INVURT

“ARE YOU AN ASPIRING ARTIST? A roar goes out to all designers, illustrators, photographers, painters and graffiti artists – Tiger Beer invites you to enter Tiger Translate 2011. Tiger Translate competitions are run annually around the world to celebrate the talents of emerging artists.

THE COMPETITION: Entries open from August 8th 2011 through till September 20th 2011. Open to all Australian residents over the age of 18. Submissions are to be entered through Tiger Beer’s Facebook fan page, at www.facebook.com/tigerbeerau and elements for your artwork can be downloaded at www.tigerbeer.com.au

THE PRIZE: Winner notified October 6 before being announced at Sydney’s exclusive VIP Tiger Translate party in November featuring an explosive mix of DJs, live art and street artists. You will fly to Asia in 2012 to collaborate with other Tiger Translate winners from around the globe, beckoning international exposure.

YOUR ARTWORK: Tiger Translates Australian theme in 2011 will showcase the artist’s interpretation of ‘GROWTH.’ Capture what ‘GROWTH’ means to you as an artistic visionary in an A@ size artwork. See the Facebook fan page for more details – www.facebook.com/tigerbeerau”

Calling all aerosol artists! It’s you, and your crew, against the rest of the world! Break out the Ironlak cans and get ya game on, the prize is worth is weight in paint. All your rule and regulations, stipulations and reservations are below -  put this at the top of you list of things to do this year! Werd!

Information regarding the competitions rules and regulations was posted up by Ironlak the other week, and are as are follows.

"Regions:
1. Australia/New Zealand
2. North/ South America
3. UK/Europe
4. Asia.

Entries will be judged on quality of pieces and letter styles, overall theme and composition, background elements, characters and originality. All entries will be judged by The Ironlak Family.

Prizes:
GLOBAL WINNER: 800 cans of Ironlak.

GOLD PRIZE: 500 cans of Ironlak.*
SILVER PRIZE: 240 cans of Ironlak.*
ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD: 48 cans of Ironlak.
*ONE GOLD and ONE SILVER will be awarded for EACH REGION – TOTAL 8 regional prizes)

HOW TO ENTER:

Grab a bunch of Ironlak, get together with some friends (1-5 people) and rock a fresh production wall.
Email a large photograph of your finished production AND photographs of your used cans in front of the wall (compulsory) to: competition@ironlak.com

Pieces must be painted with 100% Ironlak paint
(roll/ buff paint is allowed as a base).
Enter as many times as you like. Be sure to include the names of the artists involved plus the city and country where the wall was painted.

COMPETITION CLOSES 30th NOVEMBER, SO DON’T SLEEP!
Keep a close eye on the blog for regular updates…
To view last year’s winners click here."

This looks like a great competition, and we can’t wait to see all the pics that will be coming out of the competition entrants, and, of course, cheering on all those involved! Game on!

Image: The 2010 WINNER of Category 1 – BEST PRODUCTION in AUSTRALIA/ NEW ZEALAND: RASE, DV8TE and ASKM – Melbourne, Australia.

Who: The general public
What: Ironlak Graffiti Competition
Where: World wide
When: Entries close November 30th 2011

For Further info check out the Ironlak official website.

The Hole In The Wall, alongside Australia’s and possibly the worlds largest Sardine Festival, down by the waterside in sunny Fremantle. If you happen to be steering that way for some fishy delight, tomorrow evening we recommend you drop into The Hole In The Wall, and immerse yourself in the environment that will be Amok Island.

“Amok was born in the eighties As a child he could be found exploring the streets of Amsterdam, fishing canals, doing graffiti and exploring forgotten places in the city. His love for all things tropical have seen him journey through Asia and Australia where he now lives.

Combining design, graffiti and nature in to his works Amok creates intricate pieces on canvas. Join the artist and hit to celebrate the open of this exhibition A limited edition screen print will be available on the night.”

Evade your everyday existence and step into this artistic oasis!

Who: Amok Island
What: Solo Exhibition
Where: Hole In The Wall Gallery, 3a/64 Adelaide St. Fremantle
When: Show opens Thursday 1st of September from 6pm til 9pm, and runs til 23rd September 2011

Check out Amok Islands blog, and the facebook event page.

Colour fans unite for this special show from one of Australias icons of illustration and design.

“Priapic skeletons, gloamings, poles and trunks, fire and water and recent experiments in psycho-dramatism” – Coloured In, Hosted by Watters Gallery in Sydney, is a collection of works by the acclaimed Mambo artist Chris O’Doherty, known more widely as Reg Mombassa.

Containing some 70 original pieces, as well as some previously un-exhibited etchings, “Coloured In’ showcases the irreverent, idiosyncratic, social commentary art that developed from his designs for Mambo. As well as expressing his interpretations of rural Australia that have been an obsession since art school days. "

Brimming with cultural relevance, and coolly individual artworks, this exhibition promises to be a highlight 2011’s artistic social calendar, and a very cool viewing of anyone who is a Mambo fan.

Who: Chris O’Doherty (Reg Mombassa)
What: Coloured In
Where: Watters Gallery, 109 Riley Street, East Sydney
When: Opens Wednesday 3rd August, 6-8pm. Until 20th August 2011

For more info visit the Watters Gallery website or the Reg Mombassa Website.

It always intrigues me just how many people have a not-so-secret obsession with robots. I’m not quite sure where the fascination comes from, but, being one of those people myself, it is no surprise that whenever I encounter Cracked Ink’s work I’m often left with a sly smile. His recognisable black and white monster robots can frequently be seen stomping around the streets of New Zealand, as well as poking their heads around the corners of Melbourne’s most loved alleyways.

His monotone colour palette, droopy arms and gormless stare give Cracked Ink’s characters a distinct personality and presence on a wall – or a rubbish bin! Often seen as part of collaborative murals with fellow Kiwi gems Seekayem, Drypnz, Yels, and City,  the scale of his black and white style often adds a statement of awesome contrast to the more sketchy, colourful approach of the rest of the crew.

Recently in Melbourne to support Seekayem and Yels at the Red Bull Wreckers Yard event, I was stoked to meet up with the man behind Cracked Ink, watch him paint, have a beer, and see first hand how these characters and group walls all come together …

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We were ecstatic to learn of an incredible opportunity to see, and experience, a body of work created by four extremely talented 
ex-artists of the iconic, and uber-influential surf brand, MAMBO.

“These artists have contributed to Mambo as the highly influential culture maker of the 90s and early 2000s – with their designs filtering down to  the surfboards, board shorts and tees which adorned  Australian beaches”.

The exhibition will showcase a massive variety of talent, with the artists utilizing a diverse range of expressive mediums including; Paintings, lino, and ceramics. 

This event is an absolute must-see for anybody who was, or is, a lover of this incredibly influential Australian brand – and for the small minority of squares who don’t know what Mambo is – you’re invited too!

Who: Jeff Raglus, Gerry Wedd, Chris De Rosa & Ben Waters
What: “MERZ”
Where: Nine Lives Gallery, 5f Winn st, Fortitude Valley
When:  The Show Opens this Thursday 14 July at 6pm and continues until July 31.

On a rooftop in Fitzroy on a cool Melbourne Saturday night, some of the best street artists from Australia and New Zealand gathered for the finals of the Red Bull Wreckers Yard. The culmination of this Trans Tasman event saw Brisbane artist Sofles took the top spot for the second year running. Some incredible pieces were whipped up by the artists in what was an impressive series of just 12 minute rounds, and I for one am certainly looking forward to some more of these Trans Tasman combos.

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Once again we have a pretty damn cool top ten from Dave MSA – part of our ongoing feature to bring you regular top ten images from around the streets, across Australasia.

A bit of a different format this week, to start bringing our content in line for our new website (yes, its on its way!) – so hopefully this will be the final format for images on the site … enjoy this weeks top ten!

Help us fill in the missing artists names – also, we still have a slot of two for Top Tens from elsewhere in Oz or NZ – just contact us.

A couple of weeks ago we introduced a new column from Dean Sunshine, who will be posting up his top ten images from around Australia every month – we also promised another regular poster who would post on alternate fortnights, and we’re happy to do so now.

Dave MSA runs a facebook profile that showcases a lot of work from around Melbourne, with a fair amount of his own photographic content also – but the man also has a keen eye for a whole swath of cool art across the country. Thus, we’ve given him the reigns to post his favourite pics from around the traps once a month – and we’re excited to see what he comes up with. We’ll hand it over to him from here on … Hmm, I sense a good old fashioned battle coming on … heh.

In amongst its pages, Chris Parkinson’s newly published Peace Of Wall presents a view of the nation of East Timor that has seldom been contemplated outside of its boundaries – that of one of its strongest social engineering methods; street art.

In honesty, I just binned the editorial introduction for this interview, in which I spieled on about the importance of reflecting on liberty, the ways in which art can enable change, and how humbling it is to see it playing such a healthy role in the foundations of a new nation. After reading back, I realised that the interview already does justice to all those things, and more -  and sometimes you just have to let these things speak for themselves.

So, read on, and hopefully, like me, you’ll be thinking about it long after you’ve clicked away … and bought the book, of course …

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Having flown the flag for Australian electronic music for so long, Greg Packer now finds himself in a position that many DJs would be more than envious of, and it is this hard work over the years that is to be celebrated this Friday night in his very own showcase at The Nine. For years, Greg Packer has been one of the major faces of Australian drum’n’bass, with international recognition and acclaim.

Since his first release on Hardleaders in 2001 he has clocked up a remarkable ninety releases on over thirty two different labels, including the likes of Good Looking, 31 and Tangent. Yet with this astonishing average of one release every month over seven years, it may only just be now that he is really about to hit his stride with the resurrection the once stalled Interphase, Australia’s only dedicated drum and bass record label. Yet the question on many peoples lips is; why did Interphase go through such a long hiatus after between releases? At the end of the day, Greg believes that the finger may point at the economic problems that have plagued the record industry in the past few years. (more…)