RONE In Geelong

Ebony and I drove down to Geelong today for the final weekend of the RONE in Geelong exhibition at the Geelong Gallery. This is the first comprehensive showing of RONE's career, fittingly held in his hometown. The exhibition spans from his early stencil work to street art and major installations in abandoned spaces, which feature those haunting portraits of female faces. There are physical samples and photos of his works, along with a few short films showing the creation of different projects and installations.

 

RONE did a few installations within the gallery space itself, two of which were specifically for this exhibition and carried on from the work he did for Empire at Burnham Beeches. Ebony and I were amused to watch people walking around and through the two installations, closely inspecting the aged furniture instead of standing back to see and appreciate the full scale of the work.

The Green Room (Omega Project)

Without Darkness There Is No Light (Dark) (RONE In Geelong)

Without Darkness There Is No Light (Light) (RONE In Geelong)

RONE In Geelong runs until 16 May 2021

West Side Place Artcade

West Side Place is a new residential, retail and hotel high rise development being built on Spencer Street in the Melbourne CBD. While their retail arcade is currently vacant they have handed over the shops to a variety of contemporary Australian artists to do an "Artcade" of installations for the next six months. Ebony and I headed over there this afternoon to check out the space and see this public art gallery.

 

Artists that are featured include John Aslandis & Mayonaize, George Rose, Adnate, Rone, Meggs, and Reko Rennie. It is a kalidescope of colors with the murals and installations, but unfortunately you can't go inside the spaces to get a closer look. 

 

My favorite was by Rone as his piece was a nod to his Empire exhibition at Burnham Beeches. If you are around Southern Cross Train Station, go check out Artcade before the retail stores move in.

Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines

Sean and I went to the NGV today for their latest world premiere exhibition Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines. Haring and Basquiat were both part of the New York City art scene in the 1980s and their works involved social and political commentary using a variety of media including street art, paintings, sculptures and other objects.

This exhibition explored each artist's career and how they intersected with each other through more than 200 artworks and materials from their archives. They both developed their own visual language of signs and symbols in their works. Many of Basquiat's pieces featured a crown, while Haring's common motif was the crawling baby. Both artists were friends, and occasionally collaborated and referenced each other in their work.

Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines is on at the NGV until 13 April 2020.

Rone- Empire

I was fortunate enough to spend my Easter afternoon in the Dandenong Ranges to check out the latest exhibition by Rone titled Empire. For this installation he and his collaborators spent a year transforming the deserted Art Deco mansion Burnham Beeches into an immersive multi-sensory experience across the ground floor and upper level rooms.

The rooms were themed around different seasons, with the dusty Art Deco furniture and dried plants making it feel like you were walking through a bygone era. Rone painted his trademark female portraits in each room, this time using actor Lily Sullivan as his muse. The whole exhibition was so inspiring as you wandered through and experienced the beautiful rooms. I hope that when the building is turned into a luxury hotel that it retains the majority of its Art Deco charm.

Here's the trailer for the exhibition:

RONE EMPIRE - 4K full edit from Common State on Vimeo.

Blue Mountains

Today Mary and I took a train out to Western Sydney to meet up with Tash, who picked us up at the station, for our road trip to the Blue Mountains. Our first stop for the day was the lookout at Wentworth Falls with its expansive and spectacular views of the Blue Mountains.

Next we stopped in the town of Leura to visit Bygone Beautys Treasured Teapot Museum and Tearooms, which has the largest private collection of teawares in the world. There were over 5,500 teapots alone in the museum grouped by era, country and design. I particularly liked the art deco and royal themed teapots. We had a cup of tea in the tearoom and then headed back onto the road.

One of the interesting finds in the town of Katoomba was the Street Art Walk at Beverly Place. It featured local, national and international street artists, including a nice wall mural by Adnate that included the Blue Mountains.

The Echo Point lookout outside Katoomba is one of the most iconic viewing points for the Blue Mountains due to the popularity of the rock formation known as the Three Sisters. We began at the main lookout and then walked down the path to get a closer look (but didn't go down the Giant Stairway to the Honeymoon Bridge).

For our late lunch we ate at the Boiler House Restaurant, which was part of the Hydro Majestic Blue Mountains hotel complex. Tash wanted to check out the Hydro Majestic after having driven past it before, and it did not disappoint. We ended up doing a tour of the place with the concierge to learn more about its fascinating history. Founded by Mark Foy in the early 1900s, what was originally a health retreat became a luxury hotel to bring in business. The architecture was stunning, particularly the Belgravia building which was rebuilt in art deco style after burning down in 1922. The Hydro Majestic has amazing views of the Blue Mountains and glamorous interiors throughout since money was no object when it was built.

After our tour was finished it was dark so we headed back onto the road for the hour and half drive back to Sydney. It was nice to be able to get out of the city and explore the beautiful Blue Mountains region.

Rone- Empty

Throughout Melbourne there are many historic old buildings that are being torn down by developers and replaced with new apartments. In his first solo show in two years, Melbourne street artist Rone utilised the inside of the soon to be demolished Star Lyric Theatre in Fitzroy to stage his latest exhibition Empty.

The show, which ran for 10 days and finished today, contained his works of female portraits done on paper and canvas, as well as photos of ones he had painted in abandoned buildings that few would have seen in person.

The highlight of the exhibition though was his large scale portrait painted on the back wall of the theater, which ended up incorporating some of an original mural from the 1920s that he uncovered while painting.

The exhibition also contained a short video about Rone and Empty, a virtual reality station, and a secret window where you could look through to see another large scale portrait in a dark room lit by fairy lights. It's always a privilege to get to see these works up close, and also to have Rone roaming around the exhibition and chatting with people this afternoon.

Expat Observations: Street Art

Melbourne is known globally for its street art and it is a huge tourist attraction for the city. All of those laneways around town are the perfect canvas for street artists, with Hosier Lane probably the best known spot (and one that is constantly evolving). There are some very talented artists here and these are some of my favorites.

Baby Guerrilla is best known for her large scale stencil paste-ups, which often have people floating in the air. Some of her more recent work can be found on buildings around the Victoria University Footscray Park campus.

Be Free is best known for her stencils of a little girl doing various things depending on the space that has been chosen. There is a lightness and sense of fun in her work that is very appealing to a wide audience.

Rone paints the most amazingly detailed portraits of women you will ever see. He also did the four Aussie muses for last year's Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition in Melbourne. His latest work is a mural at Etihad Stadium of two female AFL fans in the crowd cheering on their team.

Adnate is another artist who does very detailed portrait work, and is probably best known for his beautiful paintings of the faces of Indigenous children.

Melbourne Street Art: AC/DC Lane

AC/DC Lane, a tiny laneway located off Flinders Lane between Exhibition and Russell Streets, is the home to rock music institution Cherry Bar and was renamed after the band by Melbourne City Council in 2004.  The street art down here and in the surrounding laneways matches the rock aesthetic of the location.

Melbourne Street Art: Hosier Lane

Hosier Lane off Flinders Street by The Forum is probably the epicenter of Melbourne street art.  It is constantly evolving with new pieces to be discovered every time you visit.  Last year for the Melbourne Now exhibition they painted the whole laneway black and started from scratch.  Even within that time frame there are only a few pieces that still remain.  These are some photos from Hosier Lane and neighboring Rutledge Lane that I took earlier in the week.