Carlsbad Art and Culture

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Graffiti became popular in New York decades ago through hip hop. These two forms of artistic expression soon expanded across the globe including massive appeal in Melbourne, Australia.

Around the turn of the century stenciled images in the streets became increasingly popular in the UK due to Banksy and other stencil pioneers. Like the spread of graffiti from NY, stencils began to show up all around the world including Melbourne. Stencils gave way to a wider form of visual art in the streets including stickers, paste-ups, installation and wood-blocking, ultimately paving the road for the newest, and current, movement in art history called street art.

It was not that long ago that graffiti and street art was considered a sub-culture, but in many cities today it has risen into mainstream culture acknowledged by communities and even supported by local governments.

The city council of Melbourne has received some harsh criticism for contradictory stances on graffiti and street art, but it has made efforts of support including providing legal lanes and alleys in downtown where artists are encouraged to paint. Hosier Lane is Melbourne’s, if not the world’s, most famous legal zone where the creative process of artists is admired daily by tourists and tour groups.

In addition to the designated legal areas scattered around the city, Melbourne galleries are supportive of the graffiti and street art scene and often invite the work from the streets into the galleries. As mentioned before, these art forms that were once viewed as underground and far below mainstream culture, have now broken the surface and have even become a commodity. Stencil festivals have also taken place in Melbourne- all supported my the art and council factions of the community.

Though Melbourne is supportive of graffiti and street art in some cases, the council and authority have attempted to reduce the amount of unwanted “tags” that they deem vandalism. A zero tolerance approach to vandalism has resulted in arrests and even the elimination of culturally important pieces in the streets. An active attempt to educated the youth on the difference between art and vandalism has even reached the schools where artists visit classrooms and provide examples of different forms of urban art.

Whether legal or not, the walls of Melbourne animate with creativity. Along with the legal walls of downtown are the neighborhoods just outside including Fitzroy, Collingwood and Brunswick. Each is completely laden with graffiti and street art. Alleys vibrate with color. Hours can be spent analyzing and critiquing the hundreds of different styles. Large scale graffiti stretches across entire alleys and stickers, paste-ups and stencils scatter every inch in-between.

Some might be legal; most might be illegal, but in a community that supports the arts, it has become a destination for any touring artist and graffiti/street art enthusiast. The urban art seems to have become part of the urban landscape where an urban surface is a canvas and the artist is whoever paints it no matter who owns the wall.

Culture is defined as a network of minds. Melbourne is as connected locally as any community. The amount of artists placing work in the streets is astonishing. Each one with a unique style and a large amount of them very skilled in graffiti, illustration, installation and urban exploration. The caliber of skill and creativity as a whole is as good as anywhere and each new addition to the these rotating urban galleries is documented by a network or street art photographers and enthusiasts. Websites and blogs are immediately updated with photos, locations and artist reference.

I spent 6 days wandering Melbourne and all the connecting neighborhoods with a camera and observant eyes. The amount of skilled work was amazing. I admired each isolated floating paste of Baby Guerilla. Each one was high and presented as a sensual study of a the figure in front of a blank urban canvas. The Junky Projects was an early favorite consisting of installations made entirely of found objects including cans, bottle caps and rulers attached to urban surfaces. Spotting the work of Kaffeine was like flipping through the illustrations of a favorite children’s book. Klara’s line work was simple and effective and the energetic characters by Civil ran widely around the city. Shida was very prolific with gestural lines and color of all over Australia and the AWOL Crew impressed me with their variety of styles including some large scale portraits. Ha-Ha’s stencil technique was very experienced and the work and the blurred edges on canvas was something I have never seen before. The rendering of the black and white characters of EARS was a treat and the the ability to think outside the box of Be Free stood out with each find. Phoenix layered with skill and doctor could be seen around with pastes and simple tags. The distinctive style of Burg was spotted often and Precious Little’s eye for location was enjoyed. CDH encouraged urban exploration and the guys and Blender Studios paint with passion.

It is difficult to look in a direction without seeing one form of artistic expression sprayed, pasted or glued to the walls of Melbourne. For an artist and urban art enthusiast, it is paradise. You can spend hours each day finding new art and you can spray, if you are smart about it, almost anytime of the day. Of course there are those not as excited, but as a whole, Melbourne is paving the way for widespread support of urban art, producing some noteworthy talent and is smashing the local, and international, graffiti and street art scene.

Click the below links to keep updated on all Melbourne Urban Art:
• Melbourne Street Art (Facebook)
• The Fitzroy Flasher
• Land of Sunshine
• Arty Graffarti
• Black Mark
• Invurt