Sydney: A 'Grafitti-esque' Special Edition

There has been some spookily similar 'grafitti-esque' work showing around Sydney commercial galleries of late. While most of this art is visually seductive and collectable, and the artists no doubt easily distinguishable to the cogniscenti, LF has begun to wonder if some of these artists are in fact the same person. Have they ever all been seen in the same room together? Seriously though, this phenomenon is not just confined to Sydney. Worldwide the 'graffiti aesthetic' is thriving, not just on countless walls, trains and trucks, but multiplying virally through the upmarket gallery scene. Los Angeles in particular seems to go in for this look, but it was Jean Michel Basquiat who perfected it as a contemporary style in New York in the 1980s. RIP JMB, if he only knew how many imitators he's spawned, he'd.... well laugh loudly, no doubt.

David Griggs
All I want is peace in the Middle East, a blow job and a free T-shirt
Kaliman Gallery, Sydney
until 19 July
Images from the exhibition © David Griggs, courtesy the Artist and Kaliman Gallery




















John Citizen
Interiors and Colored People
Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney
until 12 July
Below left: © Gordon Bennett: 'Notes to Basquiat: Cut the Circle' 2001, acrylic on linen 120 x 120cm, photography John O'Brien. Below right: © Gordon Bennett: from 'Interiors and Colored People' series. Courtesy the artist and Gallery Barry Keldoulis

Gordon Bennett (aka John Citizen) has, with chracteristic irony, commented on this with his 'Notes to Basquiat' series in 2001, and Citizen's current show at GBK is a witty development - a deadpan commentary on contemporary art's blurring into interior decoration. Citizen's modern interiors (evoking Patrick Caulfield and Howard Arkley) use flat colour and thick black lines, empahsising the 2D surface, and featuring in-situ 'tasteful' paintings - 'Aboriginal', abstract or portrait - with larger versions of the portraits alongside, in lurid colour-by-numbers style, featuring happy lifestylers - the 'Coloured People' of the exhibition's title. It's quite a pisstake - jeering at the very punters who are there to buy his work. At the opening the young collector types had an aggrieved look about them, not surprisingly.

It's not news that street art is routinely commodified and brought inside the white cubes, despite Banksy's best efforts to keep it outside. Punters are obviously hot for this look - it's perfect for that new, all-white apartment, lending a splash of colour and a whiff of the street to an antiseptic interior - a bit of safe visual slumming. But the answer to why there's so much of it may also be that it's easy to do, from the artist's point of view. Scrawl a few words, scratch a few cryptic figures, a fragment of label, a badly daubed skull or two, and ... you have it!

Some practitioners are considered hip, and others not. Melburnian David Griggs (currently showing at Kaliman, see above) broadly references Manila street/gang culture, and has become a darling of contemporary curators, rapidly entering the major collections, while Melbournian Philipino Australian Mike Chavez remains relatively obscure. His group show (with Daniel Brinsmead, Doug Bartlett, and Adrian Doyle, see below) has recently closed at Harrison Galleries. Michael Jeffery (currentIy at Richard Martin) has achieved commercial success, but not critical acclaim. Another practitioner, Johnny Romeo, opens at NG Art Gallery this week. Within the genre Mike Chavez stands out, not only for his use of screenprints, but for the strength simplicity of his compositions and of his 'messages'. Critical success is not always a question of originality, and is often the luck of the draw, or having the right gallery. It was ever thus.

Mike Chavez, Daniel Brinsmead, Doug Bartlett, and Adrian Doyle
Harrison Galleries, Sydney
7 - 27 June 2008

Below left: © Mike Chavez: 'Get Rich or Die Tryin', 2008, mixed media on canvas
Below right: © Mike Chavez: '50 Years in Converse', 2008, screenprint, spraypaint & acrylic on linen
Courtesy the artist and Harrison Galleries


















Below left: © Doug Bartlett: 'Wishing and Hoping', 2008, mixed media on canvas
Below right: © Daniel Brinsmead: 'Babylonia', 2008, mixed media on canvas
Courtesy the artists and Harrison Galleries


















Michael Jeffery - Sticks & Stones
Richard Martin Fine Art, Sydney
28 Jun - 9 Jul 2008
Below left: © Michael Jeffery: 'Neil's Big Day Out', acrylic paint skins, and spray enamel on canvas
Below right: © Michael Jeffery: 'RK', acrylic paint skins, and spray enamel on canvas
Courtesy the artist and Richard Martin Fine Art

















Johnny Romeo - 'Galaxy Cattle'
NG Art Gallery, Sydney
8 - 26 July 2008
Below: © Johnny Romeo: 'Foreign Film Tobacco', acrylic and oil on canvas
Courtesy the artist and NG Art Gallery











A toute a l'heure.