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EP 123 – BEASTMAN Feb 01, 2021

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Brad Eastman, better known as Beastman, has spent the past decade cementing his place as a leading figure in the Sydney art scene. Although murals and studio work have always been the core of Eastman’s career, the diversity of his work and output is perhaps his most impressive superpower. His ability to balance high-profile commercial campaigns with international brands against intimate gallery exhibitions and community projects is a skill often overlooked in the art world. In the past 10 years his work has slowly evolved from very illustrative creature based paintings with strong black outlines to bright geometrical abstract work seemingly void of figure at all. The diversity of his visual world is paralleled by the diversity of media he uses to create it. From aerosol and acrylic to sight specific installation with found objects and a wide range of digital work including video and mapping, Eastman remains consistent and authentic across the board.

EP 122 – MODE2 Jan 01, 2021

Show notes

To say that Mode2 is a pioneer of graffiti is a monumental understatement. His aesthetic in the early 80s and the crews he formed and associated with would influence the way that graffiti and especially graffiti characters would look for the next 40 years. In 1987 his work was chosen to be on the cover of Spaycan Art, a book that would become something of a bible within the graffiti world and helped spread the art form around the globe making Mode2 a household name within the scene. His experience and intellect have him widely regarded as one of the foremost authorities on graffiti and hip hop culture and when speaking with him one gets a sense that he has forgotten more about painting and writing than most of us will ever have the chance to learn.

EP 121 – FINTAN MAGEE Dec 01, 2020

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Fintan Magee has often been referred to as one of Australia’s leading muralists but the truth is he’s been at the top of the heap globally for nearly a decade and gets nothing but the utmost respect from every other painter around the world. Although humans are the central imagery in his somewhat surreal paintings, the thought and meaning behind each piece go far beyond portraiture. With themes touching on a wide range of social and environmental topics Magee’s work is powerful and meaningful without being overt or accusatory. Through his uniquely beautiful technique of mixing loose suggestive brushstrokes with tighter fully rendered areas, he allows the viewer to have a reaction to the underlying themes while still experiencing the beauty and skill of the artwork.
Mysteriously Magee somehow maintains a thriving studio and gallery practice with shows all over the world, while perpetually having one of the busiest travel schedules in the scene.

EP 120 – KAILI SMITH Nov 01, 2020

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Born in the Netherlands, raised in Australia, and educated in New York City, the diverse backstory of Kaili Smith parallels the diversity of the work he makes. He first entered the VantagePoint radar a few years ago when his large narrative paintings of urban youth began popping up all over social media. The work had a strength and confidence about it and brilliantly straddled the space between contemporary and classical painting. Upon further investigation however, one quickly realizes that painting is just one aspect of this multifaceted and accomplished artist. At the ripe age of just 25 he has experience in writing and directing films, installation art, oil painting, performance art, graffiti, photography, acting, and documentary films. The future is bright for Mr. Smith and it was a pleasure to sit down with him for a transcontinental interview coinciding with the opening of his current solo show “A Utopia Where The Problems Art Not Fixed” at Thinkspace Gallery in LA.

EP 119 – JEFF SOTO Nov 01, 2020

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Southern California legend Jeff Soto found big success in the early 2000’s with his mashup style combining graffiti and illustrative imagery with traditional painting techniques. His very distinctive artistic voice eventually caught the attention of Juxtapoz magazine and in 2004 landed him on the cover which introduced the world outside of California to his work and things really took off from there. High profile gallery shows and murals coinciding with the rise in popularity of street art blogs and magazines put Jeff in the drivers seat as one of the leading artists of the movement. Over a 20 year career Jeff has weathered the ups and downs of the art market and weaved in and out of various parallel careers such as commercial illustration and teaching at Universities. One thing that has not changed over that time is his love for and devotion to creating art. His work continues to evolve and inspire and it was an honor to finally have him on VantagePoint.

EP 118 – AUGUSTINE KOFIE Oct 01, 2020

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The work of Los Angeles based painter Augustine Kofie is visual jazz… an improvised expression of a moment in time, and possibly the artist himself, laid down with a technical precision and delicate subtlety only he is capable of. His paintings are an amalgamation of experiences and influences absorbed over decades of being acutely tuned in to his environment. With no formal training, Kofie found his entrance into the arts through graffiti as a teenager, eventually feeling the limitations of the letter forms he began to expand and abstract his work. Before long the letters were nearly unrecognizable if not gone all together, replaced by undefined fields of colour washes and geometric structure. In the early 2000’s it became clear that artists all over the globe were having similar thoughts… to take this one common influence of graffiti and twist it and blow it out into something completely different. By 2010 Kofie and a handful of other artists were at the helm of a driving movement known as Graffuturism inspiring a new generation of artists to approach art making in a whole new light. With an impressive catalogue of international exhibitions and an ever expanding collector base Kofie continues to push his work and keep it fresh experimenting with materials and textures in his own ‘retro-futuristic’ way.

EP 117 – ELLE Sep 01, 2020

Show notes

Psychedelic spiritual journeys in the Mexican jungle… beach bumming on the Australian coast… snowy vandal missions blasting 2 story high fire extinguisher tags on Brooklyn rooftops, to ELLE it’s all part of the same story, a mission to compile a life and livelyhood out of a continuous string of momentous adventures. A keen eye will notice the same evolution in her work over the past decade. Years of experimentation and absorbing techniques and ideas has lead ELLE through various stages and styles in her career. A few years ago however, her true artistic voice began to emerge and as no surprise to anyone manifested itself into what can only be described as collage… just without any actual collage. A collection of visual elements from a vast range of influences brought together to form a single image painted almost exclusively with spray paint on walls and large canvases. With powerful feminine themes and an intensely bold color palette, ELLE’s work is deeply biographic but to the viewer remains universal and anonymous, a feat not easily accomplished.

EP 116 – DREW MERRITT Jul 01, 2020

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The work of Drew Merritt appears to have been created by the hand of a classically trained painter well versed in the techniques and methods of the Old Masters but the reality of the situation, much like his work, is far more complicated than it seems. Drew’s training and introduction to the arts came through graffiti covered freight trains wizzing past while he sat on horseback in the New Mexico desert. From graffiti to oil paint, Drew’s artistic evolution eventually led him to leave his small town lifestyle for the cut-throat art scene of LA and eventually cemented him as one of the leading artists in the Urban Contemporary scene. With the unusual ability to translate his very detailed and painterly work from canvas to massive walls and from oil to spray paint, his work is immediately identifiable wherever it’s found. Merritt’s somewhat challenging subject matter can be both shocking and mesmerizing which is exactly how he likes it.

EP 115 – MICHAEL REEDER Jun 01, 2020

Show notes

Michael Reeder is one of the hottest artists in the Urban Contemporary movement at the moment hands down. With roots in graffiti from his upbringing in Dallas Texas paired with a New York City art school education at SVA, Reeder is the perfect example of what the term Urban Contemporary tries to describe. His forward-thinking approach to materials and color schemes combined with a jarringly powerful and recognizable universe of imagery has given him an artistic voice that is entirely unique and incredibly sought-after by collectors across all spectrums of the art market. Whether on walls, in the studio, or through commercial collaborations with fashion and sports brands, Reeder’s work never fails to impress and can’t help but hint at the modest genius of the man who creates it.

EP 114 – RABI May 01, 2020

Show notes

Entering a room inhabited by RABI is like being beamed up into an alien spacecraft. His energy sucks you in and any attempt to divert your attention is futile. It is unclear at any time whether you should be taking this mysterious character seriously or if you’ve somehow slipped into a parallel universe. His artwork holds the same powers; a mystifying soup of themes and imagery clearly projecting a deeper philosophy wrapped in a clean and polished package, but somehow, like an exquisitely written novel with some of the pages missing, it’s just vague enough to keep it interesting. As former co-founder and art director of the highly regarded collective CYRCLE, Rabi experienced a decade of success with gallery shows, installations, brand and artists collaborations, murals and many other endeavors. In 2019 Cyrcle disbanded to pursue individual solo careers and giving Rabi the first chance in quite some time to really spread his wings and show us all what he’s made of. The Vantagepoint boys sat down with Rabi in his home town of Las Angeles to discuss his past, his future, and the transition from one chapter of an artists career to the next.

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