INVURT

Of course, being that time of year, everyones having their Xmas parties, and the Blender studios crew really know how to throw one!

With Dark Horse Experiment holding the show itself, and with lots of performances and installations happening in conjunction with the show, this is one of those studio bashes that you just have to go to if you’re in Melbourne. Good times, good times!

“The Blender Studios Christmas exhibition is an opportunity to celebrate the art and party with the artists of Blender Studios. The hard work and dedication of the artists is evident in this annual event with 20 artists showcasing their work.

The exhibition will be hosted by Dark Horse Experiment and the studios will hold a series of performers and installations. The opening night is sure to be a stunning example of current practice in Melbourne right now. The opening night will include DJs, cutting edge performance artists, traditional works on canvas, live graffiti events, strange objects and dislocated renderings of suburbia.

After ten years the Blender Studios still hold true to the values of research, energy, independence and the solidarity.

With strong links to Melbourne Street Art and some of the most recognised and prolific artists calling the Blender home, the opening exhibition will attract a wide audience.”

Such a talented pool of artists, and such a great event – we’ll see you there!

Who: Adi (Adrian Brierley), James Bonnici, Christopher Hussein Bril, Maxwell Burns-McRuvie, Toni-Ann Dowd, Adrian Doyle, Geoffrey Carran, Michael Fikaris, Drew Funk, Joel Gailer, Heesco, George Manioudakis, Kristin McIver, Michael Meneghetti, Kristy Milliken, Aubrey Rhodes, Georgie Smith, Tim Sterling, Haha (Regan Tamanui) and Rebeccka Wetzler.
What: Blender Studios Christmas Exhibition
Where: Dark Horse Experiment, 110 Franklin Street, Melbourne
When: Opening night and associated party on Friday 20th December, and the exhibition runs until February 4th. The Gallery will be closed between the 25th December and January the 9th.

Check out the Darkhorse Experiment website and the Blender Studios website for more information.

Once a year Miso and Ghostpatrol open up their studio for a sale of works directly from the Fortress itself – and if you know these artists as I’m sure you do, this is a great chance to see where they work, what they do, and to snap up some really limited works that they may have around the studio.

It’s only on for one day, so get down there and check it out while you can – and if you want to buy something, get to the atm first as its cash only!

Who: Miso & Ghostpatrol
What: Open Studio
Where: Studio 2, Level 3, 329 Little Collins Street
When: 11am til 4pm, Saturday December 10th

Check out Miso and Ghostpatrols websites for more info on the artists.

TwoOne is an artist whose work is in constant evolution – though often thematically and iconologically linked, no new piece is quite like the previous, and this is easy enough reason as to why he is unabashedly one of our favourite Melbourne artists.

We did an interview with TwoOne way back last year and actually visited his studios, so news of this open studio is pretty rad. These open studio events offer the curious a unique look into the artists work practices, giving the public a chance to immerse themselves in the creative space that the artist surrounds themselves in. Also, it is a great thing to pick up artwork from the artist directly from the source!

There’s also a catalogue available prior to the open studio – so, if you’re in Melbourne on the weekend of the 19th, head to Abbotsford and check out this talented mans space.

Who: TwoOne
What: Open studio
Where: 162 Hoddle Street, Abbotsford, VIC
When: Saturday 19th November. Open studio from 2pm til 7pm, after party from 7pm til 10pm.

Check out TwoOnes blog for more info on the artist and the event!

The amazing talent that is Katie Houghton-Ward, Heavy Metal published comic book artist, painter and illustrator et all, will be holding a really intimate and intriguing event over the last fortnight of November.

Inviting members of the general public into her studio, Katie will be putting herself through the gruelling task of producing fourteen pieces of artwork over fourteen days – with all the work up for auction as she does so!

The flyer really says it all – but, if you haven’t come across Katies work just yet, you should read the interview we did with her, and then you’ll know why we’ll be heading up to Brunswick some time later this month to see her in action.

Who: Katie Houghton-Ward
What: 14 x 14 live art and auctio
Where: Hope Street Studios, 7a Hope Street, Brunswick, VIC
When: 7pm til 10pm, every night for fourteen days from the 16th of November

Check out Katies website, as well as the facebook event page for more details!

How grand! Be schooled by the schooled, or just take in the educational and inspirational space and lets give all your energy to Michael as he forges his way!

Check out Michael Staniaks website and Paradise Hills for more info.

Well. What can we say about this week? It’s a record week. Not only do we have a special first release for you, but we have officially broken the ten-videos-in-a-week number, and what a run of videos they are …

First up – if you haven’t seen it already floating around the place since last night, we have our very first official Invurt webisode out and released – this episode was done by Carl Allison, with photos from James Watkins @ T-squat.com and showcases the recent painting that we did of the Rival Revolution studios (where we are based) – along with a bunch of great friends, and great artists – including Ken Taylor, Shida, Facter, Jack Douglas, Scale, Aida Sabic, Makatron, Heesco, Ears, Sim2, Conrad Bizjak, Cubik, Ed Bechervaise, Pierre Lloga, Slicer and E.L.K

We’ve been spending a fair bit of time in the past few months transforming the space into something inspiring … so take a look, show your mates, and let us know what you think!

Next off the mark, is another awesome video, this one is of Makatron creating a fine damn piece at the Rhino Room in Adelaide – no one does beasts like Maka, so you have to see this video!

Makatron @ Rhino Room from MTW Media on Vimeo.

The fine talents of Heesco are up next, this is the video of his painting at West Syde Connection when he was up in Sydney last for his round of Secret Wars. Dope art, dope venue.

Not surprisingly, this one features Heesco again, and rightly so! This time its of his latest print release that has been done by Aisle6ix Industries in conjunction with Secret Wars … nice, want.

Vans The Omega, Askew, Dabs/Myla and a bunch of friends doing fantastic things in LA – so awesome.

Only Time Will Tell from Vans The Omega on Vimeo.

Tron and Salo did this cool time release of a piece they did the other week …

A wonderful video run down on the amazing Artboy 1st birthday sale – its a teaser of all the art that will be on sale at the gallery real soon!

Check out this cool timelapse that we found from kiwi artist Paul Walsh – mad.

I don’t think that we put this one up just yet, it came out last week – this is the latest Secret Wars video of the battle between Sprinkles & Kon!

This is a preview of the next show that will be going on at the NGV studio space in Melbourne, Inherent Vice – eight cartoonists getting together and creating – it looks really, really cool and we can’t wait to find out more about it!

Okay … thats’ all we have for this week – that’s well enough haha, but if you do any any videos and you’d like for us to feature them, just let us know and we’ll post them up for you!

CDH, a Melbourne street artist, recently sat down with the NGVs David Hurlston on behalf of Invurt, to talk about street art, as well as the new NGV Studio in Melbournes Federation Square  …

As the acting Senior Curator of Australian Art at the National Gallery for Victoria, David Hurlston is the man responsible for the entirety of the Australian Art Collection in Victoria. The collection at the NGV includes the first non-indigenous Australian works, all the way through to contemporary art. On top of this, David has also recently taken on co-supervision of the newly opened NGV Studio in Federation Square (with Deborah Ratliff),

You may have heard of this space in recent months, and the very first exhibition in the new studio space is a month long residency by Melbournes Everfresh crew. Everfresh competed against three other crews (AWOL, SDM and the Formula One crew), by painting a 25m long wall inside the space. Votes were then cast via new media (Twitter and Facebook) to determine who would occupy the space –with the Everfresh crew taking out the honours.

David is a champion for street art in Melbourne; someone who is helping it to be recognized as a legitimate part of our culture and true art movement. He’s also a really nice guy – halfway through the conversation that I had with David last week, an elderly Chinese man came up and asked for assistance sending a text message – and David patiently helped him for a good 15 minutes …

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New week, new category – we’ll be posting up any studio related news in the “Studio” category from now on, and any other studios or studio news around Australiasia will go into this section!

Studio Spaces Now Available (Prahran) – Located just off Chapel street, Rival Revolution Studios, where Invurt is based, is now actively seeking artists to come join the space. Studio space partitions have now been built, and we’re looking for creative individuals to come and work with us in the complex! There are a few spaces available, adorned with some grand artwork (see below!) as well as a private room space that would suit a pair of people. We’re a pretty collaborative bunch, and we’re hoping to get people who are not only interested in pursuing their own work, but would like to be a part of our growing little community in the 3181.

Please contact Tony at Rival Revolution on 0425705133 or email givemerival@rivalrevolution.com if you are interested in any of the cool and affordable spaces that are available!

T-Squat Interview – the totally mintox James Watkins from T-Squat has been in and out of the studios in the past few weeks, and he has written a feature article about Rival Revolution and Invurt. If you’re interested in whats been happening behind the scenes, and what Rival Revolution and Invurt actually are and reading an interview with us, then go and take a look!

Studio Paintup Pics

We’ve shown a bunch of snippets here and there on our facebook page, but here are all the pics of the studio paintup in progress!

There’s actually lots more to come, we’re still collating everything, but this is a bulk of them. Artists in this lot include Heesco, Sim2, Props, Mishap, Enix, Magnus McTavish, Katie Houghton-Ward, Heidi Philips, Ken Taylor, Shida, Jack Douglas, Scale, Aida Sabic, Makatron, Ears, Conrad Bizjak, Cubik, Ed Bechervaise, Pierre Lloga, F@R, Slicer and E.L.K. As you can see, its all a work in progress, but now that the walls are up (which isn’t pictured in this) its really starting to feel like its all coming together and the hard work is paying off!

The first set is the collection of images we took of the actual building and painting of the Invurt Studio.

This second set, is of the Rival Revolution paintup sessions, such a great day, all driven by fun, passion, and, of course, Doss Blockos!

Thanks to James Watkins and Lara Dale for all the images (the non-dodgy point and shoot ones are all my abominations!) You can find all of these, and a whole heap more on our facebook page!

We’d also like to thank all of the artists, friends, and everyone else involved who have supported us over the last few months in helping us transform everything – and a special mention and to our man Jacob, who has hammered and nailed, sawed, drilled and even bled on all of the construction work! Thanks everyone, you’re the fkn best.