Art takes to the streets

'The Refugee' by Fintan, on Easey Street, Collingwood

Walk one city block in Melbourne and it is easy to see why it is regarded alongside Berlin, London and New York as one of the street art capitals of the world. Locals and visitors alike can be found exploring the city’s labyrinth of laneways, streets, façades and venues appreciating the many forms of contemporary urban art throughout the city and out to surrounding precincts such as St Kilda, Fitzroy, Collingwood and Brunswick.

Street art contributes significantly to Melbourne’s vibrant urban environment, providing a constantly changing tapestry for passers-by to admire. The art form is supported by city councils, residents and businesses alike, making street art an integral part of the Melbourne experience.

A visitor need only follow the stencil art, paste ups and murals adorning the walls around town, to find all the best places to drink, dine, experience and stay, while a number of streets are all but dedicated to the art itself.

DRINK

Easeys– is a bar and restaurant in Fitzroy that is covered from top to bottom in street art. The architects consulted with a number of local street artists to design the interior and exterior of this five-level venue that features a train carriage on the rooftop.

Section 8 – is a drinking venue that began its life as two shipping containers in a car park and is now a popular street art themed laneway bar.

Ferdydurke – has guests follow stencil art up the staircase to the entry of this funky cocktail bar.

Croft Institute – is a much loved drinking venue with a long, colourful laneway notorious for its ever changing facade of murals, that leads to the door.

Bar Ampere – is a popular cocktail bar tucked down a laneway off a laneway, adorned with street art, light installations and sculptures.

The Bridge Hotel – a local favourite that has been designed with an indoor-outdoor laneway through its centre and has stencils and paste ups dotted throughout the venue.

DINE

Chin Chin – has fully incorporated the city’s love for art into its dining experience combining stencil art, murals, light, outdoor projections and sound.

Touche Hombre – is a Mexican restaurant with an interior and exterior covered in vibrant images.

Transformer – the entire façade of this new vegetarian restaurant in Fitzroy is covered street art designed by New York artist Never Satisfied, curated by Dean Sunshine.

Jimmy Grants – is an extremely popular George Calombaris souvlaki bar that brings street art into the design of this modern street-food venue.

Veggie Bar – is a popular vegetarian restaurant on Brunswick Street, Fitzroy with an exterior painted by Rone and interior courtyard decorated with murals by Kaffeine and Will Coles.

Naked For Satan – in Fitzroy is has decorated walls covered in nearly-nude paste ups.

Cookie – is a much loved dining, drinking and dancing institution which has a huge black, grey and white mural .

Movida – being immersed in Hosier Lane (Melbourne’s street-art heart) this restaurant has an ever changing face that is always exciting, colourful and inspiring.

EXPERIENCE

Melbourne Street Art Tours – offer tours led by some of Melbourne’s best street artists, giving participants an insider’s overview of the Melbourne underground street art scene. The tour finishes up with a drink amongst artists working in the Blender Studios.

National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) – will host Thirty years of graffiti style in August 2016, exploring the relationship between the city and its street style, mapping the changing aesthetics of Melbourne graffiti from the early 1980s to the present. The NGV has acquired pieces from artists including Miso, Ian Strange (Kid Zoom) and commissioned artists such as ROA, RONE, LUSH and Ash Keating to undertake sight specific works. Melbourne street artists also contributed to exhibitions such as The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From Sidewalk to Catwalk (2014) and Melbourne Now (2013-14) where more than 150 of Melbourne’s best-known graffiti and street artists worked together to paint the entirety of Hosier Lane over six days. The artworks produced for this event are still evident today.

Wall To Wall Street Art Festival – is Victoria’s first regional street art festival that will run annually every March. The town of Benalla, located in the North East of Melbourne, was selected to host the festival and a provided a forward thinking approach to rejuvenating the regional town, where 15 artists created a series of painted murals up to three storeys high using scissor lifts, cherry pickers and scaffold to scale the buildings to create their modern masterpieces.

Rose Street Market – is a popular artists market where street art designs on the walls of the courtyard change regularly. The surrounding streets and the cafes are also covered in colourful street art from local and international artists.

STAY

InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto – is a unique heritage listed hotel, built over a genuine cobblestone laneway, giving guests the opportunity to sleep amongst Melbourne’s street art with a 40m long mural painted by local street artists from The Blender Studios. It can be viewed from the event space, The Laneway Rooms on the lower ground floor.

Adelphi Hotel – located next to the city’s heart of street art, Hosier Lane, this hotel pays homage to this artistic style throughout its rooms. As one of the world’s first dessert hotels, it proudly displays Lucy; a piece by local street artist Barry Drinan which reflects both the edgy and original characteristics of the hotel and its surrounds.

Crown Melbourne – has numerous pieces of street art in its properties, the most significant one by artist Doyle from Blender Studios who was commissioned  to paint a colourful mural under the Kings Bridge that runs along Crown’s riverside walk, along the Yarra River. Called The Wall it is a critique on Australian contemporary culture. Additionally, hotel Crown Metropol features a huge lady-bird inspired piece at its entrance, created by local artist Mike Maka.

Art Series: The Cullen – with individual rooms painted by artists such as DFace, Swoon, Blak Le Rat and ELK to name a few.

SEE

Street art has become legalised in a number of city laneways in Melbourne and its surrounding suburbs. On any given day, visitors can be sure to find an ogle-worthy work of art at any of these locations:

• Hosier and Rutledge Lane, opposite Federation Square, Melbourne
• Union Lane, off Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne
• Degraves Street and Centre Place Melbourne
• Duckboard Place, Melbourne
• ACDC Lane, Melbourne
• Croft Alley, Melbourne
• Blender Lane, Melbourne
• Rose Street, Fitzroy
• Wood Street Fitzroy
• Easey Street, Fitzroy
• Sunshine Lane, Brunswick
• Juddy Roller Lane, Fitzroy
• McIlwrick St, Windsor
• Nelson St, Balaclava

See also: Street artists making it big