Merry Christmas from Art Collective! Melbourne Street Art Part 2

Hope you all enjoyed the Christmas break! I thought since most of us are probably feeling a little brain dead after spending concentrated time with the family I'd post some thinking friendly images from my time in Melbourne. Enjoy!

Stephanie

Art Collective On Vacation: Paul W Ruiz @ Lindberg Galleries

Visage via Lindberg Galleries

When I was down in Melbourne recently, I was determined to pay a visit to Lindberg Galleries in the city. Not only is the list of artists they represent impressive but  Melbourne based figurative painter Paul W. Ruiz was currently showing. Need I say more?

It's hard to imagine it has been only six years since Ruiz's first solo exhibition. His work, not only in technique but style and expression is highly developed in its deconstruction and obsession with the human form. Ruiz melts down and obsures  the form so it almost disitengrates into the background. He fractures his subject's persona making them unreadable, leaving the viewer to pick up the pieces. What remains is a ghostly impression that is simultaneously cold and radiating warmth, this arises through a progression of  colour hues, the dark hues receding whilst the warm hues come forth. There seems to be an aura of vunerability to his subjects, their expressions are unreadable, but not vacant. This allows the viewer to project their own judgements onto the subjects and it is as if they are afraid of these emotional projections. 

His paintings are sculptural, not only in the sense that they come out at you through identifiable human features, a protruding cheekbone or a perfectly modelled knee that just wants to enter our space but is trapped in the medium that created it. Additionally they are  sculptural in the sense the viewer wants to enter their space in order to release them.  This is unique to portraiture, traditionally portraits are created to distinctively represent the sitter, to portray how they would like to be seen in the eyes of others or how they are seen to the artist.  However it seems Ruiz is more interested in the perceptions of others and would rather we recreate the sitters persona through our own judgements and projections. 

Encuentros by Paul W Ruiz exhibited at Lindberg Galleries from the 12th of November to the 4th of December. For more information check out Lindberg Galleries 

Joyeux Noël!

Stephanie

La Corbata via Lindberg Galleries

Untitled #3 2010 via Lindberg Galleries 

'Lifted' via Lindberg Galleries

Art Collective On Vacation: Melbourne Street Art- Part 1

Sorry for the lack in posts lately, end of university semester fell upon us way too fast! But now that it's over we have no excuse! The street art exhibition, Space Invaders is now open at the Australian National Gallery (stay tuned for a review), so I decided to check out some of the street art that adorns Melbourne's alleyways. However I constantly found myself pointing to a paste up or stencil, and saying to my friend, "he's in the national gallery....so is he." It's a bit of a weird feeling seeing street art that is now apart of the Australian Gallery's collection, and I couldn't help but wonder how long is it going to stay there?

A Banksy stencil behind perspex in Essex

Banksy's 'Little Diver' is now behind perspex after cleaners tried to paint over it- Melbourne. Via Melbournestreetart.com

Check out these images from my recent trip to Melbourne. Feel free to comment if you know the corresponding artist. 

Phibs. Phibs' work along with other artists from the 'Everfresh' crew are now apart of the  Australian National Gallery's collection

Shida

Blek Le Rat

Phibs

Shida

bonne journée

Stephanie