Mexican born artist Ricardo González, better know by his artists name ‘It’s A Living’ has been traveling and painting around the globe for a very long time.  From a small town in central northern Mexico he headed to Canada to study graphic design, followed by a post graduate degree in Typeface Design in New York City.  With a solid foundation established, he naturally took a job as a graphic designer but quickly began to pull away from his desk job lifestyle in exchange for a more global existence and increasingly spent his time traveling and painting murals around the US and Europe.  González developed a unique hybrid style combining his typographical background with tools and aesthetics of graffiti and tagging.  At a time when the mural art scene was exploding and mural festivals popped up all over the world, It’s a Living was in high demand and could be found on lineups everywhere.  As his stature in the mural scene grew so to did his desire for the fine art world and he began producing prints, canvases and even sculptures which hang in gallery walls and collectors homes across the world.  González now lives in Mexico City and balances his time between studio work, murals, client work, skateboarding, and running various other sneaky businesses around town.

MVP back again. basically when we cross paths with past guests, we sit them down and catch up with Vantagepoint Alumni on what they been doing since we last spoke to them. This time recorded during Wall to Wall festival in Mordialloc  in Victoria, Australia in 2024,  this interview series is loose, irreverent and occasionally drunken. This episode features SMUG, JASON PARKER, DREZ and GEORGE ROSE. 

As a member of the world renowned DMV collective (Da Mental Vaporz) BLO hit the urban art scene with the momentum of a freight train.  His stylised figurative work was sweet and dark, cute and grotesque, and heavily influenced by his background in graffiti.  A few years after moving from Paris to Berlin however, a shift emerged in his work.  The figures and representational elements faded and a much more intuitive form of abstract art emerged, influenced heavily by the German art scene he found himself engulfed by.  As BLO’s work changed, so did his name.  In an effort to distance himself from an urban art scene that he no longer recognised himself in, he took on his birth name and as Claude BLO Ricci he cemented his place in the contemporary art world. From canvas work to murals and now even large public metal sculptures, Ricci is always pushing forward and branching into new arenas.  

Somewhere between reality and a dream, the work of French artist ZOER defies the laws of physics, pushing the viewer just slightly beyond the point of comfort, which is exactly what makes his work so exciting.  His color palette and forced perspectives challenge you to bend your understanding of what ‘should be’ and simply accept its beauty for what it is.  Playing with themes of urban sprawl, consumerism and excess, ZOER highlights the human impact on nature with the delicacy of a sledge hammer.  The skill and drama he displays in his paintings and murals is mirrored in his impressively ambitious installations which often include full size automobiles reimagined at art materials.  His approach to, and love of art making is inspirational and ever evolving, making ZOER one of the most exciting artist to keep your eyes on.

Aboriginal artist Tommy Day carries a heavy load that might be too much for most artists to manage.  His rich personal heritage and upbringing however have embedded him with the strength and grace that make him the perfect person for the task.  As a contemporary artists working within traditional Aboriginal frameworks going back tens of thousands of years, Day encapsulates his culture and their values, stories, and aesthetics while embracing contemporary tools and methods such as large scale mural projects and collaborations.  Although he does not consider himself a political artists, his presence in the contemporary art world and position between traditional culture and modern Australian institutions is inherently political in nature, an orientation he embraces without hesitation.

Insane51 has developed a mind bending painting style that incorporates double exposure images painted exclusively in red and blue (pink and cyan to be exact) showing two images at once.  When viewed through a red or blue filter, like the two lenses of traditional 1950’s style 3D movie glasses, the viewer is able to isolate parts of the painting while everything else becomes invisible.  By flipping back and forth between the red and blue filters one is able to see two different images in his art.  Although he was not the fist to play with this trick of light and color, Insane51 harnessed the illusion in a very interesting and unique way, by turning the red and blue 3d glasses into an X-Ray machine.  Focusing mainly on human portraiture, his figures beautifully painted in one color seem to be unaware that their inner skeletal structure illuminates out to the viewer in the opposite color.  His instantly recognisable murals are in high demand and have taken him around the globe and back numerous times and gained him a monstrous following on social media with over 400,000 followers on instagram alone.  Never satisfied however, Insane51 is always looking to take his art to the next level wether through interesting collaborations with established commercial brands or moving his personal work into new materials and dimensions.  

One of Australia’s most recognisable muralist and contemporary artists Adnate, has managed to thread a needle that few other artists have been able to pull off with such grace.  As a non-native person, Adnate’s paintings and large scale murals focus mainly on indigenous people and culture, a combination with inherent potential for conflict or misstep.  His sensitive approach and altruistic intent however, are such that over the past decade of creating art on these themes, he has been embraced by Australia’s First Nations people as well as indigenous people beyond Australian borders.  By working together with communities, collaborating with indigenous artists, raising funds, asking questions and most importantly listening, Adnate has endeared himself to the culture and continues to promote ideas of acceptance and empowerment through his work.  His skill painting portraiture is undeniable and the scale of his work, sometimes reaching heights of 20-25 stories, leaves no doubt of his excellence and with highly sought after studio paintings and countless murals still to come, Adnate’s future continues to be bright.  

MVP back again. basically when we cross paths with past guests, we sit them down and catch up with Vantagepoint Alumni on what they been doing since we last spoke to them. This time recorded during a short visit to the rural town of Benalla in Victoria, Australia in 2024,  this interview series is loose, irreverent and ever increasingly drunken. This episode features BUFF DISS, DXTR and REKA. 

To see someone paint a graffiti piece with no prior planning and no sketch and have it turn out really good at the end is impressive no matter how familiar you are with writing graffiti.  But to paint a large scale mural from a lift with no sketch, no plan, using both hands, and filming yourself while you do it… and have it turn out really good and proportionally accurate… that’s other worldly.  Sofles is a cyborg.  There’s no other way to explain it.  A well oiled machine that can paint anything in almost any style, with speed, confidence, and accuracy.  The plethora of videos on his YouTube page and all over the internet prove this to be true.  His short film titled “Limitless” from 2013 with director Selina Miles, with over 13 million views, is one of the most impressive displays of wall painting you will ever see.  From photorealistic portraiture, to vast seascapes, intricate design and pattern work, Inovative letter and hand styles, and of course just straight up grimy trackside graffiti for the heads, Sofles has concurred it all.  His prowess and talent are only matched by his thirst and curiosity for what comes next which thankfully keeps the engine running and the innovations coming. 

MVP back again after a hiatus.. basically when we cross paths with past guests, we sit them down and catch up with Vantagepoint Alumni on what they been doing since we last spoke to them. Recorded during the inaugural Vantagepoint Group exhibition at Denverwalls 2022,  this interview series is loose, irreverent and ever increasingly drunken. This episode features DULK and Squidlicker. Needless to say, this is the drunken part of the night.. its loud, unruly and general chaos..