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Joseph Allen is jack-of-all-trades who hopes only to be reasonably-good-at-just-one before the time he becomes flower fertiliser. Always fascinated by the phrase 'mixed business' used by many Sydney convenience stores, Joseph Allen adopted this phrase as an umbrella term for his unrestricted commercial art making. In the last decade Joseph has spent most of his time in London designing skateboarding periodicals and record sleeves. Now back in his birth town, Sydney, he has established Izrock Mixed Business as an (in)convenience store for general art tom foolery. Currently his main focuses are being the gallerist at Monster Children Gallery, other curatorial work and running Izrock Pressings, a platform for independent small run artist books, zines and editioned art prints. (Portrait by Rhys Lee.)

Latest Posts

  • Christopher Day @ Utopian Slumps – Friday 17th April


    AT UTOPIAN SLUMPS
    5/25 EASEY STREET COLLINGWOOD
    GALLERY HOURS: WED-SAT 12-6PM
    OTHER TIMES BY APPOINTMENT: 0403 009 291

    Non-profit curator-run arts initiative Utopian Slumps is pleased to announce the opening of After the Breadcrumbs by Christopher Day from 6 – 9pm on Friday 17 April 2009.

    When the children woke in the dark night they found that the trail of crumbs had been eaten by the forest and they headed off in search of their lost home. They came upon a sugar-coated house. They were starving kids, abandoned to the wilds, and here was an edible dream, the answer to their prayers. And here was a mother figure welcoming them, luring them in.

    Randomness can be terrifying. Surfaces can lie and melt away.

    The unfamiliar resides in the dusty corners of the known, the trimmed comforting edges of the real world.

    Beware: Starving eyes can’t see beyond sugar-coated walls.

    Pebbles, breadcrumbs, Ariadne’s thread. The innocuous pot plant in the corner. The alluring peach held by a mysterious figure. All the signs pointing the way are pointless. Never trust the obvious. Photographs are just surfaces after all. The superficial once ruled and now can’t sing for shit. The promised land is a furphy. Put your trust in the everyday at your peril. It might turn up one day abandoned in a field, burnt out and flipped over.

    The true path can no longer be depended on.*

    Day’s unique style of photography has featured in numerous publications including Photofile and Hijacked. He held his first solo exhibition, A Little Boob, at Victoria Park Gallery in 2008. Group exhibitions include Wipe The Shit Off Your Shoes Before Entering, The Projects, Melbourne, 2008; Neverness Part I, Right Angle Studios, Melbourne and Black & Blue Gallery, Sydney, 2008; Everything Forever, Palm Court Gallery, Perth, 2007; White & Black, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne, 2002 and 1000 Words, Meat Market, Melbourne, 1998.

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  • Rhys Lee at Karen Woodbury! And a book release!

    RHYS LEE
    Everglades Cavalier

    EXHIBITION OPENING AND
    BOOK LAUNCH

    Tuesday 21 April 6 – 8pm
    7pm opening address
    Ashley Crawford, author and art critic

    The publication Rhys Lee, is a limited edition, fully illustrated monograph with original artist’s page. Contributions by Edward Colless, Ashley Crawford, and Hannah Matthews.

    Exhibition current until 16 May 2009

    RSVP acceptance only on 9421 2500
    or info@kwgallery.com

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  • Izrock Pressings at Motto Books in Lithuania!










    http://mottoberlin.wordpress.com/
    http://mottoberlin.wordpress.com/

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  • Road Kill get raided!

    When I was in England last year we went to Whitstable to skate the park. French’s buddy the Road Kill crew showed us about.
    They are a bunch of good kids, just living their obsessions which pretty much equal skating and drawing. Anyhows, they made the papers and got raided at some over-cooked dawn raid on their homes. Can you believe it! For painting on the skate park no less.
    Damn. I will never watch the Bill again.

    Look at those smug cops.
    Heavy handed tactics and proud of a bag of paint. Isn’t there any other crime in the South-East worth tackling? 20 tags! Shit.

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  • Strangeness – Lyn Balzer & Tony Perkins

    My good pals Lyn and Tony just had a show at Helen Gory in Melbourne. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make so it was great to get these shots sent through.

    Enjoy the strangeness!

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  • ‘Artefacts From The Fifth Ritual’. An Exhibition by Daniel Askill.

    Monster Children Gallery Presents ‘Artefacts From The Fifth Ritual’.
    An Exhibition by Daniel Askill

    Opening night: WEDNESDAY 1ST APRIL 6.00PM
    Exhibition continues from 2ND APRIL – 18TH APRIL, 2009.

    About the Exhibition:
    Internationally acclaimed Australian filmmaker Daniel Askill will present a striking exhibition of video, photographic and sculptural works at the Monster Children Gallery in April, the first in a series that will culminate in Askill’s first long form film project.

    The new film, tentatively titled Universal Machine, will expand upon ideas and concepts introduced in his 2003 short film We Have Decided Not To Die, which comprised three acts entitled Rituals One, Two and Three. The film was labeled a “visually stunning imagining of human rituals” by the New York Times and played at hundreds of international film festivals, winning major prizes at many including Clemont – Ferrand, Melbourne International, Brooklyn International and South By Southwest.

    Universal Machine will follow with rituals four, five and six. During the fifth ritual, the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall is the location for the climax of the second act, presented in this exhibition in large-scale photographic form. This sits alongside a holographic video sketch of the central character, and other artefacts from the fifth ritual.

    Born in Sydney in 1977, Daniel Askill works internationally as a filmmaker and artist and lives between Sydney and New York. Described as “a technical clinician with a designer’s eye for form and a composer’s affection for minimalism” by US production industry bible ‘Boards’, he has created film, video installations, music videos and commercials, and in 2001 he co-founded multidisciplinary studio COLLIDER which now represents an award winning roster of filmmakers, designers and artists.

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  • From the Mind of Martin Bell

    Alf goes fishing in pizza and catches a beast man!!!

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  • May Lane Retrospective at Carriageworks

    Tugi Curated this show at the massive Carriageworks space.
    It’s all the panels he’s been collecting over at May Lane.
    He is also talking on Saturday.

    Opening: 6.30pm, Wednesday 25 March, 2009
    DATES 25 MARCH – 6 APRIL
    OPENING TIMES MONDAY TO SATURDAY 10AM – 6PM, SUNDAY 12 – 4PM
    Location: CarriageWorks, Redfern

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  • Samuel Hodge at Chalk Horse

    Pretty Telling I Suppose
    – Samuel Hodge

    Opening 6pm
    March 26th 2009

    P.S. CHALK HORSE IS IN A NEW SPACE: 94 COOPER ST SURRY HILLS.

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  • The Duke Spirit playing gigs around Australia

    Fantastic London rock’n'roll group The Duke Spirit are playing some dates in Oz.
    They are so well-followed in London that, I am not kidding here, they used to sell the record in my local pub!
    Definitely get to this show – you won’t be sorry.

    www.thedukespirit.com
    www.myspace.com/thedukespirit

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  • Power Bastard~!

    Whoa!
    New zine for Marcus Oakley on Le Dilly’s Power Bastard!

    http://www.ledilly.com/

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  • Cobra Snake and The Selby at Monster Children Gallery

    Monster Children Gallery Presents “Predator’ and ‘Home Alone’.
    A double feature of photographs by The Cobrasnake and The Selby.
    Opening Night Friday March 6th at 6pm.
    Exhibition continues from 7th March – 21st March, 2009.

    About the Exhibition:

    Todd Selby
    ‘Todd Selby…. is becoming a kind of Horst of the hip set: an environmental portraitist of Williamsburg and Silver Lake society.’ New York Times, November 08.
    Since launching in mid 2008, theselby.com has become one of the most watched sites on the web. Photographer Todd Selby visits interesting people such as film directors, musicians, designers, architects, painters, actors and writers in their homes or offices and takes beautiful shots of them in their creative spaces. Those featured on the site include REM’s Michael Stipe, designer Alexander Wang and model Erin Wasson.
    Todd will be photographing a selection of Sydney fashion, music, photography and design identities specifically for ‘Home Alone’, the best of which will be added to his site.

    The Cobrasnake
    “If…Mark Hunter is there… it’s a good party.” The New York Times, October 2005.
    World-renowned party photographer Mark’ The Cobrasnake’ Hunter has visited Australia a number of times since launching his world famous photoblog , and for “Predator’ he will show a hand picked selection of the best shots he has taken on those visits.
    Over the past five years, thecobrasnake.com has become the world’s ultimate party photo site and an internet phenomenon. The site essentially documents underground party culture and its enormous popularity has led to The Cobrasnake being invited to tour and exhibit all around the world.

    Check out The Cobrasnake and The Selby.

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  • Getting Lousy for Life

    Although I have known Hollie for some time, I only just saw that she had this Stefan Marx tattoo.
    I sent it to Stefan and now he is gonna run a series on people who have his work as tattoos.
    Lifers click here!

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  • Garry Trinh Photographs ‘Batteries Not Included’ Artist Talk

    Saturday was the artist talk at ACP for my show Batteries Not Included.
    All the artists spoke real well.

    Thanks for snapping these Garry

    Actually, everyone looks a little smashed in this pic – it had been a long week for most and the previous night had been the artists dinner.

    Misha Hollenbach – one quarter of the Changes.

    Jonathan Zawada – four quarters of Jonathan Zawada.

    Misha took over from Shauna (who spoke efficiently (not a euphemism – she really got to the point) the previous evening) as speaker. It was indepth and insightful.

    The back of the Changes installed creation.

    JZ also gave a lot of great background on his work – there is so much to this piece.

    Martin Bell’s masterpiece.

    Marty had a whole heap of anecdotes to how his work came together.

    Ross Manning followed and gave some great points on working with ongoing ideas and generating new solutions up to the last minutes of installation.

    Kat and Lara AKA Spat +Loogie take us through performance and opening up engagement and conversation in the void usually allotted to frustrated analysis.

    A bushman turned up to talk about Ben Barretto’s installed surveilance portrait of a computer bug.

    Last speaker was Paul Winkler – he spoke well and long and can talk forever. If only one had the time to keep the talk open. Really we talked for hours the previous night at dinner.

    Unlimited Paul Winkler.

    Malcolm and myself.

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  • Batteries Not Included Catalogue

    Here is a peak at the catalogue for the show on Thursday night at the Australian Centre for Photography produced by Izrock Pressings for the ACP.
    If you are in Sydney, get down and see the excellent work these artists have produced and take one of these green beasties home.

    Oh and if you can’t make it down to the ACP and want one of these, paypal me at info@izrock.com AU$10 and your address and I’ll post it to you folded once. (I have about 10 spare).

    Read More
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