Blog

Street artists: from public open areas to indoor commercial galleries

artists, spaces

1 March 2011

Andy Mac (Until Never and Citylights Project, in Naarm / Melbourne) has educated and worked with communities and building owners in Naarm / Melbourne for several years.

He is the reason why Hosier Lane (view location on Google Maps) is the most photographed lane in Naarm / Melbourne.

In 2004 Andy Mac assisted the National Gallery of Australia, in Canberra, in the acquisition of a large selection of stencil work for its works of paper collection.

His gallery, Until Never, is an independent gallery in Naarm / Melbourne, presenting contemporary art by Australian and international artists. Founded in 2005, it was the first commercial gallery supporting street artists into the gallery system. The works sold at Until Never remain very reasonably-priced and the exhibitions, strong.

"Hosier may feel impossibly offbeat, but its twists and turns are the essence of the city. This is embodied by Until Never, a small gallery that punches above its weight with some of the most influential emerging street founded art in the world." Financial Times (March 2011).

Larger commercial galleries, such as Metro Gallery on High Street, Armadale, have followed in Andy Mac's vision but with a highly commercial edge. They have invested a substantial amount in support of this style of art. In return, the works are highly priced and are being purchased by a larger middle market.

In 2010 Metro Gallery hosted Blek Le Rat and in 2011 it is Swoon.

"Swoon has been working on the streets of New York City for over 10 years, creating large scale paste-ups of the every day inhabitants of the Big Apple. She uses traditional print making techniques to reproduce these beautiful images at life size before hitting the streets to create her own unique, narrative driven cityscape. Swoon also ensures that each piece she creates is inherently unique by physically cutting details into her works, this process of subtraction allows the pieces to take on a life of their own on the street because the textures and tones of the surface they are pasted on then become integral to the construction of the work themselves. While the method of her work is indebted to both traditional craftsmanship and classic painterly technique, her execution is entirely modern. It is this method of incorporating both age old techniques and contemporary graffiti practice that makes her work so compelling, not to mention highly sought after. She has contributed work to MOMA, Art Basel Miami, and the Brooklyn museum."

Swoon is on until 5 March 2011. Swoon has totally reconstructed the space and the installations look great. All her hours and hard work are definitely noted.

Metro Gallery
1214 High Street Armadale VIC (view location on Google Maps)
Monday to Friday, 10am to 5.30pm; Saturday and Sunday, 11am to 5pm