Interview: street artist Vexta

The work of Australian artist Vexta is known around the globe for its vibrant colour, intense geometric shapes and charmingly vulnerable subjects.

Aside from painting in Sydney for the Outpost Project and Project Five, Vexta is a prolific worker both indoors and out.

I caught up with her to find out the inspirations behind her work and what her next step will be.

When did you first begin stencil and street art? What influenced that beginning?

I first started painting on the streets in the mid 2000’s. I came back to Melbourne after spending most of a year traveling around Australia and South East Asia. I got back right at the time when stencils were booming in Melbourne and overnight many would appear. I loved the aesthetic and the opportunity for me to combine my love of print-making and photography making stencils so I started going out at night painting little pieces in laneways. From there I got involved in The emptyshows and met other street artists, starting doing shows and the rest is the rest.
 

What did it feel like working on your first few outdoor pieces, knowing there would be an almost instant audience for them?

When I first started making street art I didn’t really think about having an instant audience – I just hoped that a few people who wandered past might see them, I actually considered other street and graffiti artists as my audience at first. I always put my work in what I consider to be aesthetically pleasing locations they aren’t always super visual to everyday people.
 

You've lived and worked in Melbourne and Sydney. What do you think are some differences between them in the way street art is made and consumed?

Obviously Melbourne has a higher appreciation and tolerance for street art and has embraced it a lot more than Sydney. I think for that reason traditional graffiti is still really strong here in Sydney because the risks are higher. Sydney is catching up though.
 

You often base your works on photographs of friends. Why do you like to celebrate these friendships with the many strangers who see your art?

I’m always searching for the personal and the universal and the ways these two opposing dichotomies can coexist and feed back into each other all at once. So it makes sense to me to paint the people that I’m surrounded with and then let them evolve into these more general representations of emotions or ideas. It also adds another subtle layer of personal meaning to my work as it connects it to my relationship to the people I paint. Whether they are friends, lovers, family, peers or strangers.
 

Your works are known for their vibrant colours, visual energy and sombre emotion. What draws you to work with these elements?

In the same way I like to paint with intense clashing colours and construct form out of them I think that it's interesting to paint emotions or ways of being that might be inwards, still and dark in bright hyper-colours. I make work that speaks of the time we live in, everything looks bright and happy from the outside but there are certain chinks in the perfection we strive for that in this future world that shows the darkness and possibility for menace underneath. 

Thousands of people saw your incredible mural for the Outpost Project. What did you think of that event and how it impacted on public opinion of graffiti and street art?

Its hard for me to say, I guess I’m in too deep to know what the public thinks. This is just what I do and basically what I live for, its more than a job or hobby for most of the artists who were involved in Outpost, it’s a way of life. Hopefully people got that.

What are some cities we can find your work in?

I recently painted in San Francisco. I still have pieces up in Melbourne and Sydney. I’m about to paint some new ones in both cities. I’ve also painted in Bogota in Colombia, in London, Paris and Berlin but given the ephemeral nature of street art I don’t know what still exists where.

What are you working on at the moment, or in the coming months?

I’ve just finished creating new paintings for a solo show in Brisbane called In-Between Worlds with Edwina Corlette Gallery, then I’m painting some walls in Sydney and Melbourne and possibly Newcastle, then I’m heading off to New York for a while to paint draw and plan more travel.

You might also like:

■ Beastman designs for Smirnoff
■ More from the Outpost Project
■ Darlinghurst street art

Graffiti artist Deadboy does interview, wears Gay Pride mask

This interview with derided Toronto stencil artist Deadboy got me thinking. See, that's the problem. We should consume street art the way we consume each other's Facebook news feeds. With blind hunger.

Deadboy, wearing a silver-coloured skull mask used to reach the angsty age 12-18 middle-class suburbia demographic, explains to his interviewer that the reason he got into stencilling was because UK artist Banksy inspired him.

Banksy is the Martha Stewart of the street art world. And stencilling is the graffiti equivalent of Tea Party politics. According to one reliable source, Deadboy began his stencilling career after watching Exit Through the Gift Shop. Yes, I know.

Look, Deadboy is obviously a talented bro with an agenda against Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. He went to the Cardinal Carter Arts Academy and realised that to make it as an artist he had to be discovered. To be discovered he has to be cool. To be cool he has to become part of a buzz movement, which is temporarily street art. So he put on a Gay Pride mask, or something, and stencilled a wall during daylight for this video while talking about how other artists are hating on him.

And now he's being written about by some loser Australian blogger - with a name equivalent to that f-cked up mask - who criticises other bros for their actual/minor/negligible successes.

Ah, what do I know. Watch the f-cking video.

You might like:

■ Meggs and Beastman videos
■ Anthony Lister Bogan Paradise
■ German hotties Herakut

Street Art Videos: Meggs, Beastman

Meggs for Endeavor from Endeavor Snowboard Design on Vimeo.

Hey dudes. Here are a couple of videos to help you detox off photoblogs. The first features Melbourne artist Meggs talking about how tough the creative life is.


Beastman x VNA from Make Some Tea on Vimeo.

This second video is a Very Nearly Almost interview with Beastman as he discusses the creative process and his inspirations.

Anthony Lister Bogan Paradise

(Source)

Australian-American-Australian artist Anthony Lister recently unveiled a new exhibition at a derelict sex shop in Sydney.

I haven't seen Bogan Paradise yet, but his exhibition sort of looks like a commentary on the state of Australian culture[lessness].

It features panels like the one above, along with a dilapidated interior design, to show Lister's views on the beer-slurping, choke-on-a-bong f-ckin' c-unts Aussies can be [in rural Queensland].

Here is a promo video depicting the gritty, amphetamine-laced world urban artists like Lister inhabit [while coincidentally on the publicity trail]:

And here's another video at the gallery, which is located near Central Station, showing artist and Outpost Project curator Ben Frost getting tattooed by Prizm:

Ben Frost Ghetto Ink from The Institute of Excellent on Vimeo.

I'm worried about you guys :( Maybe you need a holiday?

Bogan Paradise was staged by Joseph Allen Shea, of Monster Children Gallery, as part of his new project Gallery AS.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

Anthony Lister in Berlin

German street artists: Herakut

 (Source)

Herakut is an attractive German art duo that gets regular coverage on street art blogs.

As happens with other artists, I had an existential crisis as I watched this video about them.

Herakut - OneThirty3 from onethirty3 on Vimeo.

In a moment of clarity I wondered which one - their names are Hera and Akut - I was more attracted to. I mean, they're both keut artists with keut accents, so it was hard to avoid falling for their likeable creative brand.

But I was just sooo confused about which one I wanted inside me.

Then I imagined them necking in a department store change room. I was caught up. I heard Mariah Carey singing 'Fantasy' in the distance, her voice wet with reverb.

As I played their interview over and over I hoped they'd have babies to save me from this post-Banksy world.

They have a real When Harry Met Sally vibe, don't they?

(Oh Harrakut!)

Now, when Herakut Google themselves and see this blog post, will they give each other awkward glances and make excuses to swap shirts? Or will they stammer as they discuss the foibles of meme-centric publicity?

I don't know. All I have is questions and a desire to get to know you through my own thoughts.

Anthony Lister in Berlin

Anthony Lister in Berlin from rodgezooi on Vimeo.

In this video Anthony Lister runs around Berlin and tags sh-t and sounds lethargic and does a bad impression of Bob Dylan.

But there's something about him that's so likeable. So what if he can't speak with a convincing American accent even though he's lived in New York for years?

Acid Midget: Hey Tony, I'm feeling a little bromance over you in this video.
Lister: Dude my name isn't Tony.
AM: OK. I like your art works. The ones with all the deformed eyes and noses and Michael Jackson werewolves.
L: Dude how did you get into my house?
AM: Tony, I feel like we understand each other.
L: I don't think so. You really need to leave now.
AM: What's your favourite part of Berlin?
L: The East Berlin Police Department.
AM: Why is that Tony? I thought you liked decrepit houses and skate parks?
L: You'll find out in about 20 mins. Don't go anywhere.
AM: Awww Tony!

Neckface and Isaiah Secret film

Neckface - Born Under a Bad Sign from Isaiah Seret on Vimeo.

This is some trailer for some film called Born Under a Bad Sign created by sometimes anonymous graffiti artist Neckface and controversial filmmaker Isaiah Secret.

It looks like a B grade cross between Kill Bill and Exit Through The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but that somehow doesn't bother me.

This trailer proves that street artists who get into filmmaking - the postmodern medium of 'great storytelling'/monetising buzz brands - are able re-frame their already recognised symbols for a different audience.

This was filmed at MOCA in Los Angeles for the Art in the Streets exhibition.

See more here.

Artist: Roa

ROA part II from Spencer Keeton Cunningham on Vimeo.

(Via Brooklyn Street Art)

Check out this short of Roa painting a giant rabbit on the side of some San Francisco shop. Seeing this creative process unfold is like staring through a window and watching rain fall.

Please subscribe to Acid Midget for regular weather updates.

LOS ANGELES: Banksy stencils ruined, sold

Banksy has been ordering lackeys to paste stencils all over Los Angeles in the past week.

He is trying to get a big media penis pointed at his face so everyone will see when it's time for a jizzy money shot at the Oscars.

Banksy's mockumentary Exit Through The Uterine Canal is nominated for Best Documentary, although it isn't technically a documentary because the second half is fiction.

The focus of the second half is 'fine artist' Mr Brainwash, who Exit's scriptwriters created. He is now selling prints off his website as a way to legitimise fiction. MBW is now a meme, just like author Truman Capote's In Cold Blood was when it was published - a non-fiction novel made up of 50 per cent fact and 60 per cent fiction.

(Image source)

Someone has also trashed the Crayon Gun piece. The initials MBW (Mr Brainwash) add irony to ironic circumstances. It's like Post-Post Modernist dialogue between artists who don't have any fresh ideas.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

LOS ANGELES: New Banksy Stencils

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Banksy bombs Sunset Boulevard billboard

 

 

 

 

 

New Banksy stencil in LA

 

 

 

 

 

 

Banksy banned from Oscars

BERLIN: 1UP subway graffiti bomb

Berlin's 1UP graffiti crew hit a subway train brandishing balaclavas and cans in this clip.

They cover an entire carriage in silver, black, red and white in only two minutes as passengers choke with fear.

This is what graf is all about. Art fags don't get it; if you're not terrorising the city, destroying shit and scaring the neighbours then GTFO.

This clip forms part of the documentary Unlike U: Trainwriting in Berlin.

Artist: Mini Graff

(Image source)

Do you know Sydney artist Mini Graf?

She makes anti-capitalist posters and has a thing for the classic 1950s couple, like in Mad Men, where women are at the whim of chauvinistic dudes (make dinner or GTFO).

(Image source)

However, the traditional 'couple' has been superseded by Gen-Y. People aren't couples any more but, rather, mutually selfish individuals with shared tastes in multimedia, ethnic derivation and a need for sex on a 12-hourly basis.

(Image source)

Mini Graf is apparently a former New Zealander, like street artist HaHa. She shed her nationality, like many Kiwis do, because there is a larger market for her work here and bloggers are more likely to give her coverage.

In this video Mini Graf talks about the imprisonment of chickens in Sydney. It's a good introduction to her ideas about street art. I felt 'closer' to her after watching it.

You might too.

WASHINGTON: Protesting artists banned from Smithsonian

(Via Hyperallergic)

A Fire in my Belly is a dirty, dirty film made by David Wojnarowicz and was recently exhibited in the Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian.

The filthy video above depicts two artists, one filming, and the other, Mike Blasenstein, with an iPad around his neck and handing out flyers.

Blasenstein was like "I'm not standing fur this shit. Fuck you far-right fuckers" and protested at the entrance to the gay-themed Hide/Seek exhibition, which the film had been removed from on Sunday.

The iPad played Wojnarowicz's film. It was recently banned from Hide/Seek after Republican members of US Congress and conservative religious groups complained about its content.

The film depicts ants crawling on a crucifix for about 11 seconds. Yay.

The protesters were arrested and given a life ban from all Smithsonian buildings.

NOTE: The beginning of the video is good, as is the end. Not much happens in the middle.

Check out more at the Washington Post.

Banksy creates surprising anti-capitalist Simpsons intro

I wouldn't call this subversive, but the new Simpsons intro Banksy made takes a departure from the regular sequences which open the show.

It features dreary shots of weary Asians working on a production line. They make Simpsons merchandise in depressing sweatshop conditions.

The music is melancholic at best.

Does this glorify the anti-status quo messages in Banksy's art?
Is 20th Century Fox having a laugh at its own questionable production methods?

I think neither. But the intro has done what it was designed for - hitting 'refresh' on an oft-boring show by going a bit viral.

Street artist: Deb

DEB LIVE PAINTING AT BLUE TILE LOUNGE from Blue Tile Lounge on Vimeo.

Check out this sweet stop-motion video of street artist Deb painting outside the Blue Tile Lounge in Fitzroy, Melbourne on Sunday.

I had a chat with her as she worked on it and, apart from being super-friendly, she can also paint in purple heels.

That's impressive.

More info at Deb's website.

Video: Living Decay

LIVING DECAY - a portrait of a changing landscape - from nulli versi on Vimeo.

This doco features two street artists working in the lush Norwegian countryside.

To the voiceover of pioneer 1970s street artist John Fekner, they make huge stencils on the walls of abandoned homes.

They do this under amber skies as birds and bees make love in the green hills and craggy mountains behind them.

Skip to 1m 30s and you'll see these artists at work, cutting paper, tracing designs, organising paint cans.

The overall feeling I get from this doco is sadness. Not the pleasurable catharsis of something like Romeo & Juliet - just emptiness.

The stencils are great. Check out the gorilla with a banana to its head (like a pistol) and the paraplegic who stands up and walks.

Here's a grab from the Living Decay site:

"In the summer of 2008 Dolk and Pøbel, two talented Norwegian street artists, took on the challenge of Lofoten Islands countryside in Norway to create large-scale murales on the faces of abandoned houses which are about to be demolished.

The documentary opens and closes with the narration by the American artist John Fekner, pioneer of 70’ street art.

Features paintings by DOLK, PØBEL and LOFOTEN LANDSCAPE."

See more here.

Acid Midget appears in 1970s film

This is a scene from Steppenwolf, a film released in 1974 and based on the Nobel Prize winning novel.

In the story, the film's protagonist Harry Haller is caught in the rip current of mid-life crisis. In a forlorn state he meets a few bohemian ppl: a drug-pushing musician, a prostitute (who he bangs) and a keut French lady who becomes his muse.

Actually I think he bangs all of them. Not sure.

Anyway, in this scene Haller has a trippy dream where he meets Goethe, the German writer/demi-god. They argue about modern versus Enlightenment intellectualism. They debate the relevance of Mozart. Goethe hops around, he teleports across the room, he shuffles.

He's an Acid Midget.

Honestly, when I watch this I can't tell if the actors are on acid, or if I am.