Vexta | |
|---|---|
| Born | 20th century |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Known for | Stencil artist and street artist |
| Website | vexta |
Vexta is an Australian stencil artist and street artist from Melbourne, Victoria. [1]
Beginning her career as an artist predominately working on the streets of Melbourne and Sydney, New South Wales, Vexta is now considered to be one of Australia's most popular and renowned Australian artists working within both urban environments and gallery spaces. [2] Much of her work surrounds the concepts of death, rebirth and the duality of the sexes (an area which she has much to comment on as one of the few famous female street artists in operation), can be seen on walls and galleries all over Australia, America, London, mainland Europe, Mexico and South America, and most recently the Contemporary Art Biennale of India. [3] Vexta has been called "one of Australia's few female stencil artists to have achieved wide recognition" by Lois Stavsky, author of the seminal Graffiti 365 art book. [4]
When Vexta moved from her home town of Sydney to Melbourne in the mid-2000s, she was exposed to much of the thriving underbelly of the local stencil culture, which had been gaining notoriety for close to a decade. Studying and working alongside infamous stencil artists such as Dlux, Optic, Sync, and Ha-Ha, she began cutting and spraying her own stencils. [5] Her colourful, neon-drenched images of fallen figures with feathered wings and her iconic kissing skeletons took over Melbourne's streets and cemented her place within the burgeoning scene, of which she is now a main figure.
Her work has been purchased by the National Gallery of Australia and was prominently featured in the gallery's first-ever street and stencil art exhibition, "Space Invaders", which toured Australian art institutions for two years. [6] She has also completed large-scale commissioned pieces on walls around the world internationally, been included in dozens of group shows. [7]
Vexta's motivation for stencil art is both artistic and socio-political. She has been documented as saying:
"As an artist you take whatever it is you have around you to construct this thing that's important but perhaps can't be expressed in language. My paintings examine these intangible aspects of our lives such as dreams and transient states; the world around us and our place in it." [8]
Her main aim in her work is to connect with the public on an emotional level:
"I want to find and capture what it is that makes us human, the soul of the individual that is at once personal but at the same time deeply universal." [5]
Vexta has an interest in creating geometric triangle shapes which she has likened to sub-atomic particles that makes up all matter. She likes to leave a small amount of blank space in her street art so the viewer can apply their own viewpoint to the work of art. [9] She creates works of art through a psychedelic lens often juxtaposing humans and animals exploring themes of life/death, physics, cosmology and the feminine culture. [10]
Vexta was featured in the documentary film Rash (2005), which explores the cultural value of street art in Melbourne. [11]
Vexta was one of the few street artists around the world to be personally invited by Banksy, the world's most infamous street artist, to participate in the "Cans Festival", an all-stencil underground event that also featured the likes of Blek le Rat, Vhils, Faile and Pure Evil. [12]
Also internationally, Vexta was one of twelve Australian artists to be chosen to exhibit as part of Young & Free, the largest-ever Australian street art exhibition outside of Australia. [13] This took place in September 2011 at White Walls Gallery in San Francisco, California, where it was a critical and commercial success. [14]
She participated in "The "F" Word: Feminism in Art" show which took place at the Untitled Space in New York City between 21 October 2015 and 28 October 2015. The event was created to celebrate the GirlPower issue of Untitled magazine and is part of a "Women in Art" series taking place at the gallery. [15]
Graffiti is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. His works of political and social commentary have appeared on streets, walls and bridges throughout the world. Banksy's work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy says that he was inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist and founding member of the musical group Massive Attack.
Rash, written RASH, is a 2005 Australian documentary film, directed by Nicholas Hansen. Its subject is contemporary urban Australia and the artists who are making it a host for illegal street art. With the tagline 'Scratch it and it spreads', Rash explores the cultural value of unsanctioned public art and the ways that street art and graffiti contribute to public dialogue.
Stencil graffiti is a form of graffiti that makes use of stencils made out of paper, cardboard, or other media to create an image or text that is easily reproducible. The desired design is cut out of the selected medium and then the image is transferred to a surface through the use of spray paint or roll-on paint.
Civilian is the pseudonym of Tom Civil a street artist, operating out of Melbourne, Australia, who has been profiled as a "leading player" of "the city's vibrant stencil art scene".
James Dodd is a South Australian artist, arts educator and street artist who used the pseudonym Dlux for his street art when he operated out of Melbourne.
Meek is a notable street artist operating out of Melbourne, Australia, and specialising in the subgenre of stencil graffiti.
Phibs is the pseudonym of Tim De Haan, a notable graffiti artist operating out of Sydney, Australia.
Since the 1980s, the area surrounding the Sydney inner west suburb of Newtown, New South Wales (NSW), Australia—including the suburbs of Newtown, Enmore, Erskineville, Camperdown and St Peters—has been known for its wide range of prominent graffiti and street art on walls. The public visual art in the Newtown area consists of a variety of styles and methods of execution, including large-scale painted murals, hand-painted political slogans, hand-painted figurative designs, spray painted semi-abstract designs "tags"), and other stylistic developments such as stencil art and street poster art, "Yarn bombing", and sculptural items cast from plaster and other materials.
True Live is an Australian band formed in Melbourne, Australia. The group had mild chart success with "TV" reaching #76 on the ARIA Single Chart and The Shape of It reaching #85 on the ARIA Albums Chart. The band received regular play on radio and television and were chosen to perform at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The group's early recordings contained strong ties to hip hop but since 2011 have made a significant turn toward rock and classical leanings.
Melbourne, the capital of Victoria and the second largest city in Australia, has gained international acclaim for its diverse range of street art and associated subcultures. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, much of the city's disaffected youth were influenced by the graffiti of New York City, which subsequently became popular in Melbourne's inner suburbs, and along suburban railway and tram lines.
Blek le Rat is a French graffiti artist. He was one of the first graffiti artists in Paris, and has been described as the "Father of stencil graffiti".
Urban art combines street art and graffiti and is often used to summarize all visual art forms arising in urban areas, being inspired by urban architecture or present urban lifestyle. Because the urban arts are characterized by existing in the public space, they are often viewed as vandalism and destruction of private property.
Fred Fowler is an Australian-born visual artist, specialising in painting, drawing, bronze sculpture and printmaking.
A1one is the pseudonym of Karan Reshad, an Iranian visual artist who pioneered graffiti and street art in Iran. His career as a street artist began in his hometown Tehran.
Sten and Lex, known as Sten & Lex, are two Italian street artists.
Luke Cornish is an Australian stencil artist, also known as E.L.K. In 2012 Cornish became the first stencil artist to become a finalist in the Archibald Prize. He was also awarded the Holding Redlich People's Choice Award at the Archibald Prize Salon des Refusés in 2017, the Churchill Fellowship in 2013 and was a finalist in the Sulman prize in the same year. In 2011, he was a finalist in the Metro Art Prize, won the Australian Stencil Art prize in 2010, and in 2008 he won the most popular stencil at Melbourne Stencil Festival. In 2012, Cornish's short film, 'Me- We', which documented the process and construction of his portrait of Father Bob Maguire for entry into the 2012 Archibald Prize, was shortlisted in the Tropfest Awards Film Festival. Other notable achievements include being selected for 2012's Project 5 charity auction, a large involvement in 2011's Outpost Project. Cornish has exhibited his work in capital and regional cities in Australia, and in major international cultural centres, including Paris, London, Rome, Los Angeles and Amsterdam.
Hosier Lane is a laneway in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Located on the CBD's southern edge, it extends between Flinders Street and Flinders Lane, and opens opposite the Atrium at Federation Square. Since the late 1990s, Hosier Lane has become a popular tourist attraction due to its street art.
Shida is an Australian multidisciplinary artist best known for his large scale mural work. Shida's practice encompasses video, publishing, public works and murals.
Wendy Murray, is a visual artist and arts educator, formerly known as Mini Graff. Under her former persona, Murray worked as an urban street-poster artist between 2003–2010, working in and around Sydney's urban fringe. Since 2014, Murray's art expanded into traditional forms of drawing and artist book design, whilst still engaging with social and political issues through poster-making. Murray's use of letraset transfers, accompanied with vibrant colours and fluorescent inks, references the work of studios from the 1960s through to the 1980s, including the community-based Earthworks Poster Collective and Redback Graphix. A 2018 collaboration with The Urban Crew, a 17-person collective of socially engaged geographers, planners, political scientists and sociologists, resulted in the Sydney – We Need to Talk! artist book, addressing issues of development, transport congestion, housing affordability and commercialisation of public space.
| Culture | |
|---|---|
| Lists of artists | |
| Photographers | |
| Places |
|
| Events | |
| Related articles |
|
