Phibs, wild and wonderful

Last night we attended the opening of Phibs' exhibition at the Plump Gallery in Enmore. What a pleasure to see walls filled with Phibs' (aka Tim's) intricate, boldly graphic art!

 

Obviously we are not alone in this feeling as the gallery was getting crammed with people, many spilling out onto the footpath. We were lucky enough to meet Tim and we a had a great chat about art, street art, his influences and style – and computers. He was happy to let us take photos, and so we did.

Mixtec (ancient Central American) art

Phibs is from Sydney, but has worked in Melbourne also. Having worked as a freelance artist and a street artist for years, his aim is to move toward more "legitimate" art and less "unauthorised" work.

 

Very busy gallery opening with Tim on the far left.

Outside looking in.

 Nevertheless you can see his pieces around streets of the inner city of Melbourne and Sydney.  His style is quite distinctive; a strong graphic feel with intricate bold tapering lines in swirling movements, and strong sense of art and mythology of ancient cultures. I always get a feel of Teotihuacáno, Mayan or other ancient Central American art.

So as Molly Meldrum used to say: "Do yourself a favour" and go see The Journey exhibition at the Plump Gallery, 240 Enmore Road, Enmore. It is open from the 8th to the 28th of September. You can't miss the gallery, there is a huge Phibs colourful face piece on the wall out front.  We shall be returning in daytime to grab a photo of that.

So much to see,
J in JAM

Anti Graffiti Strike Squad

 Today I discovered there is a whole squad of golf carts out there whose only purpose in life is the removal of street art! I vaguely thought there was "some guy" from the council who cleaned off graffiti, so when confronted with the squad in Chippendale I was dumbstruck.

Most of them had passed by before I actually thought to take a photo. Up until this moment, I hadn't found much street art to be honest, but there were heaps of spots that had been 'cleaned' or painted over. The penny dropped and I cursed them!

Rubbish bins and cars are bad enough! Now there's a hit squad?!*^$%!!

I found a few paste ups, stickers and stencils and 3 of MIM's cat stencils and quite a few SMC3 paste ups.

I found a fun Alien paste up, some great googly eye stickers and a "You are here" sticker so I came away with a smile on my face after all.

  

Beware the anti-graffiti squad,

J in JAM