Ben’s obsessive-compulsive artistic relationship with skulls and bones is clearly a consequence of being born with super human illustration skills and x-ray vision.

His latest series of candy coloured portraits split Kurt Cobain, James Dean, Sid Vicious, Jimmy Hendrix, Buddy Holly and music’s most recent victim, Amy Winehouse, quite literally, in half. The Andy Warhol inspired comical renders, are part morbid tongue in cheek (or skull) and part eternal depictions (flesh). Die Young salutes popular idols with untimely deaths. As Ben puts it…”the celebrity life-style that we seem to aspire to, had killed them all by the age of 27″

An illustrator for over twenty years, Ben Brown is a regular contributor of comics for editorial, including the notorious surfing publication ‘Stab’. He has designed extensive clothing graphics for brands such as Mambo, Insight, Globe, O’Neill, Rip Curl, Ocean & Earth, Nice Produce and Supply, and he has designed music and festival posters for the likes of Nirvana, Frenzal Rhomb, Silverchair, Fat Boy Slim, The Hoodoo Gurus, Big Day Out, Good Vibrations Festival, Homebake and The Falls Festival.

Die Young opens on the 9th of December from 6pm to 10pm and is on exhibition until the 24th December 2011 at The National Grid Gallery, 24 Chard Rd, Brookvale.

East West came to fruition one balmy summer evening in late 2010 when some light drunken banter between two like minded friends, (one from Yallingup, WA, and the other from Narrabeen, NSW), developed into a fully fledged group exhibition of artists from opposite sides of Australia.

Art loving east coaster, Bryan Dalli, and west coast creative all rounder, Luke Thomas, have culminated their artistic networks to curate an exhibition of nine artists from the west coast of Australia, and nine artists from the east coast of Australia.

“Louie and I saw a gap in art show space. There were no stand out events that brought together talent from such polar opposites, we felt the need to set the benchmark and bridge the gap” BD.

The exhibition showcases the assorted talents and artistic techniques of emerging to established artists, normally separated by geography, in a communal space. Each of the 18 artists were hand picked to compliment the groups dynamics, and to bring their own unique style and flavour to the event.

“We set out to select a broad mix of skills and artistic genres, so we pulled together friends and colleagues from different backgrounds and compiled a pretty hard hitting line up. The show has stencils and graffiti, juxtaposed with low brow art, and epic garage pieces.” LT.

There will be a live airbrushing display on the opening night with the final product being sold by silent auction. The 2011 East West event debuts in Sydney (11/11/11), with the show set to start touring coast to coast next year.

Artists involved include:

WEST COAST ARTISTS:
IAN MUTCH (KINGBROWN), JEN THOMAS, HOLDFAST TATTOO STUDIOS ARTISTS, PHIL SMART, SUZI Q,  LAUREN FENLON, RYAN YOUNG, NATHAN B, SAIRA KWOL

EAST COAST ARTISTS:
CASPIAN DE LOOZE, BEC CROCKETT, EMILY REID, LAURE IVES, NICK BAZAROW, PATRICK INDO, RAD DAN, SAM CLARK, DESMOND SWEENEY (LIVE AIRBRUSHING)

East West opens at 6.30pm on Friday the 11th of November at The National Grid Gallery, 24 Chard Rd Brookvale, and is on exhibition until the 2nd of December.

Gallery is open Mon – Friday 9am – 5pm :: Sat 12pm – 3pm.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CATALOGUE

Cheers
The National Grid Gallery

1. So this is your first solo show in Sydney? Awesome! Tell us what your preparations are like when you are developing a show of this size.

Yep it is im really excited! Usually for a show I have big ideas and then I end up doing something completely different, That happened with this show too. I always start by editing through my photos to see which gals I want to draw , then I choose my colour palette and start drafting everything up with a final number of images in mind ( usually a very optimistic number) . I’m constantly laying everything out on the floor as I always go off on a tangent and I quite regularly go back to drawings to rework after completing others, and often there are images i never use. I usually scan everything at once ( poor scanning place) , and then colour everything over a couple of weeks, the colouring usually takes me longer than the drawing as I do it all digitally and there is a lot of masking involved. Then there is test printing and printing and framing and freight, the freight is probably the most stressful time for me as I have had many things damaged in the past so now I am the most anal wrapper in the world, It can take around four hours or more just to wrap up all the framed pictures if I’m by myself.

2. What is it about beautiful young sirens that inspire you?

These are all girls I have photographed, sometimes when I shoot them and look through the images there are too many I like so I have to draw them so they don’t go to waste. I’m not sure what it is, I just find the combination of emerging confidence and the somewhat unrealized beauty of these girls fascinating, almost like if they only knew what they had and embraced it they could do anything. I love to watch how a model can suddenly transform once they relax and stop doing what they think you want. I’m beginning to realise that my Mum may have been right when she said that beauty is wasted on the young!

3.  You seem to be moving away from placing your figures against a completely flat background, situating them in a more dimensional space. Tell us about this progression.

I always have a lot of things that I really want to do, I have them in my head and on lists and I always think to myself “next time I’m going to do this” . But the majority of the time these things get eaten up by the usual day to day things such as client work and  time. The move from lone figures to partial scenes is a step towards a step that I have in mind. I still have an obsession with drawing these gals, but at the same time I don’t want to be a one trick pony and there is no point in me repeating what I already know. I want to challenge myself and progress as an artist and so Im beginning to think about space as well as the figure and am starting to increase my colour palette. I hope that my audience will also find fresh enthusiasm in my progression.

4.  Are there any other areas besides your illustrative/photographic work that you would be excited to see your posse of beautiful girls branch out into?

Well Ive just found a spacious studio which will be my first that actually has space for more than one desk! So with my many meters of space I am going to get into painting large scale canvases, Ive been spending some time with Bromley lately and he has been overwhelmingly inspiring!  Ive always wanted to get into textiles so hopefully there will be an avenue for that soon.

Had a peek at your works today at the gallery and they look epic.

Thanks! xoxo

Prints are now available from our Online Shop.

Each piece is an edition of 15, Signed & numbered by Ben Brown.
Please allow 15 days from purchase for delivery (International 20 days)

You can find us at stand C25  see you there.

Friday 12 Nov (Live music from 6pm)
12pm– 9pm

Saturday 13 November
10am –6pm

Sunday 14 November
10am –5pm

An eclectic group exhibition featuring artists that are all unique creatures themselves.

Featuring :: CASPIAN DE LOOZE, LUKE MORRELL, SAM CLARK, TEZ,
CAMILLA ZAVATTARO, CLAIRE REID, APESEVEN.
Guest Appearance by BIGFOOT & JASON MALONEY brought to you by Hurley

FRIDAY 24th SEPTEMBER 6-10pm

show runs from Sept 25th-Oct 23rd
Mon-Fri 9am-5pm Saturdays 12pm-3pm

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=154958014530715

CAMILLA ZAVATTARO
Camilla Zavattaro alias Milly Loveknuckles…
From when I was very little, I remember watching my grandfather painting oils on the veranda, he immigrated from france after WW2 and had brought with him the skills of oil painting handed to him by his father…I was inspired early… As for tattooing – I started in the bars of London 1997 getting lessons in needle making on a wooden keg, wed set up and start beers at 10 in the morning… My art career moved to an apartment in Airlie beach, skate rats sleeping on couches, tattooing consisted of ratbones, toy machine and zero logos… My 10 year tattoo career began in 2000, in the ghetto of tattoo studios, my boss was a drug dealer who learned his skills in jail, I can still smell that bitter scent of white-ox wafting gently to the sounds of our machines… bless him…steel ramps…the desire for more creativity drew me to brisbane where i was honored to work with some of Australia’s most influential people in the tattoo and art world…i now reside in a cute little surfing town, with my son where the nights are balmy and whales float by… I like the sounds of water and brushes on archers… the smell of blood…
and my new found energy for turpentine and canvas…

CASPIAN DELOOZE
Caspian has been an art junkie from a very early age.
Drawing inspiration at first from comic books, then developing an interest in classic illustration and painting and then moving back to comic books again caspian has honed his style and in doing so has been commissioned by some of the worlds biggest recording artists to do personalised pictures for them.
Touring artists recently like P!NK, Green Day and  Kesha have received work from him and Metallica will be getting some pieces off him in November.
His work is truly ecclectic and original and we are very excited that he is exhibiting with us again.

TEZ
TEZ works with an array of mediums including painting, sculpture, ceramics, screen printing and vector illustration, often incorporating recycled materials and found objects into his work. His art often humorous on the surface, usually consists of underlying satirical and cynical messages. This is evident in his recent social commentary works,  describing them as “observational reactions to the world we have created, questioning the role in which we play and the current social and moral issues we face”.  TEZ unveiled his debut solo exhibition “Sure Ain’t Sushi” at Sydney’s China Heights gallery in late 2009.

APESEVEN
George Hambov aka Apeseven grew up in the 1980′s Sydney skateboard scene . Spending most of his time exploring industrial areas , listening to hip hop,  he grew up on a healthy dose of anime , skateboard art and graffiti. Apeseven predominantly approaches work with a street art perspective, utilising stencil, freehand aerosol and traditional brush techniques. Works primarily incorporate mixed media, acrylics, aerosol, inks, found paper and objects.

LUKE MORRELL
Luke is the art director for Volcom Australia.
He is is very accomplished among many artistic disciplines but last time he exhibited at the grid he preferred lead pencil and coloured pencil.
Very detailed and classically composed Lukes works are always sort after and are a classy inclusion to Creatures.

JASON MALONEY
Jason Maloney graduated with a Bachelor of Fine arts in Painting and Drawing from California State University, Fullerton, but his connection with art began long before he received his diploma. As early as five years old, Jason began drawing and continued throughout his youth. Inspiration came from his fascination with 80′s skateboard graphics, Friday the 13th- type of horror movies, and heavy metal groups like Iron Maiden. He eventually landed a job with Disney as a scenic artist, working on projects like remodeling the Haunted Mansion into Tim Burton’s ‘A Nightmare Before Christmas’. Now Maloney’s art can be seen in gallery exhibits and public murals in cities like Los Angeles, Orange County, Rome, Jersey City, and the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California. He has also designed for companies like Nike, Hurley, Quiksilver, and Grind King. Maloney says his art, created with everything from Krylon to pencils, is his interpretation of the world around him. He has said he wants to always remain teachable and to help other artists, especially younger ones who are just starting out.

BIGFOOT
Bigfoot, a San Francisco Art Institute dropout, hails from New Jersey (“the armpit of America”) a pro skater for Rasa Libre. Bigfoot the painter depicts his alter ego as an oversize woodland creature zapping bulldozers with lightning bolts, meditating in the forest, and sometimes terrorizing the viewer with menacing growls and grabbing paws. He’s the ultimate tree hugger, but he’s not a hippie. The work seems repetitive in a Rain Man-esque way, but if you look closely, you see there is a secret language being developed and a story building. The art of “getting up” is not lost on the endearingly shy, KISS-crazed artist, however; the demand for his gallery work has kept him out of the streets since July 2004.

The National Grid Gallery opening Hours are Monday – Friday 9am-5pm :: Saturday 12pm – 3pm

Please Call (02) 9905 9332 for any further details. Admission to the gallery is free.

OPENING NIGHT FRIDAY 6TH AUGUST 6PM-10PM
EXHIBITION RUNS UNTIL 3RD SEPTEMBER 2010
THE NATIONAL GRID GALLERY. 24 CHARD RD. BROOKVALE
WWW.THENATIONALGRID.COM.AU