INVURT

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

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

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

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

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

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

News and Miscellanea …

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

Pics And Images From Around The Traps …

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

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

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

Does is a man in love with letters. Recently, this Dutch artist has been making waves down under, with both his intricate letterforms and his enthusiastic translation of calligraphic symbols into swathes of colourfully saturated, alphabetic beauty.

For nearly fifteen years, the breadth and scope by which this artist has portrayed this love is remarkable – walls, prints, paintings and his commercial design work have all been placed under the persuasive sway of his craft. In his mission to take his work to the world, his recent sold out show, I Love Letters, at the Lo-Fi Collective in Sydney proved a testament to both his ability and reverence for his letters. Equally, as if to prove that there is no rest for the wicked, his next solo show in Australia, Between The Lines, held at Rancho Notorious in Melbourne this week, looks set to continue this passionate example of an artist bursting in raw, enthusiastic respect of the written word.

We were thrilled to be able to get some of Does time for a few questions whilst he is down here travelling, and we know you’ll be just as captivated as we were when we first read his replies – its hard not to be, because, really, who amongst us doesn’t love letters?

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Has been a really fun week in the world that Max Headroom calls home – so, as always, we’ll let the movies do the talking …

First up, is our pick of the week – and we’re insanely jealous of Makatron right now on his Brazilian tour – location, location, location or what!

Next up, theres a video up on vimeo from Matt Adnates recent show, Signs of Life – we loved this show, and the video is a awesome showcase of the opening and the work in it.

Matt ‘ADNATE’ Signs Of Life from byhart. on Vimeo.

Another great video from the Ironlak family, this time painting up a massive wall in Brisvegas .. man, we love it – feed me, Seymour, feed me now ….

Given that the grand final of Secret Wars is next week, its only fitting that we show you the last rounds video, where Ken Taylor won over Drewfunk to enter the grand final .. man, I would have hated to be the judges on that last round, and the grand final will be even harder to judge!

Lastly, we have something that we saw over at Just Another Agencies blog – Timba Smits doing a magazine design cover for French magazine Be-Street, with none other than the infamous Shepard Fairey …slick design, too bad we can’t read French ..

Be Street #12 x Shepard Fairey from Benjamin Benichou on Vimeo.

Thats all we have for this week, hope you enjoyed the show ;)

After hitting Sydney with his hugely successful, sold out and amazing solo show “I Love Letters” – DOES brings his work down to the ‘Burn to show everyone what’s what in his world – and what a fkn world it is. Colourful, vibrant, stylised and unique, DOES works stands up there with the best of them, and he is one dedicated and passionate artist whose work has to be admired.

“Practising his craft since 1997, DOES has developed into a multi-disciplinary international artist recognised for his dazzling choice of colours, his clean style and his eye for detail. Inspired by colour combinations and remarkable shapes in daily life, landscapes and magazines, DOES continuously strives towards innovation and perfection. Hard work and dedication characterise him as a painter and designer.

His artwork takes root in graffiti art and the letter form is his primary love. Using letters as a foundation, DOES has over the years diversified into paintings, prints, drawings, commercial designs and murals. His exhibitions feature a variety of acrylic, digital, marker and aerosol works.

Bringing his new solo show ‘Between The Lines’ featuring a variety of new digital, acrylic, aerosol and marker works by the letter genius himself. ‘Between the Lines’ is a reference to Netherlands based artists clean style and his career in the soccer industry, as a professional soccer player. Come and get swept up in the magic that is DOES’s letter-forms.”

Who: DOES
What: Between The Lines solo show
Where: Rancho Notorious Gallery, Upstairs 1000 Pound bend, 361 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne, VIC
When: Show opens 14th April, 6pm til 9pm and runs til 25th April

Check out the images from his previous show, I Love Letters at the LoFi Collective site here, also check out his website, the Rancho Notorious website and the facebook event page for more details.

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

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

Melbourne Shows

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

Adelaide Shows

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

Queensland Shows

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

Sydney Shows

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

Other Miscellaneous Bits & Pieces

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

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

Another week is rolling into its final stages, and we have a bit of a mix of videos for you this week – so sit back, and enjoy the show …

Melbourne artists Meggs visited Hawaii recently, and the guys at NB574 did this to document what he was up to – excellent shit.

NB574.com | Meggs | Part 2 from NB 574 on Vimeo.

We missed this video of Does up in Sydney for his solo show the other week, and given his upcoming show in April at Rancho Notorious, its prudent to show what he got up to up there!

I Love Letters from Well Dressed Vandals on Vimeo.

This video just went up – its a new one of the Glebe Tram Shed – pretty well done – and its such a cool spot, must get up there on our next trip to Sydney.

Sprayed (Glebe Tram Shed) from Trixie Barretto on Vimeo.

This next one is a new video from Lush via Zonk Vision – such a great run of videos!

FOLLOW THIS from Zonk Vision on Vimeo.

Tom Ferson has a show opening tonight, and this is the preview video for it – grand.

Last, but one of our picks for best videos this week, is the newly released video from Ironlak of the 2011 Croft Alley Project walls … mad.

Thats most of what we saw this week, hope you enjoyed it all as much as we did!

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.

Dutch artist Does hits Sydney this week, following right on the heels of Aboves successful sell out show at Lo-Fi Collective. As part of Team Ironlak, Does has been storming across Oz in recent months with a huge range of colourful, vibrant work. Renowned for his amazing letter-forms and as a founder of the European LoveLetters crew, this is a rare chance to see his work down here in Oz in a gallery setting – and damn, does it looks good (no pun intended!).

“Does is a letter magician who takes the everyday letter to a whole new dimension. Originally from the Netherlands and part of the internationally known LoveLetters collective, Does is recognized for his dazzling choice of colours, his eye for detail and his continuous search for the perfect form. Be bedazzled by a bright display of colours and shapes painted on canvas, paper and brick.”

Who: Does
What: I Love Letters solo show
Where: Lo-Fi Collective, 383 Bourke Street, DArlinghurst, NSW
When: Show opens Thursday 10th March @ 6pm.

Check out Does website, the Lo-Fi Collective site and Ironlak for more details.

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Whenever anyone comes and visits, they always say “Hey, lets go to that bar down that alley that has all that cool stuff in it and all the walls are painted up and theres all that lab stuff in it” and I automatically know they are pretty much talking about the Croft Institute. Look past the dirty puddles, the ever present bins and that winding alleyway that looks like something straight out of Gotham City, and you’ll see an amazing display of artwork that was completely over a year ago with the Croft Alley Project

This time around, in conjunction with Superlatif, the guys from the Croft have got the  Ironlak family on board, and they’ll be doing the walls up this year for stage 2 . There will also be a open air art exhibition as part of the show – so we’re guaranteed some mad shit. Plus, well, the day will be playing host to Metalheadz A-Sides and a bunch of other dnb/breakbeat goodness– gunna have to get down to this one for sure.

“Superlatif & The Croft Institute are proud to present The Croft Alley Project Stage 2. The second stage of the highly acclaimed Croft Alley Project. The lane-way will be reborn in a myriad of colour featuring new works by the Ironlak Family. Including for the first time in a Melbourne lane-way an open air gallery exhibition.

The open air gallery exhibition will feature collectable works by the Ironlak family. It’s your chance to take home street art straight from the street. The works will exhibit in the lane- way each day from 1PM – 6PM until Monday the 28th of February 2011.

Of course it wouldn’t be a Croft Alley Project without a party. So to officially open the new works in the lane-way. The Croft Institute will be opening at 4PM on Saturday the 19th of February. Featuring music by A-Sides(UK) and a showdown by Melbourne’s very own Heavy Innit and The Operatives collectives. Becks and Vodka Red Bull’s will be on sale all day, with a host of tasty cocktails also on offer.

For those of you who live under a rock and don’t know much about the Ironlak family. The family features some of the most talented urban artists on the face of the planet. Melbourne will be lucky enough to have almost the entire Australian based collective present for this project. The works painted will be sure to feature in blogs, magazines and video’s that circumnavigate the entire globe. So Melbourne count yourselves lucky because you get to see it right in front of your eyes. Not to mention you can buy the artists work and take it home or to the office, so you can look at it everyday.”

Who: Team Ironlak OZ, A-sides, Kuya, Dust, Detour, Sean Deans, The Operatives vs Heavy Innit
What: Croft Alley Project Stage 2
Where: The Croft  Institute, 21-25 Croft Alley, Melbourne
When: Saturday, 19th February. Doors open from 4pm, and runs til late …

Check out the Croft Institute and the Ironlak website for more details.

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, we don’t often post videos, but we’ve decided to cave a little – just because we keep seeing so much cool shit every week thats been filmed and produced. So this new column will work alongside the Friday wraps. This will be our spot to showcase whatever Australian videos have have come out, without cluttering up the site all the time. These will all be Australian/NZ vids, unless we see something that is way too mind blowing that it just HAS to go up … but in terms of local shit,  there’s a lot out there, and we wrap up everything else, so why not those as well?

Once you’ve watched the videos, go click the links to all the artists websites and show them all your support and check out more of their shit! Anyways … right into it …

One of our favourites this week is a short showcase on Drab – I fkn love daylight antics! Really nice job on this vid as well by Ned Beckley and Davey Sams.

Drab from Drab Art

..and, of course, the video of Everfresh doing their work down at the new NGV over the last two weeks is something pretty fkn special too.

NGVstudio – Everfresh – Graffiti always wins from Everfresh Studio

… this absolute gem came out on Wednesday from the Secret Wars crew, showing Drew funk and  Braddock battling it out in the previous Melbourne round of Secret Wars!

… and last, but not at all least, this one popped up over at Sirums blog of the Ironlak crew doing a bunch of work up in Byron Bay. Sweet.

Big kudos to all the people who put these clips together to help document all the work thats being done across the country … if you do have any videos that we have missed, or that you’d like to see us feature in our Thursday Transmissions section, just contact us.

Pioneering old school graff and street artist Petro will be visiting our shores in November, with two exhibitions at both China Heights Gallery in Sydney as well as at Backwoods gallery here in Melbourne (I popped in to the Elph exhibition briefly on Friday night at Backwoods and it was great – loving the shows they’re putting on there).

Melbourne

Backwoods Gallery
25 Easey St, Collingwood, show opens 6pm – 9pm, 5th November, runs til 13th November

Sydney

China Heights Gallery
Level 3, 16-28 Foster St, Surry Hills
Show opens Firday 22nd October – 6pm to 9pm

Check out the Backwoods Gallery site, China Heights and the facebook page for more details to be released on this show.

It’s great to see shows happening in Adelaide, and this time its a solo show by the renowned and somewhat infamous Sofles. This four day exhibition will showcase a variety of the Brisane artists work as translated to canvas.

“Notorious graffiti figure. Prodigious talent. Sofles has been both reviled and embraced by the media over his ten-year career, which began as a graffiti artist in Brisbane, Australia. After a well-publicized conviction in 2009, Sofles burst onto the scene with various sold-out exhibitions, collaborations with artists such as Anthony Lister, Ben Frost and Revok, and contracts with the likes of Red Bull, Myer, Adidas, and Toohey’s.

Returning from a tour of New York and Los Angeles, Sofles has chosen Adelaide for his first interstate exhibit, with new works on canvas featuring his signature mash up of aerosol, acrylics and oils, rendering evocative imagery in explosive colour. The progression from graffiti to canvas was a natural one, explains Sofles.

“Not much has changed, really. I’m painting every day, using the same tools, applying the same techniques, to a different platform, with a different audience. The work is finer, more considered, but my graffiti influence has been really well received.”

Sofles imagery is wide and varied, with collages of mind-bending abstraction melting into intricate form, perfect snapshots of the artist’s wild imagination. Sofles’ ability to create depth and detail with aerosol is unmatched, and combined with his bold use of colour renders pieces so distinctive they have firmly set Sofles reputation as one of Australia’s most watched contemporary artists.”

Who: Sofles solo show
Where: Bull n Bear Basement – 89 King William St, Adelaide
When: Show opens 6pm Thursday October 7th, until Sunday October 10th

You can check out more of Sofles work on his webpage.

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.

With the year already off to a remarkable start with several major solo and group exhibitions having come, and, successfully, gone, Per Square Metre is preparing for its next feature, the first solo exhibition from talented up and coming artist Jack Douglas.

Invurt caught up with Jack last weekend to discuss his coming show, as well as to get the low-down on his personal thoughts and philosophies behind his current body of work …

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