The Future

‘Tis the season for cinephiles in Melbourne this month at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

The latest creation from author, director, actor, artist and generally creative lady Miranda July is The Future, showing at MIFF this year. We have waited six years since her last film Me and You and Everyone We Know won awards at Cannes, Sundance and the Independent Spirit Awards, but it was worth it.

It is narrated by a talking cat who is darkly philosophical as he waits patiently in a veterinary clinic.

His prospective owners are acouple of thirty-somethings who struggle to prove that they are mature enough to take on such a long-term commitment as having a pet cat.

The movie deals with a couple experiencing a pre-midlife crisis and how they deal with the looming presence of middle age. The two confront the kind of everyday anxieties and the bad decisions that people make throughout their life. It is equal parts comedy and tragedy, and is a definite must-see for this year’s festival.

Miso's Tchusse

Miso is another one of my favourite artists, whose work I first became familiar with on the streets. She works with pen, ink, pencil, as well as paper cuts and embroidery in the Mitten Fortress along with her partner GhostPatrol.

In her new exhibition, Tchusse, Miso has created an ambitious installation inspired primarily by the Ukranian folklore that she grew up with and also with the street art of Melbourne which she actively participates in.

Expect a city built from paper, material and decaying wood as Miso reproduces a urban landscape from her memory.

Miso also has a new website up and running. Check out the website of the Melbourne Artist Miso.

Acorn, Ghost Patrol And Nior At Gorker Gallery

Three spectacular Melbourne artists will be showcasing their latest body of work in the first installment of The Triforce Advance, titled The Neverending Masterquest. A number of collaborative works by Acorn, Ghostpatrol and Nior will be on display as well as many of their individual pieces.

Expect truly vivd characters, which these three artists are so often noted for, created with range of mediums such as acrylic, found objects, paper and water colours.

Opening nights at Gorker Gallery are often very busy, so get there early!

New Villain QV Store

It seems like QV is the place to be, first with a new No Vacancy gallery popping up, and now with a New Villain store claiming some space just off Russell street, at 26 Jane Bell Lane.

Villain provides a range of different products, ranging from locally designed clothing to original artworks and prints by some of my favourite artists, such as Ghostpatrol. Toy lovers be warned. Your jaw will drop to the floor when you see the custom made vinyl toys on offer.

The new store also features an exciting changing visual space is their known as the Villain Window Project where artists are invited to showcase their work. Jaime Palomba is the first featured artist utilizing this space, displaying her imaginative and highly detailed 3D charicatures hand-crafted with paper.

The store is kind of like an artist’s playground and an all day exhibition with something for everyone.

Some Type Of Wonderful

Some Type of Wonderful is a global appreciation of typography, initiated in 2008. Twelve artists hand-picked from around the world are each asked to interpret a month of the year and express it in the form of an innovative typographic design.

The artworks are then compiled into a limited edition wall calendar which will keep you going until next year’s exhibition. They will also be available as limited edition prints on cotton rag paper, accompanied by an artist signed Certificate of Authenticity, rivalling the quality of prints displayed in a museum. You don’t get that kind of service when you use Times New Roman.

International illustrators and designers exhibiting their work include: Jonathan Zawanda, Mario Hugo, Luca Barcellona, Maxwell Lord, PMKFA, Theo Gennitsakis, Jessica Hische, Pablo Alfieri, Sebastian Lester, Siggi Eggertsson, Jiro Bevis and (…one of my personal favourites…) Gary Taxali.

If you can’t stand the sight of Comic Sans, or if you’re one of those people who prides themself in knowing the difference between Arial and Helvetica, then Some Type of Wonderful is for you.

Melbourne Stencil Festival 09

Since their first exhibition, held at a ex-sewing factory in 2004, the Melbourne Stencil Festival has continued to attract large audiences, allowing them to connect with many undiscovered yet talented artists.

The aim of the festival is to promote the street art movement, supporting artists and enthusiasts from this unique part of Melbourne’s art culture. On the opening night over 200 people filled the Yarra Sculpture Gallery to listen to speeches and winners of awards, such as the 2009 Best in Show Award given to Tom Sevil (AKA Civil), co-founder of BreakdownPress.

This year the festival will run until the 4th of October, spanning across the Yarra Sculpture Gallery and the closely located Collingwood Underground. Besides the galleries exhibiting stunning street art, there are also many workshops and collaborative wall-spraying events for all ages.

Check out the Melbourne Stencil Festival website for more information about what’s happening at both locations.

Twoone showcasing some of his work

When I attended Twoone’s first solo show last year, titled One Thousand Cans, I was extremely impressed by the technical intricacies of his work. His mythical characters boasted seemingly impossible detail on a minute scale, complimented by rich black outlines.

I am proud to announce that Twoone’s new exhibition, So Far, utilises one of my favourite mediums – found objects. There’s something really beautiful about an old wooden box with cream paint slowly flaking off or corrugated plastic roofing manipulated in a way that gives it an entirely different identity. If you’re excited about lively creatures painted on wood, then you’ll love this exhibition.

Twoone (Hiroyasu Tsuri) was born in Japan in 1985 and, after turning 18, he moved to Melbourne. He has since studied Visual Arts and New Media at Swinburne University and become a prominent part of Melbourne’s street art scene. He first became interested in street art at an early age while photographing a two-kilometre long wall in his hometown of Yokohama.

Don’t miss it:

No Vacancy Gallery
34–40 Jane Bell Lane, QV
Melbourne

Exhibition Runs: 10th September – 27th September 2009

Rabbit featured in Cineraria

Reproducing dead animals for display at a historical exhibition is one thing, but when it’s combined with jewellery specifically designed to wear on one’s body, it’s sure to turn heads.

Julia DeVille originally began her career as a shoe designer, inventing the leather accessories brand Abattoir before realizing it wasn’t her thing. After this, DeVille was taught the art form of taxidermy through the retired professional, Rudy Mineur. During this time she also received a degree in advanced gold and silversmithing. It was this knowledge across seemingly unrelated disciplines that lead her to create her style of jewellery known as Disce Mori (Latin for “learn to die“).

Now focusing as a full-time artist, her exhibition “Cineraria” is currently on display at the Sophie Gannon Gallery in Richmond. The exhibition features a collection of sculptural works exploring mortality and the rituals behind the preservation or disposal of the dead.

Basically, it’s full of creepy-awesome dead things and if this rabbit appeals to you, check it out.

Cineraria runs until 22 August 2009
Sophie Gannon Gallery
2 Albert Street
Richmond VIC 3121

ACMI to open new gallery

Since 2007 ACMI has had a temporary wooden shed-like construction placed around its exterior, somewhat resembling the ramparts of a castle during a siege.

Come September these hoardings will be ripped down revealing an all-year-round free exhibition educating the Australian public about the history of film, television and videogames. The exhibition will also acknowledge key contributers to these respective fields and feature a new world-leading Games Lab allowing visitors to play their way through videogame culture.

To make way for this new attraction, the content of the building’s entire ground floor will be relocated to studio space upstairs, producing an exhibition even bigger than ACMI’s already prominent Screen Gallery, totalling 1600 square metres. After the opening of this new exhibition, the Screen Gallery will still continue to present a diverse array of special exhibitions.

ACMI’s new look was brought to life by Ab Rogers Design, the group famous for designing other great cultural organisations such as Tate Modern and the Centre Pompidou. We can only hope that the new gallery is just as spectacular.

Pocketful of Scoundrel

Kate Bonazi’s outstanding hand pulled silkscreen prints, which explore the colourful imagery experienced before drifting off to sleep, can be explained in one word:

A phosphene is an entoptic phenomenon characterized by the experience of seeing light without light actually entering the eye.

-Wikipedia

Kate is an illustrator and graphic artist, born in London where she completed a fashion degree at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design. Now based in Australia, her first ever solo exhibition, Neural Housekeeping, runs until August 15 at the Lamington Drive Gallery in Fitzroy. Expect sharply printed geometric shapes crossed with warm colour palettes and a splash of photographical elements for focal points.

Don’t miss it!

Neural Housekeeping
Lamington Drive
89 George St
Fitzroy Melbourne