Mini Graff

Mini Graff is a New Zealand born, Sydney-based street artist who works in and around the city's urban fringe. The streets and inhabitants of the area provide the content and impetus for her work.

Mini Graff stencils and prints images onto a variety of media (walls, boards, vinyl, paper, rarely canvas) which strongly relate to the given environment and community, transforming an anonymous repetitive urban landscape into a unique and personal aesthetic experience. Parody, humor and social commentary are common themes in Graff's work - notions that are translated into experiments with scale in public space - from discrete interventions to large scale installations.

Graff has participated in several public art projects including Sydney Art and About, plus coordinated and presented numerous printmaking workshops to various audience groups including high school students, tertiary institutions and public art galleries. Graffs' recent Suburban Roadhouse series explores concepts of trademark and ownership in public/domestic space.

Mini Graff is featured in the video for Deepchild's song Blackness of the Sea.^[1]

Techniques

Mini Graff's primary medium is handcut stencils transferred with aerosol paint or daubed with sponges. Her installations range from single colour, single stencil works to multiple stencils and colours incorporating 3D elements such as handcut butterflies, plastic figures of people and model houses.

Depending on the nature and exposure of the site, Mini Graff also pre-prints onto paper, stickers and wallpaper, and hangs them in the place of painted stencils.

Mini Graff's recent work has expanded into exploring colour and abstract patterns using brightly coloured adhesive vinyl strips to draw pedestrians' attention to common street structures. Her work demonstrates how a simple treatment applied to an object rendered invisible by familiarity, such as a sign post, can return it to our awareness.

Exhibitions

• Brunswick Street Gallery Works on Paper 2010, May 2010, Melbourne, Australia^[2]
• Ikea Home Project, July–August 2009^[3]
• MAY's Retrospective 2009, Redfern, Australia, March–April 2009
• GRRRLS, February 2008, aMbush Gallery, St Peters, Australia^[4]
• Urban Skins, August 2007, Pinnacles Gallery, Thuringowa, Australia
• extra cheeese, Gallery FortyFour, Sydney, Australia^[5]
• Mays at MTV Gallery, September 2007, Sydney, Australia
• Doppelganger Mix, Darlinghurst, Australia
• Sydney Art and About, October 2006, Sydney, Australia
• Building Sites Taking Shape, September 2006, Maitland, Australia^[6]
• Stencil Festival, August 2006, Melbourne/Sydney, Australia^[7]
• Post-it: An Exquisite Corpse, June 2006, Peloton Gallery, Sydney, Australia^[8]
• Mays Retrospective Exhibition, May 2006, Mays Gallery, St Peters, Australia^[9]
• Manly Arts Festival, September 2005, Manly, Australia
• Sydney Design 05, August 2005, Sydney, Australia
• StreetWorks (Forever), July 2005, Sydney, Australia
• Sydney Esquisse 05, April 2005, Sydney, Australia^[10]
• Cut and Spray - An Exhibition of Stencil Art, April 2005, Volume Art Space, Newcastle, Australia
• Box Street II, September 2005, Darlinghurst, Australia
• Box Street I, September 2003, Darlinghurst, Australia

Residencies

• Megalo Print Studio, February–March 2010, Megalo, Australia^[11]
• Hill End Press, Haefligers Cottage, April 2010, Hill End, Australia^[12][13]

Further reading

• "Stencil Art Masterclass at the MCA, Sydney". 2009-10-11.
• "BBC World - MINI GRAFF STAMPS HER MARK ON SYDNEY STREETS - by Alt Artist". 2009-04-23.
• Hutchinson, Karrie (March 2008). "New Interiors". Wallpaper: 134.
• Nicholas, Katrina (January 2008). "To Come". The Australian Financial Review: 45.
• Dew, Christine (2007). Uncommissioned Art: The A-Z of Australian Graffiti. Melbourne University Publishing. pp. 171, 175. ISBN 978-0-522-85375-9.
• Bolles, Scott (20 July 2007). "Kell's Kitchen". Sydney Morning Herald.
• "3DWorld Magazine: Stencil Festival - Minigraff". May 2006.
• Zavos, Zolton (March 2005). "Profile". Dazed and Confused.
• Clement, Tracey (November 2005). "Review". Sydney Morning Herald Metro: 18–24.

See also

• List of Street Artists
• Types of graffiti
• Stencil Graffiti

References

1. Blackness of the Sea
2. "Brunswick Street Gallery WOP 2010 Finalists". May 2010.
3. "The Ikea Home Project". July 2009.
4. "GRRRLS". February 2008.
5. "extra cheese". May 2007.
6. "Building Sites Taking Shape". September 2006.
7. "Stencil Festival". August 2006.
8. "Post-it: An Exquisite Corpse". June 2006.
9. "Mini Graff's Panel for Mays". May 2006. Archived from the original on 19 July 2008.
10. "Sydney Esquisse 05". April 2005.
11. "Megalo Print Studio and Gallery". August 2010.
12. "Hill End Press". May 2010.
13. "Mini Graff video interview at Hill End Press". May 2010.

External links

• Mini Graff's web site