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Don't miss: James Cochran's London Street Portraits

artists, Melbourne tours

22 March 2011

You have this week only to see James Cochran's London Street Portraits at Lindberg Galleries in Naarm / Melbourne. I have popped in numerous times with my walking tour groups to see this excellent show.

Cochran has excellent technical skill and his paintings are automatically striking. Cochran fuses techniques together using aerosol pointillism, using multiple dots of spray-paint to render the entire image. In his late teens and early twenties Cochran began his career as an artist out on the street. Cochran began exhibiting oil paintings in the late 1990s while continuing his graffiti and mural work. He is best known for his gritty street urban subjects, but in this show there are only portraits of the homeless people in London.

The work is extremely personal and intimate – there is an emotional and humane connection. You can feel that Cochran is close to the subject and has spent time being involved in their lives. This understanding has come from a period of homelessness himself when he was a teenager and forced out onto the streets.

In Hosier Lane (view location on Google Maps) there is a portrait in the laneway that Cochran has painted; it is an extension of the show at Lindberg.

Lindberg Galleries (view location on Google Maps)
2/289 Flinders Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000

Tuesday to Friday, 11am tp 5pm
Saturday, 12pm to 5pm

Until 26 March 2011