Art Exhibition

Mike Makatron is a Melbourne based Artist who works across a variety of media, working with all types of paint – aerosol, acrylic, oils, and also has a passion for illustration. A prominent street artist and member of the Everfresh Studio, he is equally at home in canvas painting and illustration.

Braidy Hughes is a Brisbane based painter. She likes goldfish, New York & whoopie pies. Born in Mackay Queensland, in the summer of 1982, Braidy is a self taught artist. Her work has been featured in publications such as Curvy and ABC Arts & Avant Card, and is currently held in private collections across Australia and the USA.

Streets like battlefields, what becomes of the worn down ninja? Gary roams the streets leaving the stencil marks of an ADHD kid who has lost his skateboard!

Pierre Lloga is a Melbourne based/born artist, illustrator, cartoonist, whateverist. If he could he would totally watch action movies all day and eat nothing but sugary treats. Unfortunately, or fortunately (who can tell really) he also has an unhealthy fixation with drawing. As a result you will find Pierre scribbling in notebooks or on whatever surface looks remotely draw-on-able at pretty much any given time. Whilst forging his path of illustrative destruction, Pierre has come across many fine galleries and publications who have been kind enough to exhibit and publish his work as well as a multitude of amazing people who have provided walls and other fun spaces on which to paint and draw.

Born and raised in Queensland, Michael studied at the Queensland College of Art. Since leaving uni, he went on to design and illustrate record covers, posters and all other pop paraphernalia for people such as Resign Dogs, Ramones, Blade (famous pioneering graffiti writer from style wars), to name a few. In 2005 Michael moved to London where he was one half and founding member of the infamous street art duo 'Goldtooth'. Living and breathing the London east end vibrancy, Goldtooth went onto having three successful solo shows. Including appearances at the flash art fair in Milan and with WOWWOW at ‘THE EVENT’ art festival in Birmingham. On top of this they have collaborated with collectives and artists such as the Wowwow collective, Rinzen and Stuart Semple.  Michael is currently working as a solo artist and designer, and as also part of a collaborative fashion label called 'fitz'.

Andrew Sieker is an emerging artist based in the southeast suburbs of Melbourne. Andrew predominantly works in airbrush and acrylic on canvas, and also has skills in sculpture, illustration, digital art and design. Heavily influenced by sci-fi culture, psychedelic art, pop surrealism, and concept art, his work has a strong emphasis on freeform and abstract pattern, with themes of an ambiguous relationship between an imaginative kitsch cosmic inwards/outwards universe. With a strong emphasis on colour, pattern and loose brushwork, the images that emerge offer sense of dreamlike exploration in alien worlds, where a vague sense of the familiar offers multiple avenues for interpretation.

Max Well is a young emerging artist from Melbourne, and by painting the city walls and train lines he found a deeper understanding of art. This love has evolved into the minimal style displayed. The small everyday scenes and moments influence his work and it is these simple things that Max wants to illuminate through his work.

Originally from Perth, Ladie Poise started her artistic career as a teenage Graffiti Writer in the Eighties. Over the years her self-taught styles have evolved into intricate works depicting scenes of bright cheerfulness to dark morbidity often framed with words of wisdom from old sayings, to just good old traditional graffiti. 

“A Corruptible Sense of Reality” is the way this Artist best describes his Creations. Jem Bray, born and bred in South East Melbourne, has an unrepeatable style of digital art that portrays his ever-growing love for Street Culture and all that fine-tunes it. Creating under the Alias “Jemproduce” he is known for his unorthodox style of Manipulation and Layout. Being a self-taught artist with NO educational foundation, Jem is thankful there has been no Rules to abide by, therefore giving him an untainted sense of freedom in his creation and development of each piece. His style has been described as Stylized and Provocative. Jemproduce’s eclectic range of influences span from architecture, basic shapes, colours and geometry to Women and Street Culture.

Drop out, street dweller, scum bag and skallywag. A self taught mischief maker with skeleton legs, Skallywag uses cans for large scale murals, highly detailed and multi layer stencils, illustration & watercolours and has dabbled in screen printing and sculpture. Obsessed with the human form, hands, strange/creepy old men and zombie movies, Skallywag needs to be creating something most days out of the week lest he turn into a weedy, drunken, art nerd version of the Hulk and terrorize small kittens with his misplaced rage.

Kirpy has been cutting out little bits of paper since the start of 2005 and started exhibiting his work with 696 in 2007. Since then he has been trying to push the boundaries of stencils as a medium by constantly increasing the level of detail and layers to make photorealistic artworks that represent his own view of the city he loves. In recent years Kirpy has expanded into traditional print media and photography, all playing influential roles in his canvas work.

The Mystery Man got nervous 

An' he fidget around a bit 

He reached in the pocket of his Mystery Robe 

An' he whipped out a shaving kit 

Now, I thought it was a razor 

An' a can of foamin' goo 

But he told me right then when the top popped open 

There was nothin' his box won't do.

Named one of the most exciting female graphic artists in the world by Curvy magazine in 2010, Sydney-based artist Rebecca Murphy creates works that have been described as a little romantic, floral and syrupy but also a bit gory, bloody and creeped out. Preferring to work in acrylics and archival ink on paper, wood, and canvas, her influences vary from Art Nouveau and Ukiyo-e woodblock prints to Pop Surrealism. Her works have been exhibited in New York, Tokyo, Singapore, Miami, Los Angeles, and all over Australia. Having won or placed well in a number of Art Prizes, been featured in publications both niche and mainstream, discussed on radio and podcast, appearing in a feature interview on ABC2, and being included in the Outpost Project and Miami Art Basel, the majority of her works currently reside in private collections internationally.  

Heralding from the outer Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Jack Douglas grew up during a time when the mullet and happy pants were still in fashion. Propelled by this awesomeness, he drew great influence from Hanna-Barbera, Looney Tunes, tattoo flash, skateboard graphics, comics and the artwork of Salvador Dali and MC Escher. During his teens he discovered graffiti art, pop surrealism and the rest is history. The images he spews from his mind are often grotesque, shining a spotlight on those less fortunate than us, those who dwell on the outskirts of our society and the darkly humerous situations they seem to land themselves in. 

Mishap is a full time Painter/Illustrator and Gallery Owner from Melbourne, Australia. An Artist since the young age of 14, she now spends her time painting, drawing, curating shows, doing free graffiti workshops, painting walls with her partner in crime DOPIO, tattooing or making music. She is one half of the collective At Large, which for the past three years has been based in Melbourne exhibiting and representing Artists both locally and internationally.

Rachee Renee has been brightening streets, alleyways, drains, warehouses, galleries, bars and clubs with super cute characters and killer ladies throughout Melbourne and internationally under more than one alias for at least the last decade. Her style is influenced by pop surrealism, street art and all kinds of Japanese kitsch, creating cute and colourful work that’s just a little provocative. Rachee currently has over 20 solo and group exhibitions under her belt and gets overseas yearly for inspiration to further develop her skills in painting, digital, street art and toy making.

A prolific creative, whose work ranges between traditional paintwork and aerosol – portraiture, design, illustration, and lettering with a special interest in 3D, sculpture and working parts. A sarcastic sense of humour, and a love of satire and word play are evident, as is the heavy influence of Saturday morning cartoon punch, National Geographic drama and wonder, and info soaked, DIY punk rock posters. Also an obsession for playing with power tools, pulling apart and figuring out how things work and making visuals interactive… All of these elements get layered and applied to a ‘suitable’ canvas, generally a recycled or ‘rescued’ one, that adds its own ‘voice’ to the story.

Qwux is the founder and creative director of Rah Collective. Right now he is focused on making and releasing a limited edition resin figure, making t-shirts, and publishing the next Rah Collective book!

Jimmy Faust is a Melbourne based art school dropout, who since 2002 has drawn most of his creative inspiration from his involvement in the street art scene.  Jimmy now works as a designer and visual mercenary. In between projects, Jimmy loves to add to his stack of blackbook sketches, hits up the odd wall and loves create digital illustrations.  Most of his subject matter is playful, humorous insights into modern pop culture and current events. This is in stark contrast his traumatic upbringing spent in his parent’s attic, where he was raised on a strict diet of fish-heads, tepid water and re-runs of The Henderson Kids, Pugwall and Ship to Shore.

Jennifer Mehigan

Jennifer Mehigan (OF THE HOLY BLOOD) is a young, international - currently Sydney based - graphic designer that recently started incorporating unconventional painting styles and illustration to her mostly digital body of work. With a background lying in Fine Art, many of her new series are a process of rediscovering an array of religious and cultural esoterica, traditional techniques and classical imagery that is then deconstructed and often destroyed. 

Emily Slade (aka Mushroomish) is a self-taught, full time working painter and sculpture that has been featured in many national publications; dozens of juried art shows, and is collected around the world.  “When standing before one of her many large and bold paintings, it becomes apparent that she’s inspired and consumed by the world of science fiction, horror films, and crumbling paperback pulp adventure novels. Her work is designed with both strong aesthetic and dramatic qualities in mind, yet communicates strong social and ecological points.” ~RVA Magazine

Deb is on the forefront of Australian street art with her murals spread across the globe. Currently based between Melbourne and Sydney she is an extremely pro-active artist with constant projects on the go. She was recently nominated for Cosmopolitan’s ‘Fun Fearless Female’ award and is involved in ‘Project 5 Live Art’ at Cockle Bay, Sydney. Deb has also exhibited throughout Australia and internationally in solo and group shows, as well as engaged in public art programs and workshops. She has completed a diploma in graphic design and a certificate in book illustration and is currently learning the art of airbrushing and tattooing. 

Jianna Lucia 

Jianna Lucia is a Melbourne based artist,who is interested in art curation and the hybridization and juxtaposition of arts genres. She enjoys combining a broad spectrum of different means of creative arts practices together, such as illustration, painting, graphic design, toymaking, singing and writing. As an artist she prefers to reference the visual representation of urban and man made concepts and constructs that are in and around everyday life in the city and industrial designed environment of the urban landscape.Her work focus's on taking these objects and devices out of context to recreate this imagery by juxtaposing and contrasting these ideas alongside reflections of the natural environment, objects and human lifeforms according to the processes of life in plants, animals and the essences of humanity in tribal societies.Jianna Lucia's work constantly draws comparisons of these ideas of humanity within and outside the man made and natural environment using a broad spectrum of artistic means and practices through her work.

As the proverb says: 'Be careful what you wish for' and in Jo's case she wished for a life that wasn't boring - Ooops! Jo is the creative brain and chief thinker and do'er behind Nothing to Nobody magazine, a quarterly digital publication devoted to all things creative, from illustration to photography - there's even some beer reviews thrown on for good measure. When not working with pixels or paint Jo can be found delving into the murky world of pirates and pirating as she works on her first novel, Dead men Tell no Tales, which will be the first full-length book in the Miss Blimey pirate adventure series. She lives happily in the North Western suburbs of Melbourne, with her wonderful fiancé Josh, and their nutcase of a cat, Frankenstein.

Maria is an Melbourne based Internationally exhibiting Pop Surrealist artist. Her work explores femininity, through psychedelia and surrealism as well as themes of intuition, fertility and the sensitive relationship of the female psyche to nature. Her characters are often anthropomorphic embodiments of natural, physical and esoteric concepts and entities. Through her creative process she shapes abstract and esoteric ideas and beings into living, visceral forms. Throughout her work, Maria engages with wordplay to form narrative syntheses and bring new characters and worlds into being. She connects disparate objects through word association, fusing high-art aesthetics with a low-brow sensibility towards language.

Sarah Beetson is a British Artist and Illustrator based in Australia. She graduated from Falmouth College of Arts, Cornwall, UK in 2002 and won the Pentland Prize for Fine Art the same year. She then spent 4 years in London working in fashion, illustration and design in-house at Yellowdoor (Mary Portas), Pop and The Face magazines and completed a 7 month print design internship at Stella McCartney. A commission followed to decorate the walls of the shoe room of Stella's Bruton Street shop. Since then, she has built a career as a freelance Artist and Illustrator, exhibiting work in London, Paris, Portland, New York, Adelaide, Melbourne, and The Gold Coast, and has been documented in a wealth of books on the subject, published from Taiwan to Argentina to Germany and the USA. Her extensive illustration clientele includes The Telegraph and The Times (UK), The British Fashion Council, Dove/Ogilvy Toronto, Delta Airlines, The Wall Street Journal, Ford Germany, St George Bank, Dreamworld and Perth Fashion Week. Sarah's second solo exhibition; "50 Bucks: Bring On The Sluts" featured Australia's 1st Art Vending machine, donated by Pepsi and painted by the artist, with artworks being sold from the machine inside a cola bottle. Her 3rd show: "YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOU EAT" provided a commentary on eating disorders, the fashion industry and the media. It was shortlisted for the Erin Svigos award at The 2010 Adelaide Fringe and was part of L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival. Sarah’s Current Exhibition “I Dream In Celluloid” explores the content of dreams and the movies she watches via a dreamsketchbook, giant quilt and stop motion animation. It won Creative Review’s Best in Book and is nominated for the Stan & Maureen Duke Prize in Australia. Sarah's work is Preoccupied with the Politics and Perversities of Popular Culture. She divides her time 80/20 between a picturesque farm in Queensland and a Motor Torpedo Boat on The Thames.

TOMMI ARM is a Japanese illustrator/arist based in Melbourne. She has been living in Australia since 2002, and completed Bachelor of Fine Art at Victorian College of the Arts in 2009, majoring in Painting. She has been working under a name “FAM” and has been involved in exhibitions and art projects locally and overseas since 2007, designing local band t-shirts, contributing to online magazines, designing murals and freelance illustration. In 2010, she worked as a set art designer/supervisor as part of a Japanese production of the Wizard of Oz, held in Shinjuku, Japan.

I live in a small regional town, in northern New South Wales; not much really happens around here.  I consider myself a viewer, a collector and occasionally a lost traveler.  My work is a process of filtration, of memories, lyrics, terrain, contemporary issues and the other, all unbound and as is, passed through my eyes, ears and recollection, in mediums that are chosen in part through automation and in part through studio based exploration.  Nothing really is completely reasonable nevertheless will always makes sense to the author... eventually.

Guz's art spawned from the skateboarding subculture that overtook his world and mesmerized him as a young teenager. Years later, around 2002 this inevitably led him into the welcoming arms of the street art medium. As Skateboarders are naturally spatial creatures, Guz has grown accustomed to looking at his local environment with a creative eye. An apparently unlimited canvas and chance to further explore this urban landscape became a passion. No skate park was safe. Traveling to Melbourne and eventually moving there in 2007 furthered his obsession to create subversive landscapes where people would only see monotonous city walls. Being a true Aussie at heart the approach to Guz' artwork is usually whimsical (big word for a piss take), even critical. He often dances along a fine line between vulgarity, pornography and popular culture. His work is heavily influenced by the new age of “cyber-culture” where an agglomeration of images can be poured over in one sitting. He chooses a number of mediums but prefers to make his large canvases by hand and spends countless blistering hours cutting and spraying. Images are cooked up, stripped bare, rearranged and spat out in the Guz laboratory.  Porn stars, politicians and even 1960's movie posters are his favorite fare. 

I am a young visual artist and illustrator from Brisbane, Australia. I regularly illustrate for the cooking column in Australia's fashion magazine 'Frankie' and have a regular autobiographical comic strip called 'Girlie Pains' in Australia's music magazine 'RAVE'. I am an illustrator in Melbourne's Jacky Winter Group agency and have worked with such clients as SONY, Saatchi & Saatchi, Mjolk Clothing, VICE Magazine, Desktop Magazine, HOW magazine and BONDS to name a few. My work is about recording and documenting things that happen in my everyday life. I carry my journalistic tools like a butterfly net, awaiting the next feeling or emotion to capture in a drawing.

I also love the idea of being able to communicate with people I've never met before through a drawing they might see floating around somewhere out there.

Facter

Starting with his exposure in the late 80s to the burgeoning Perth graffiti scene, Facter has been passionate about street art, painting and illustration from an early age. For the past two decades he has avidly studied and researched street art, as well as produced a large body of work whilst living in London, Boston, Perth, Melbourne and Cairns. His work includes depictions of a fantastically surreal realm called The Known, a futuristic look at a culture based on his interests in Singularity theory, technology, science fiction, aztec history and evolutionary biology – which just means that he enjoys painting walls and drawing robots and other weird cyberorganic entities. After moving to Melbourne from Perth in 2009, he has since held two successful solo shows, Inhabited Times and Angels See in Sepia, and has also exhibited in shows at galleries such as Artboy, For Walls, Surface Pop, Rancho Notorious, Brunswick Street Gallery and At Large Gallery. He also regularly participates in live art events, provides street art related consultation and co-ordinates the ReVurt program, a community based initiative which helps to source and provide urban walls and other spaces upon which artists can ply their craft.

Amanda Cain

Amanda Cain is a Melbourne based tattooer and artist, with a background in design and fashion. Heavily influenced by vintage tattoo iconography and her travel experiences abroad, Amanda's work references the past with a modern approach. Her work has been featured in a number of publications and exhibitions in Australia and the UK.

Based in Brisbane, I paint to satisfy myself so my style of painting is constantly changing and growing. I usually use oils, but I swing back and forth with acrylics and watercolors also.  Influenced heavily by Japan, where my grandparents lived, my grandfather was an incredible painter, whom I would watch and learn from for hours on end. I am currently working at Electric Hand in the heart of Brisbane city.

Kasino was born in the Sutherland area of Sydney in 1970. He first started tagging trains in Sydney in 1984 on the Cronulla line. Like most of his peers he was copying what he saw on film clips and movies like Breakdance. His school Port Hacking High had a few murals in it, the names of who he has long forgotten. He would catch the train out to Cronulla beach and he would bomb in red posca pen on the way. It was on the way to the beach that he first saw a door to door with nice clouds and he was hooked.