Just completed this monster wall for Wonderwalls in Wollongong.

This is the biggest scale I have ever worked with. Hope to keep this up…

Big thanks to the Hours for making this event happen

More Pics from the event should be here soon…

I spent the day working with Phibs on a few Canvas’ at his home in Sydney.

I thought I should share the awesomeness that is the house of Phibs:

Thanks to the amazing team at the Hours, Meggs, Phibs & Myself are stoked to be part of this project they have been working on with Verb Syndicate in Wollongong:

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WONDERWALLS is a three day art festival presented by The Hours, Verb Syndicate and Ironlak, featuring some of Australia’s most well known Low Brow artists. The weekend of the 9th – 11th of November we will be hosting an exhibition, an exclusive panel discussion AND a series of small & large scale murals being painted around the Wollongong CBD.



Featuring:

RONE, YOK, SHERYO, MEGGS, PHIBS, ROACH, NUMSKULL, BEASTMAN, THOMAS JACKSON, JUMBO, ZEALOT, PUDL, SAYNT, VANS THE OMEGA, JUMBO, EARS, JAE COPP, TWO ONE, BRIDGE STEHLI, CAM SCALE, BAFCAT, KATSE, SKULK.



If you’re in Wollongong, come join us on the weekend. If you’re from Sydney, it’s only a short drive down the coast. Come for the day, stay for the weekend. Enjoy three days of Australia’s best street and graffiti art, absolutely free.



Visit the WONDERWALLS website for more info.

The always amazing VNA mag has just dropped their 19th issue- check it out:

After six years and hundreds of artists featured, issue 20 is brought to you with an extra 32 pages, bigger and better than ever. This 164-page beast is brimming with features and beautiful images from some of the most talented artists in the world and the cover is graced by a living legend; the one and only Retna.



Producing some of the most visually stunning street art in recent history, Retna explains his signature style and the intricate processes behind his work. Not content with featuring one of the most exciting artists from across the pond we’ve also got interviews with the USA’s master of eco-surrealism painting Josh Keyes, the infamous skateboarding graffiti artist Neckface and the master of mystical worlds Greg Simkins.



No issue would be complete without an Australian artist and this time round we caught up with the man behind some of the most controversial pop-art and mash-up paintings, Ben Frost. But as usual we’ve also packed in some talented Brits in the forms of Guy Mckinley, with his anime-inspired characters and photographer Will Robson-Scott. Alongside them are chats with graffiti king Smash137 of Switzerland, street artists Ozmo and Above and German newcomer DeeDeeKid.



To celebrate the release of this milestone issue, VNA 20 will be available with two alternative covers; one is exclusive to our web store www.verynearlyalmost.com/shop

ISSUE 19 & SUBSCRIPTION PACKAGES NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE AT www.verynearlyalmost.com

Whilst in San Fransico I was able to paint a few walls thanks to Rogue Projects but this one was by far the largest.

A huge thanks to Luke McManus for taking a few days out of his holiday to help me out

One of the locals invited me to his apartment to take this birds eye view photo

The locals make this area what it is, some of the things people said to me were really entertaining so I started to write them down:

-”Looks great”

(just buffed the background)

-”I’m an artist too… Let me know if you need any tips or whatever”

-Overheard “Hi baby, I thought you went to jail”

-”You are so handsome”-( from a really drunk half Samoan/Portuguese transgender person that was stroking my back while I painted)

-”Hey y’all doing this wrong I said; cocain white, marijuana green, heroin brown!- Start Again!”

Guy called James; cro- mags singers older brother. Full face tattooed. 20years on rikers island.

“…I had to ice pick motherfuckers just to eat. Now I’m a buddest, I won’t raise my hand to nobody.”

“…I grew up in new york this the best painting I have ever seen.”

‘…she is so beautiful I could lay next to her for a thousands years just to be close to her.”

Asian Woman from brothel across the street really wanted me to repaint there front. “…we can pay you good”

“You should paint the girls from ‘charmed’ they are amazing… I’m wearing 2 charmed hoodies right now” (then shows me both.)

Kimberly, young Asian American girl with Pravda handbag who writes about love:

Her: “…I lived in Australia for 20years then 16 years here”

me: “so your 36?”

Her: “no!!!!!!”

” …I got a baby kangaroo at my place wanna come see?”

” …I was so drunk there I peed my pants”

-”You should paint Obama… Nekeed!”

-”She so beautiful…

She put the letters in beautiful!”

-”I like your drawing”

-”Thats amazing I should give you a million dollars”

Me: “Do you have a million dollars?”

“Is this worth a million dollers? Shows me a broken electrical adapter”

Me: “Sorry I don’t think it is”

“What about this?”

(shows me her boobs)

-”Look there’s a butterfly in the shitty ally! “(Butterfly was attracted to the fruit in the painting)

One guy even wrote me this poem:

Fruit of your Labour - The Blight of Carmen

Technically aspects that are normal led

yielding the gilding that will produce the miranda head

resulting in this grand design

orchestrating the fruit of your labours with your mind

now you find the time to feel so quant

eager to be a creature of creation

who’ll paint in the city of

Francis the saint ain’t it

grand nothing harmin’ to understand the

blight of Carmen

But this would have to be my favourite moment in San Fran.

After a long day of painting I came back to White Walls Gallery to find this happy bunch of people dancing to a car stereo. One lady, Mary Perry asked me if I could film her signing a song- I hope she likes it as much as I do:

Mary Perry // Bobby Brown – My Preogative from Everfresh Studio on Vimeo.

Continuing on with some posts from my stay in California, after working on my exhibition in SF, I was able to paint a wall and hit up a roof top collaborative paste-up with local SF artist DYoungV.

The wall was painted in the heart of the Tenderloin as part of my exhibition theme ‘Truth in Myth’. In case you dont know the Tenderloin is somewhat of a ghetto style neighborhood which exists smack bang in the heart of central San Francisco. (pun intended). Need less to say there’s a lot of interesting characters cruising this neighborhood daily.
Whilst Rone was in SF he was lucky enough to be able to shoot the below music video in front of my wall, feat. TL local and full time party gal Mary Pery and the TL backup dancers.
Photography by Colin M Day, video by Rone:

This night-time paste mission was done with DYoungV and the help of Hugh Leeman.
Photography by Shaun Roberts.

Studio Lurking.

Fred Fowler is a Melbourne based contemporary artist with a background in street art and graffiti. After living in Paris and travelling throughout Europe for a year in 2009 – 2010, Fred returned to Melbourne to study at the Victorian College of the Arts, he is currently completing his second and final year of the Master of Contemporary Art degree under the supervision of Jon Cattapan. Decorating the Apocalypse is his third solo exhibition and is a culmination of work completed over the last four years.

Rone taking his girls to a whole ‘nother level…

Rone and Wonder, Rose St Fitzroy 2012.

Congrats to Lister on making the cover of the latest VNA mag, also nice to see TwoOne gets a feature.

Also if you are in Sydney get along to the Launch Party:

Finally the long awaited King Brown Magazine is Launching their 8th Issue:

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Co-curated by Morning Breath Studio (NY), issue 8 features fine work and studio visits of skate-related artists including:

Mike Giant (brown bag), Grotesk (cover), Andy Jenkins,
Jay Howell, Dave Kinsey, Kevin Lyons, Greg Lamarche, Tommy Guerrero, Cycle, Pontus Alv, Razauno, Stefan Marx, Steve Gourlay, Zach Malfa-Kowalski and Ben Horton.

http://www.kingbrownmag.com/

king-brown-2.jpeg

Rone and I have working on a new wall on the Veggie Bar on Brunswick St, the beast is almost done.

Full flicks coming soon, when someone manages to get a nice photo with no car’s parked in front of it…

Lush AKA Mr Street Art is taking things to a whole ‘nother level in London right now, flyer below for his upcoming show. They even look like real logo’s on his flyer this time…

If the rumors going around about this show are true, you may want to bring along a respirator.

Lush also has these prints up on POW if you have some spare coin around, looks like it’s almost sold out.

Last week hundreds of people came down to Backwoods Gallery to see off one of Melbourne’s most prolific street artists, James Reka. Before moving to Europe next month, he put on a pop up show that tied together all of the loose ends of his decade long career. Featuring a final fresh body of exhibited work alongside selected works from 2004 to 2006, fans came down in hordes to pay their final respects to one of Melbourne’s finest.

The new body of work was exclusively painted on rusted found objects such as spray cans, corrugated sheet metal and antique gold-mining pans that were found walking the train lines and salvaged from abandoned warehouses. Referencing his beginnings as a graffiti artist, the walls were strewn with scrunched butchers paper to create texture and act as an urban framework for the works. It was a process-driven concept, with Reka organically using every aspect of the spray cans to create artworks, from turning the paper labels into collages to painting the shell of the can itself.

In addition to this new body of work, Reka pulled a large collection of old works out of the vault from some of his original shows in the early to mid 2000s. Many of these canvases haven’t been seen for six or seven years and produced a huge, esteeming response from the crowd. Displaying works that have been painted over a decade apart, the audience could see Reka’s transformation from being known as having the strongest graffiti inspired line-work in Australia to his now renowned free-form canvases. Whether it is one of his iconic characters from the early 2000s or an incredibly intricate new work, Reka’s style is revered within the community and has continues to influence younger artists. There is no doubt it is commendable to already have such a strong retrospective of work and such a huge turn out of admirers in what is guaranteed to be a long and illustrious career.

Australia is losing one of their best to the bright lights and bigger walls of Europe, but there is no doubt that Reka’s legacy will continue both on the laneway and gallery walls for years to come. Gone, but not forgotten.
- Text by Georgia Frances King.

Some images courtesy of Everguide & Kompound blogs.

A selection of works from the exhibition:

So here I am again, 12 months from my first solo and it’s time to do it all again. Below is all the details, I hope you can make it:

- Rone

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Best known for the distinctive female centrepieces of his paste ups and murals on the walls of Melbourne, globetrotting street artist Rone returns to his home town for his first local show of 2012 in the more conventional surroundings of Collingwood’s Backwoods Gallery.

Fall from Grace sees Rone continue to showcase his female muse, but in a different light across 12 new works – three on canvas (including one triptych), four on brick and four on paper, all peeled, tattered and aged to reflect the outdoor environment he’s accustomed to working in.

Fall from Grace explores the idea of personal change through the rise and fall of a modern heroine, utilising the textures of hand painted signage, torn bill posters and deteriorating walls to symbolise the evolution of his lead character; how beauty can hide the darkest scars; how behind every light there is darkness. Inspired by recent travels through the faded beauty of Miami and Cuba, he draws on a palette of muted colours to pay homage of the 1980s – a time when style, questionable or otherwise, was all that mattered.

“We all have moments in our lives that make us who we are,” says Rone of the message at the heart of Fall from Grace. The scale of the works may not reach the epic heights he’s already reached on walls in London, Paris and Hawaii this year, but the scale of his ambition is as impressive as ever.

Fall from Grace – a solo exhibition by Rone

Backwoods Gallery

25 Easey Street, Collingwood, Victoria

Friday 29 June (opening night) – Sunday 15 July, 2012
12 works: 3 on canvas (including one triptych), five on brick, four on paper

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Here is a few extra pics:

Email: [email protected] for a catalogue request