Very proud to announce that the NPG has acquired my portrait of Bob Hawke, I'd like to dedicate this to my year 7 art teacher, who made me sit in the hallway for not concentrating, how you like me now bitch.
Very happy to say that I have made the finalist list for this years Sulman prize with my portrait of a guy getting pissed on called "trickle down effect" Massive thank you to everyone at the AGNSW.
The "Trickle down effect" refers to the idea that tax breaks or other economic benefits provided by government to businesses and the wealthy will benefit poorer members of society by improving the economy as a whole. The term has been attributed to humorist Will Rogers who said during the Great Depression that "money was all appropriated for the top in hopes that it would trickle down to the needy"
My painting is a cynical take on that theory, it depicts a man, representative of lower classes wearing a hood and kept anonymous by a scarf covering his face, similar to the occupy movement or the london rioter, being pissed on by a man in a pin striped suit, the stereotypical 1%er.
Please join me for the opening of my latest exhibition 'Not with it...'
Wednesday November the 14th, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Print giveaway to the first 100 people through the door on opening night, get in quick.
Share this page btw, and invite EVERYONE you know.
www.elkstencils.com
A few pics from painting with Hush, who is in town for his sold out show at Metro gallery, runs til June 19th, def worth checking out.
I was recently fortunate enough for former PM Bob Hawke to cut me into his busy schedule, to spend some time with him in order to paint his portrait for this years Moran prize, and no, I'm not doing a "Bob" theme, just a coincidence. I got a lot of interest surrounding the father bob piece, so it was my intention to knock this one out of the park, and recently got confirmation that I have been shortlisted for the prize, so woohoo to that, finalists are announced on the 2nd of July, fingers crossed, 150k will change shit.
I might look really unimpressed, but was just having some issues with the flash, this is the only shot of us that worked out.
The view could be worse
Joshua Smith from Espionage gallery in Adelaide has gathered some of the worlds most technically progressive stencil artists for the second instalment of "A Cut Above" group show. Awesome line up.
Ok, so I'm pretty bad at remembering to take photos at openings, but who could be bothered doing that when you having such a good time? not me, thats who. The last couple of weeks have been a nerve racked roller coaster of terror and invincibility leading up to the announcement of the archibald prize (Australia's most prestigious art award) being the leading favourite to win only added to the pressure. Congrats to Tim Storrier for winning, controversial choice, but spending his entire life making art I think he deserves it over me, I got plenty of time to win an Archibald. Here is some pics of the announcement and opening-
Tim Storrier and myself with his winning entry
The obscenely talented Michael Peck
Media scrum, daunting.
Adam Cullen
Me, Les Rice, Ben Quilty
RJ, Georgie, Me
Art Equity crew
click the link to see me on telly- http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3450302.htm
Big thanks to the guys at Ambush gallery and SHFS for the amazing job they did putting on project 5, also to HAHA, Reka and Vexta for being so cool to work with. All works are going to be auctioned for charity.
Opening night Thursday March 15th, 6-8pm
Level 3, 255 Bourke st, Melbourne.
Award winning urban arts initiative, Project Five, gets a fresh look for its forth volume as organisers, aMBUSH Gallery announce new presenting partners, Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA). Leading Street Artists Vexta, HAHA, E.L.K.. and Reka bring their art to life in the cobblestone streets of The Rocks Square, The Rocks across three days in March (opening night March 9 – 6-9pm, then continues 10 and 11 March – 12-3pm) in collaboration with aMBUSH Gallery – who will auction the groundbreaking works on Thursday 22 March (6-9pm). All proceeds go to charitable arts and media organization Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE).
This time around, Project Five (March 1-25) is set to be bigger than ever with the launch of a new full month format that includes a Retrospective Art Exhibition and Artists Talks. All events will be hosted within Sydney’s beautiful historic hub, The Rocks.
The wonderfully diverse collection of artists lured to Sydney by Project Five offer a seriously formidable, watchable and collectable live group show. Project Five Volume Four welcomes the queen of street art Vexta; finalist in the 2011 Metro Gallery Art Award, E.L.K.. (Luke Cornish); in high demand, abstract surrealist painter, REKA (James Reka); and HAHA (Regan Tamanui) whose 10 year history of exhibiting adds punch to the line up.
I recently had the pleasure of painting Father Bob Maguire for the 2012 Archibald prize, a double stroke of luck is that the process was documented in a small film by myself and Jacob Oberman called "Me We" which was shortlisted for tropfest, the worlds largest short film prize. Unfortunately it did make the final 15, but it will be up on this site and everywhere else soon, stay tuned.
A few pics from the opening off the Climate change group show at Metro, the show had work from Michael Peck, Stormie Mills, JKB Fletcher, John Olsen, Dan Smith, Vincent Fantauzzo, Ben Howe, John Forrest, Deborah Walker and me, good company.
all settled in Melbs, this is whats been keeping me busy-
Healy's Lane
Hosier Lane
AC/DC Lane
Crofts Lane
Section 8, Melbourne
Canvas available through Metro Gallery, contact-alex@metrogallery.com.au
New art by Ed at Forgotten sons Tattoo, www.facebook.com/ForgottenSonsTattoo
www.theblenderstudios.com
Haven't updated this blog in a while, just touching base, moved to Melbourne, got in the Metro Award finals (didn't win) new studio at Blender in the city, melbourne is awesome but I miss my dog. Will post some pics and stuff when I get proper internet access.
Random snaps from Melbs adventures
Oyster club w/Drewfunk, Haha, Michael Peck, E.L.K
Haha!
The Art Gallery of Ballarat acquired some of my work, smart people.
@Blender laneway
@Blender laneway
with Ears @invurt
photo by Melvin Chen
@Invurt
Pics from Melbs solo show
The Westsyde boys are doing it again, all money raised goes to Kiwi and Japanese natural disaster victim kids, good cause.
My contribution to the show
To Celebrate the opening of Colour by numbers gallery, the beautiful and awesome Lauren is staging "Up Close" a group exhibition consisting of some pretty amazing artists, seriously good line up on this one.
To Support Colour by numbers go to http://colourbynumbersgallery.pozible.com 
Thanks everyone who made it along to my show at Oh Really Gallery in Newtown. The show was once again opened by the freakishly talented Omar Musa and Kodak, with Ed Hughes on percussion. Here is some photos from the opening
It seems that when Sydney based extreme right wing christian groups are at a loose end of what to do with themselves when sunday prayer services ends..... they protest my exhibition.
Initially this group had submitted an application to the NSW Police force to picket my exhibition, which was rejected on the grounds of free speech, all they could do was stand on the other side of the road and pray for my soul.
Thanks to Art Monthly Australia for putting my Image on the Cover of there April issue, very stoked, very grateful
Congratulations to me for winning the Australian Stencil Art Prize for 2010, massive thanks to Jacinta and Nick for putting it on also, the winning piece is my portrait of Saul Williams
So I forgot to take pictures of the actual exhibition, but these are some snaps of the after party of the National Gallery of Australias Space Invadas exhibition, the show features work from Australias most infamous street artists and runs until the 27th of Feb 2011
E.L.K/Ben Frost
Alexander Boynes/David broker
Al Stark and son
Scott Franks and Friend
Random Hotties (and some guy)
Mark Sullivan and Friend
Cole Bennetts and his Girlie
Vexta/Turtle
Doyle and Friend
Dan Sibley
Reka
Anthony Lister/Haha
Some guy/Makatron
Rone
Al Stark/Nails
Stark/Stabs/Tom Civil
R-J and Deb
Mini Graff
Doyle/Byrd/Nick Hansen
Here are some pics from a wall I was lucky enough to paint with a pretty cool bunch of guys- Scooter/byrd/Al Stark/Two-one/Tom Civil/Nails
