Oh Really Gallery – Hard Cover No Jacket

Opens Fri Sept 4th

@ Oh Really Gallery, 55 Enmore rd, Newtown

14 Shows + 9 Culture Jams + 1 Issue of Oh Really Magazine = 1 big first year

Oh Really Gallery is celebrating its first year and launching Oh Really Magazine issue 5 with a group show of hand painted books.

Over the past twelve months Oh Really has carved out a new space for art in Sydney’s inner west and has brought the creative community together around a diverse program of exhibitions and events. In it’s first year Oh Really presented over a dozen exhibitions from artists including Phibs, Beastman, Mini Graff, Simon Degroot and Ape7, played host to the Australian Stencil Art Prize, held half a dozen Culture Jams (improvised jams for artists and musicians) and more than a few productive artist lock-ins, launched the art-buying frenzy that was Cardboard City, produced a sold-out edition of Oh Really Magazine issue 4, and collaborated with local projects as Creative Sydney, CarriageARTSworks and Poliform for Design Sydney.

All that, while entertaining and directly engaging with hundreds of art lovers and passers-by every week, through the gallery space on Enmore Road.

Oh Really would like to thank everyone that’s made art, bought art, or looked at the art on the walls. Without you we’ll just be three guys sitting/drawing/laughing on a couch in an empty shopfront. We invite you to come celebrate one year of Oh Really and to welcome in the next big year at our new group show, Hard Cover No Jacket.

Hard Cover No Jacket, opening on Friday September 4, will present a collection of hand painted book covers from Australian and international artists, featuring:

anton benois ape7 beastman ben frost bennett bridge claire nakazawa creepy

daek drewfunk ears esjay fox glove haha hazzy bee hello there

houl jae copp james powditch john fellows(us) joe wilson jota jumbo

kid zoom kitty horton kwan la luke taffe max berry mike egan(us)

mini graf mr gauky(uk) neli0(frnc) onshow phibs pickle dick plump oyster

roter ryan weston sam smith sean morris seekayem(nz) skael smc3 striker

syke tane andrews teagues teazer tulsi vars vokal wei2 will coles yok zap

Opening 6pm Friday 4th September

’til sunday 6th September

OH REALLY GALLERY

55 Enmore rd Newtown
www.ohreallymagazine.com

Alex Williamson is a graphic artist in London.

Michael Steele, from Melbourne, produces some exhilarating work.

If you recently bought art from a charismatic art student selling his wares door-to-door, chances are you have been duped into buying a worthless piece that is mass produced in China.

A handsome young man with a French accent recently paid my parents a visit in Western Sydney, claiming to be an Israeli art student from the University of Jerusalem. He was carrying a portfolio which he said contained the work of he and his fellow students. Despite the work being unremarkable, my parents – always eager to support the arts – were willing to part with $120.00 for an oil painting depicting two boats docked against a wooden pier.

“These sell in galleries for $1,500” he said cheerfully. While this shyster was still in my parents’ living room, I was summoned to offer my opinion of the work.

The ‘art student’ presented me with some of the pieces in his portfolio – a tree, some generic abstracts, a scene of the Eiffel Tower. Each of the artworks had an associated back story – the tree was apparently a ‘burning bush’, representing the first time God communicated with Moses. The oil painting of the two boats symbolised the hope of peace between Israel and Palestine. They were just boats. I immediately recalled a story a colleague had shared only weeks earlier, who knew someone who fell for a similar scam. In his case, the ‘art student’ was a French man named Pierre, and the victim only discovered afterwards that the art was mass produced in Chinese sweatshops for $3 apiece.

“I don’t like any of them.” I said, before retreating. I quickly Googled ‘Israeli art scam’ and was presented with plenty of accounts of similar stories. Luckily I was able to tell my mother in time – so she wrote out a cheque instead of paying cash. As soon as this trickster left, she contacted the bank and cancelled the cheque.

These people are conducting fraudulent business – they sell cheap Chinese rip-offs to people who believe they are supporting art students. Anyone is at risk of falling prey to these swindlers, including the elderly and the vulnerable.

It’s time to close the door on these art scams!

Related Links

Israeli art student scam in Melbourne?
Chinese Oil Paintings for Wholesale – the origin of the paintings

Greyscales is a culmination of 10 months work during which over 400 blades have been blunted through the hand cutting of each stencilled piece. The black and white artworks all possess a distinct Melbournian undertone with a strong graffiti influence through the depiction of crowds, streets, lanes, buildings and trains, including collaborations with Aeon, Shem, Dvate and Deam. The result is Kirpy’s first solo exhibition.

Greyscales opening night party Friday12 December at 696.
Exhibition runs December 10 – 23
696 – 696 Sydney Rd, Brunswick VIC
Open Wed to Sun 11am – 7pm

An Exhibtiion of new works from this Amazing Surrealist artist… @ 696.
Show Opens this Friday 28th Nov 7-9pm and runs until 10th Dec.

696 are proud to host Kelly Smiths first Solo Exhibition this Friday Night the 14th from 6pm.

Featuring new original works from this talented artist, who has been turning heads with her campaign for General pants co and turning the pages of Vogue with her feature this month.

Come down and have a drink with the artist and see what everyone else already knows… That her work is Breath taking.

696 Sydney Rd, Brunswick 3056
Show runs until Nov 26th.

http://www.birdyandme.com.au/