One of our favourite Melbourne artists, Tom Civil, will be holding a solo show this Friday night in Collingwood, and it looks to be another grand show from the man. Backwoods says it all best:

“The art of Tom Civil is about hidden worlds in the Australian landscape, where punk spirits dance, ordinary lives are lived and a new mythology is being born.

The young Tom Civil and his brother Ned, cubby house creating collaborators, spent their holidays at their Dad’s place in country New South Wales, exploring the bush around the area where they were born and grew up as little kids. They returned to the city at the end of each break with a sense of freedom and imagination that helped them look past the walls and fences to a world waiting to be explored, where strong personal connections could be found in every hidden place and abandoned building.

Tom moved to Melbourne in 2001 and fell in with Melbourne’s punk and graffiti scenes. Inspired by DIY publications, zines, posters, reclamation of public spaces and the culture of freedom. The ultimate expression of this came through projects such as the Empty Show, where Melbourne street artists including Civil would host exhibitions in abandoned buildings.

To Tom and his brother, who was based in Sydney, graffiti became a way for them to continue to personally explore the urban landscape while also contributing to a cultural movement. Tom’s brother died late 2010 and since then Tom’s work has reflected notions of grief and loss, and a searching for beauty in death.

Central to Tom’s current work are the Stick Folk, who manifest themselves as diminutive sprites which live hidden in the composition of his paintings or as bold tags across walls. The Stick Folk are representations of Tom’s personal connection to the land and the city. They live, hangout, protest, dance and move across the landscape, an Aussie punk mashup of May Gibbs and Michael Leunig.

Since his arrival in Melbourne, Tom has become one of Australia’s leading street artists, a social activist, community leader, a printmaker and a writer whose work has given a new dimension to Australian art. He is one of the few street artists who maintain the purity and rebellion which made Melbourne famous as a centre for street art.”

Heres a couple of preview images from the show …

Check out the images from Toms last show was way back in 2012 (has it been that long?) and we did an interview with him at the time, check them out, and look forward to seeing this new one for ourselves

Who: Tom Civil
What: Stick Folk solo show
Where: Backwoods Gallery, 25 Easey St, Collingwood, VIC
When: Show opens Friday 2nd May 2014 from 6pm til 9pm and runs until 11th May.

Check out Backwoods Gallery and the Facebook event page for more info.