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1. PRESS RELEASE
   16TH SEPTEMBER 2008
   Contact: Linda Mina
   (07) 3807 2807 or 0406 347 198
   ms.linda.m@gmail.com

   Percolator Gallery – 134 Latrobe Tce, Paddington
   Presents:
   GRILLED – A Dizzy Collage of Exhibition Street Art & Hip-Hop Art
   Exhibition Dates: 25/09/08 to 2/10/08
   Opening Reception: 25th September at 6.30pm
   PHOTO OPPORTUNITY available with artists before and during exhibition

   It was 1988 and the year Michael Jackson’s BAD made best-selling album. Our sleepy city of Brisbane was waking up to the beat of Ice T, NWA and Public Enemy as the counter-culture of Hip-Hop emerged. But Hip-Hop was not just about rapping and graffiti art. A philosophy spoke loudly through the music and art – a call for change against the social inequalities of the time. Meanwhile, that very same year, Brisbane Expo ’88 brought the world to our city. And bubbling up from the 80’s street-smart subcultures of surfing, hip-hop, break-dancing and hot-rodding – a new Art form burst alive.
   Under the monorail and along the Expo walkways, ‘Live Art’ was performed each day during those frenetic and fun-filled six months. Expo ’88 was the launch-pad for Brisbane’s, first formally-commissioned ‘Street Artist’, June Hintz. Totally in-sync and dressed in silver space suits, June created 5 minute masterpieces to the socio-political rap of Calvin Pybus. With infectious energy and enthusiasm, these art practitioners captured the 80’s spirit of urban life with uncanny clarity. Each painting seemed to have the soundtrack and choreography embedded in its brush strokes and colours.
   During Expo ’88, this street art had an audience of 18.5 million over its six month ‘live exhibition’. Many of these visitors, including the 1.5 million from countries all over the globe, purchased these ‘fresh’ artworks. Teenagers, who were the biggest fans, carried them home to display in their bedrooms all around the world. 20 years on, you can’t help but wonder, does any of this ‘vintage’ art still survive stored under beds or in garages in Japan, Stockholm or London?
   Street art, today, is a global phenomenon and one of the most popular and hotly discussed areas of art making on the contemporary scene. With labels such as urban contemporary art, pop surrealism and even lowbrow outsider art, it has now reached the global mainstream through the work of artists like Banksy and Futura 2000. But back in 1988 it was Australian, June Hintz. Her popularity during Expo made her Queensland’s first pop star of painting. From this exposure, she gained international recognition and her works are now owned by diverse collectors from Marilyn Manson to The Emperor of Japan.
   Grilled will run at the Percolator Gallery for one exclusive week commencing with an Opening Reception on 25th September. The gallery will come alive with 1988 originators art, the music, the images and the stance that are stronger than ever. This exhibition will celebrate the work of these artists from Expo ’88 with their new style in 2008. Grilled will feature the works of ‘old school’ break-dancing brothers, Bill and James Moulton (who are the publishers of HYPE magazine – a globally distributed, colour lifestyle magazine based on Hip Hop subculture). In addition, Grilled will collectively present master pieces by Jason Heidke, Shannon Lawless, ‘Mickey’ Newman and Ron Hillier (MC CLINIC).
   These artists are from Eagleby, the Southside district of Beenleigh, which has now become part of Logan City Council area. Growing up in this working-class suburb with countless blocks of public housing, they are only too aware of the injustices that the poorer people of Australia must face. This experience has influenced their conscious approach to both their Art and their politically-focused Music. They are the artists who have subverted public art spaces and originated the Highway murals colouring the sound-walls across south east Queensland. Everyone knows their work – from the Children’s faces at Tugun, the Koalas at Daisy Hill to the funky Metro Jazz Musicians at the Juliette Street exit of the M1.
   Besides his art works, Grilled will also feature a live performance by MC CLINIC at the Exhibition Opening on September, 25th. Ron Hillier (MC CLINIC) has become the first Australian to achieve fame on the Class ‘A’ Label and credits 1988 Hip Hopper, Rakim, as his major influence.
   Concurrently, Grilled will also launch the book – @ Mass Fear by Calvin Pybus. Published this year in Britain, this book offers City Councils around the world an effective solution to today’s graffiti ‘tagging’. Through dialogue written in clever rap-style poetry and emotive free conscious stream verse, Calvin tells how ‘taggers’ can be engaged into more publicly acceptable art. Simply by creating opportunities for paid work on the Highway murals, Calvin’s method is more apt to succeed than Campbell Newman’s plan condemning budding Cezanne’s to wipe out the works of other budding Van Gogh’s.

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