This is one show that we’ve been waiting for ever since we saw our first Heesco pieces in the Sweet Streets @ BSG Exhibition. Having only moved to Melbourne last year, Heesco has done some amazing work around the joint since then, and is starting to really get out there with a bunch of public murals, assorted commissions, and pieces in several exhibitions. We interviewed him back in November, and got the whole run down on his art and such – so go have a read.

This will be Heescos third solo show, and it will be the first show back at At Large Gallery for 2011 after some renovations, and it’ll be his first solo show here in Melbourne. He’s a passionate, talented and down to earth guy, and he has also been a great supporter, and all round inspiration to us here – he recently came in and did a fantastic piece in the new workshop & studio we have been building in Prahran, and we’re just totally floored by his innate talent.

We wish him the best of luck for this upcoming show – not that he’ll need it!

“Mongolia might not have a McDonalds or a Starbucks yet, but it does have street art. Perhaps one of the last bastions of a globalised world where hip hop has hit town before hamburgers, the nation’s capital Ulaanbaatar is getting a fresh lick of paint thanks to a new breed of artists. Melbourne-based Mongolian Heesco is set to bring a little bit of his homeland’s streets to At Large gallery with his third solo exhibition Mongo Hustle.

Running from March 18 to March 30, Mongo Hustle will feature portraits of Mongolian street artists ANZ, DEEZ, ASO, RUSTY, RAFFISHCOCK, and ETOSTARR, to highlight the small but developing scene in Mongolia and its pioneers. The exhibition also includes excerpts from forthcoming documentary Mongolian Bling by Melbournian Benj Binks, who spent last 4 years documenting the burgeoning hip hop scene in Mongolia.

It wasn’t until the late 90s, after a democratic revolution in 1990 freed Mongolia from the shackles of the Soviet Union, that hip-hop and graffiti culture started to find its way onto the streets of Ulaanbaatar.
The exhibition is a celebration of graffiti culture, and the extent and reach of its development, and a small showcase of how it’s done in Mongolia.

“Some of these guys go out painting in winter, using paints and brushes, not all spray cans, because all they can get is cheap spray paint that can’t even fill a metre by metre surface. It’s really hard to use but they’re still determined to go out and paint.”

Now, Ulaanbaatar is starting to see elaborate paintings pop up on walls and buildings across the city as artists familiarise themselves with the work of their international counterparts.

Heesco is a graduate of Sydney College of the Arts, a painter, printmaker, illustrator, and street artist.

Exhibition is kindly sponsored by Fat Yak, and Koast Kollektive.”

Who: Heesco
What: Mongo Hustle Solo Exhibition
Where: At Large Gallery, 208 High St, Northcote, VIC
When: Show opens March 18th @6pm, and runs til 30th March

Check out Heescos website here, and also check out the At Large Gallery website and the Facebook event page for more details.