This Friday see’s the opening of Look See 2011, the exhibition component of the annual Look Hear art & design event held in Newcastle. Showcased will be a diverse range of works comprising of illustration and design, painting, photography, video and street art—from not only this years Look Hear 2011 speakers, but previous years and also works from a select group of both established and up and coming talents from around the Newcastle region and further afar. Special guests on the night will be Secret Wars for their first time in Newcastle, where locals Malade will battle it out against visiting Sydney fellas Houl and Sprinkles. See flyer for all the deets or check the Look Hear 2011 website.

No BUFFdiss, but here’s my stab at rockin some red tape…the first installation piece from my new “Truth series”. More to follow soon…

Truth (Red Tape) by TEZ.

Be sure to get along to this show if in Sydney town!…

On the back of winning the Absolute Stairwell Gallery’s Peoples Choice auction and recently participating in the Adidas ‘All in Challenge’, BENNETT announces his solo show ‘ORANGES & LEMONS’.

The concept behind the show’s title is derived from a well known children’s nursery rhyme and is set to challenge the way we perceive images, from the way they are “meant” to be been viewed.

Working in mixed media, acrylic and aerosols, BENNETT’s work is often laiden with controversial and sometimes shocking commentary. He re-contextualises common, mass-produced objects and themes within the layers of his mashed up styled pieces. The result although entertaining to the audience, ultimately challenges viewers to draw upon their own conclusions from the numerous narratives and scenarios in which they are faced.

BENNETT currently works out of Sydney’s StupidKrap studios.

“ORANGES AND LEMONS” opens Thursday May 19th at 6pm.

Oh Really Gallery
55 Enmore Road, Newtown
Sydney NSW 2042
Show continues till May 29th – Opening hours 11am – 6pm

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/21906258[/vimeo]
www.michaelbennett.com.au
				

It was a pretty darn drizzly old day on Saturday up in Newcastle, but in between the showers I managed to complete the piece below titled The World Is Your Monster. Here you can see my little fella being dwarfed by it, standing at nearly 3m tall it is by far my biggest stencil to date. If you are in the neighbourhood you can check it in Keightley Street, off Hunter Street Mall. A big thanks to Simone Sheridan from SAW for making it all happen. Rumour also has it that some pretty big names may be gracing more of the surrounding walls soon…so stay tuned coz’ like I have said before, Newcastle is one town to watch!

If you are anywhere near Newie you should get along to this. A milestone for public art in the City of Newcastle and Australian Street Art in general.  With initiatives such as Renew Newcastle and now SAW (Formerly walkArtbout), this town is one to watch.

click images for zoom.

Dan Witz is one clever fella…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4FUHSii6OQ[/youtube]

Last Thursday night saw the opening of the biggest paste-up manifestation Australia, if not the world, has ever seen — Paste Modernism 2 at Sydney’s LO-FI Collective . Curated by Ben Frost and Bridge Stehli and presented by Stupid Krap, the space over the course of a few days transformed into an incredible mash up of wheat pasted art, what could be best described as a “visual overload”. There were over thirty contributing artists from Australia and abroad, ranging from the emerging to the more established players in the scene. Below is some pics from the opening night, courtesy of John Lampard and you can see more on his flickr. To check the original Paste Modernism part 1, where it all started go here . enjoy.

All photos courtesy of John Lampard. www.disassociated.com

Newcastle’s This Is Not Art (TINA) festival is an annual event now in it’s thirteenth year! This year I was asked to be involved in walkARTbout along with several other artists, each designated wall space in the city to do their thing. TINA 2010 is special because it is the first year an actual street art component (well legal, anyway) has been added to the event program. This is somewhat surprising when you learn that the the festivals namesake is derived from the infamous (well, if you are from Newcastle) graffiti which once graced the then derelict Latec House.

Organizers in previous years had struggled to incorporate “street art” into the event with opposition from local townsfolk, business and council. This was mainly due to many misconceptions, fear and probably for the most part ignorance. Come 2010 however, attitudes have shifted and the addition of walkARTbout has been welcomed and the overall response has been a positive one, so much so, it will be a permanent fixture in the TINA program for years to come. Full credit and a special thanks must go to Festival Coordinator Simone Sheridan, walkARTbout Curator Carli Hyland and the rest of the TINA 2010 team.

Below, the infamous “This Is Not Art” piece…..

…..and here are a few snaps and video below from artWALKabout 2010.

Damien Mitchell

Daniel O’Toole aka Ears

yours truly

Trine Deans

Umpel (stencils) & Ben Foster

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjwdcn_WiLg[/youtube]

Video via Erik Strapparo

Paste Modernism 2 is shaping up to be HUGE with a super line up of locals and internationals, way too many to list. So if you are in Sydney town be sure to get your backside up to LO-FI Collective this Thursday night…..if this alone hasn’t already sold ya, check the snaps from Paste Modernism part 1 here and then think tenfuckingfold. Sold? thought so, see ya up there!

Thursday, October 7 · 6:00pm – 8:30pm

LO-FI Collective, 383 Bourke St Darlinghurst.