The crew at Blankwalls recently held a group show at their newly opened Blankwalls Studio in Perth.
Blankwalls has built an enviable reputation across the globe as world class stable of street/mural talent, so I was happy to be included in an impressive lineup of artists from all over the globe to showcase some of my work.
I managed to get 5 pieces into this show , they were; Dawn, Outer orbit, Explore feel, Inner Landscapes and The new machine.
Well, this was unexpected!
This year I really wanted to get back into exhibiting some work and had a few pieces in progress, two in particular that stood out as possible entries in the Rockingham Art Prize.
As the entry deadline approached the smaller piece was picked up by a collector so I had no choice but to push a larger piece ‘The New Machine’ to completion.
After putting the final touches on this one it was photographed and submitted. I waited knowing that this show attracted a large amount of submissions. They in fact received over 460 submissions and I was lucky enough to be amongst around 60 artists selected for exhibition. I was extremely happy to be selected.
Seeing my work in a local gallery was fantastic and the opening night and awards were an even bigger highlight for this year.
This 1 x 1 meter artwork is a statement about where we are going as our digital world slowly surrounds us and eventually we become a part of it an it becomes part of us. The central human has taken on a new face the human has become the new machine.
I had the pleasure of exhibiting in a rare 2020 group exhibition held at the Corner Gallery just after WA Covid restrictions were relaxed. It was a chance to introduce my work to Perth in a small way after not exhibiting in my home city for so long.
The bonus was exhibiting alongside some of Perth’s established and emerging artists.
I exhibited three original pieces.
All three pieces were sold during the exhibition. You can see them on my Original Art page.
Massive thankyou to my new collectors that picked up one of these pieces and also to Alex and The Corner gallery.
There are little parts of every city that get forgotten, a broken window, a lifeless grey wall. They are the dark corners and run-down alleyways that beg for new life or a splash of colour.
There’s a building I pass by often, a slightly awkward building perched on a busy road in West Leederville that has this damaged, rusty vent. Metal slats are missing leaving a big dark space (it actually opens up into the building basement) I’ve been weirdly obsessed by it.
It’s that dark void I’m interested in, at first I thought it looked like the building had one closed and one open eye. Wouldn’t it look cool to paint that? But then I thought it might be possible to create some art that occupies that dark void, perhaps I could use that negative space to tell the story of that aged wall. It clearly needed one of my tormentor characters.
Say hello to Frank, I wanted Frank to be chomping down on that busted metal frame like he was standing in the basement holding onto the frame and watching the cars zipping past. I’m pretty satisfied by the result.
UPDATE: Frank managed to win a Creative Project award from one of Perth’s Mayor candidates. I’m too lazy to dig up the details but you can take my work for it 🙂
I’m always interested in the man made systems around us that influence our behaviors, often without us even realizing and often sending us down into a time burning rabbit hole.
Click Machine is all about that in the context of the web or social media. Today it seems to be built purely to make us all sad clicking zombies searching for the next hit.
This artwork is a once off original and available here
DoodlesinTransit 