and the one with all the rest – all, I’m happy to say, are big, big posts and are absolutely fascinating.

One thing that San Francisco has, for which I am many others are more than thankfully are, is a veritable plethora of paintspotters – those who seek out new pieces of graffiti and street art to share with those of us who may not be fortunate enough to live in the area. Melbourne has them, and almost every city has them, and for a certainty San Fran has them, spanning San Francisco graffiti and street art every day. So, it was a no brainer when I arrived in San Fran that I’d try to catch up with one of my favourite instagram paintspotters – @pixelina.

I’d been following @Pixelina on IG for some time, and have had the pleasure of seeing a huge bunch of amazing images that she’s taken from all over the city – so when I contacted her and asked if she could show me some of her favourite spots, she was more than obliging. It just so happened, that another of my favourite IG paintspotters was in town on the same day, @purpurella (who takes a bunch of great shots from around LA), so it all turned into one big paintspotting mission in the Mission – honestly, these girls were amazing.

We started out meeting at coffee shop in the Mission, have to say, this was some of the nicest coffee I’ve ever tasted. It wasn’t long though, until the crew arrived and we headed off to see what the day had to offer.

Not far away proceeded to walk down a variety of the many laneways throughout the Mission – each harbouring a multitude of art. From graffiti, murals to street art, the cornucopia of colour reminded me in many ways of what we have in Melbourne around Fitzroy and Collingwood, the two had a very similar feel … I have to say though, that there may be a little more art in the Mission than there is in the F&C area … but that’s okay, I’m sure we’ll catch up ;)

Whilst trekking through the multitude of streets, I spotted a store on a corner that had a bunch of art on the walls, and discovered Faze Apparel. I loved this place – these guys are doing really cool things, promoting local artists and artist designed clothing.

The art up on the walls was damn cool, and the threads were fresh – if you’re in the Mission at any time, drop by here. They also do regular art exhibitions as well, in fact, that’s what they started out doing before they opened up the store itself.

We walked through a great carpark that was a couple of blocks down from where we started, and spotted a bunch of great work in there as well.

Towards the end of the day, we found we’;d been walking for around six hours – so one of our last stops was to check out a neat van being painted by some friends of @pixelina – Eon75 (Max Ehrman)and someone whose work I’ve actually followed for a while (big fan of his toy!), Jesse Hernandez. It was a great way to finish off the day and watch some of San Frans finest in action.

Nearby, there was a huge collab wall – one of the parts had this robot, that I fkn loved!

On the way back, there were, of course, more walls to be seen – but probably my favourite one was this wall that Meggs, Ha-Ha and a bunch of others had painted when they were in San Fran for the Young & Free exhibition – a great wall to see on the last part of our journey throughout the mission.

Ended up the whole day exhausted and tired, and having a pint at the infamous Zeitgeist bar – felt like I was back in Fitzroy!!

Again, thanks to Pix, Purp and the others for a wonderful day – if you get yourself to San Fran, you can easily lose an entire day, or more, just walking the back streets of the Mission in search of great art – you cant miss it, its everywhere.

Check out a mass of photos of all the walls we saw in San Fran below … this is the largest collection of pics I’ve posted up here before, there’s about 280 of them – I could have culled, but there’s so damn much that’s good, and I wanted to document it all! In the next two part of my San Fran posts, I’ll post up a bunch more shots stuff from Haight and the rest of the city, murals, stickers and a visit to the newest minted Zero Friends store!

Enjoy – there’s several pages of these images so browse through by clicking on the numbers below!

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It’s no secret that we’re huge fans of Alex Lehours here, we interviewed him late last year just before his solo show in Melbourne.

In more recent news, we absolutely love this video that he has just put out – created by the amazingly talented Daniel Repeti! I spotted this over at The Opening Hours, its been out for a little bit, not sure how we missed it … nice!

For over three years now we’ve been teased with the release of a documentary about the past thirty years of Melbourne graffiti and street art – Children Of The Iron Snake.

The first we saw of it was the above preview trailer below, plus a cut down unfinished version was shown at the There’s More event that we helped put on.

Created by Alex MacBeth and Miriam Hison, the documentary "Charts the development of the Melbourne street art scene, Children of the Iron Snake looks at the last thirty years and tracks the journey of graffiti from railway junctions at night to festivals, abandoned factories, rooftops, drains and galleries. Comprising interviews with over 15 artists, as well as criminologists, anti-graffiti activists, and politicians, the film offers a in-depth look at one of the biggest art movements of our time.

Now, the directors and creators of Children Of The Iron Snake have released it worldwide, finished and completed on their website – and you can watch it all over there!

Check it out on their site now (no embed available, alas), and see it for yourself – this is a great documentary and well worth the watching!!

I’ve loved what he has been doing with his PATENTED GIF-ITI TECHNIQUE so when he asked me to make one with him I thought great! until I realised I had to paint the same thing in the exact same place 4 times!

A lot of hard work for 600 pixel looping animation but I’m stoked with the way it came out.”

Check it out – amazing!

One of our favourite Perth lads, The Yok and Singaporean artist Sheryo both base themselves in New York City these days – which meant it was just a hop skip and a jump for then to head down to Mexico for a bit of a paint.

From Sheryo -

“Hello! The Yok and I just got back from a 2mths trip to Mexico where we painted for a festival, organised a Drink and Ink night. ( tattoo night ) and got in some surfing time.

The original sketches are available on heavyweight art paper or straight from the sketch book, please contact me for details if you are interested.”

Watch a fun video of the the first half of the trip here:

These guys have also done some amazing work at 5 Pointz and in Bushwick in the past week or two, really grand stuff.

Check out all the pics of their work in Mexico below, and get in quick if you want to buy any of them! Well be catching up with this pair when we hit NYC next month, so keep an eye out for more grandness to come!