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Timmy Vagg's Interests
General
RECENT WORKS
Passionate about .......art and culture, music, travel, and my cat Shufty.
Music
DUB/REGGAE- KING TUBBY, HORACE ANDY, JIMMY CLIFF AND STRANGER COLE, MAD PROFESSOR, LEE SCRATCH PERRY & BLACK UHURU AND BALLARAT'S BOXING TOSTADOS.
MOOD ACOUSTIC/SINGER SONGWRITERS- HAPPY HAYWARD FROM 'THE UNDERMINERS' AND 'THE DEAD SALESMEN', GILLIAN WELSH, PAUL KELLY, NICK DRAKE, TOWNES VAN ZANDT, EMMY LOU HARRIS, NEIL YOUNG, LOUDEN WAINWRIGHT III, LEAD BELLY, GRAM PARSONS, J.J.CALE, NANCY SINATRA AND LEE HAZLEWOOD.
LOUNGE-ASTRUD GILBERTO, SERGE GAINSBOURG, ESQUIVEL, NINA SIMONE, CABARET VOLTAIRE, JOHN CAGE.
ROCK ,POP, SOUL & FUNK -JIMI HENDRIX, IGGY POP, JOY DIVISION, FATS DOMINO, JOHNNY CASH, DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979, MARS VOLTA, BIG SHOT MANOEUVRE, ELVIS COSTELLO, DEVO, THE CARS, FRANK ZAPPA, THE POLICE, WEEN, GARY NUMAN, MARVIN GAYE, ELVIS PRESLEY, ROLLING STONES, THE CRAMPS, THE PIXIES, THE CURE, KRAFTWERK, THE JACKSON FIVE, KYUSS, MOTORHEAD, JOAN JETT, BRIAN ENO, DAVID BYRNE & TALKING HEADS, BUTHOLE SURFERS, 50'S SURF GUITAR LIKE JOHNNY AND SANTO, THE WHITE STRIPES, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, THE STRANGLERS, JONA LOUIE, MORPHINE, RED SNAPPER, THE LOVED ONES, THE KINKS, THE EASYBEATS, SHOCKING BLUE, TELEVISION, THE BIRTHDAY PARTY, TOM WAITS, THE GO BETWEENS, VOILENT FEMMES, SPLIT ENZ, ARTIC MONKEYS, BLOC PARTY, DAVID BOWIE (MOST STUFF EXCEPT FOR THE DROSS IN THE LATE 80'S) PRINCE, SLY STONE, FUNKADELIC AND PARLIAMENT, JAMES BROWN, SHARON JONES AND THE DAP KINGS, JURASSIC 5, ELLA FITZGERALD, MUDDY WATERS, BO DIDDLEY, PEACHES, HARRY BELAFONTE, BILL WITHERS, HOT CHIP, ERIC BURDEN & WAR, OS MUTANTES....THIS LIST COULD, WOULD, AND SO WON'T GO ON FOR EVER...
WORLD MUSIC-NUSRAT FATEH ALI-KHAN, TITO PUENTE, RUBEN GONZALEZ, LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZZO, JOE BATAAN, MONGO SANTAMARIA.
BEATS & DANCE- SPOONBILL, FREQ, PLUMP DJ'S, MR. OIZO, AGORIA, CHICKEN LIPS, FC KAHUNA, THE KNIFE, CSS, LES RYTHMNS DIGITALES, PRINCESS SUPERSTAR, M.I.A., DAFT PUNK, KIKI & SILVERSURFER, CUT CHEMIST, OLD SKOOL 80'S HIP HOP, COLD CUT, APHEX TWIN TO NAME JUSTA COUPLA.....
Also check out my music at:
www.myspace.com/bigshotmanoeuvre
www.triplejunearthed.com/bigshotmanoeuvre
Movies
Anything Hitchcock, Mexican directors, Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men)Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's films such as Amores Perros and Babel, Y Tu Mama Tambien,Withnail & I, Fargo, just about anything with Christina Ricci, Ingrid Bergman, Rita Hayworth or Monica Belucci in it, Hitchcock's Notorious, Taxi Driver, Magnolia, 70'S Aussie ocker films , The Cars That Ate Paris, Jane Campion's "Sweetie",Deadwood HBO Series, Down By Law & Jim Jarmush in general, Terence Malik's Badlands, Anything by Cohen Brothers and David Lynch, Fellini's La Strada, 8&1/2,Elijah Kazan's "On the Waterfront" Breathless, Last King of Scotland, Adaptation, Being John Malkovich or anything Charlie Kaufman writes. Alan Ball (American Beauty/Six Feet Under) Love Peter Sellers and Blake Edwards films 'The Party" etc..
Television
I try not to watch television, but gee they make fantastic plant stands or fish tanks..especially old 1950's ones...
Books
At the moment, I'm reading Edwina Preston's very readable bio of Melbourne artist Howard Arkley entitled "Not just a suburban boy" and Errol Flynn's "My Wicked Wicked Ways"
I love big art books, but I cant afford them...Robert Hughes 'Shock Of The New' & "American Visions" Patrick Suskind's Perfume was excellent and I wont be checking out the film version 'cause I just know it'll ruin for me!
I love Eric Wilmot's PEMULWAY every Australian should read this book.
ONE OF MY FAVORITE ARTISTS AT THE MOMENT IS ANDY KEHOE a NY artist who exhibits at Black Maria Gallery amongst others...
Heroes
My parents, Blondie,Elvis,Michel Gondry,Tim Burton, Josephine Baker,Juan Miro, Michael Hutchence,Pemulway(Native Australian Rebel)Ian Curtis and Joy Division, Fredrico Fellini, Antoni Tapies, Cy Twombly, Matisse, David Lynch, Frida Khalo, Nick Drake, Cohen Brothers, Mohammed Ali,Jung, Barry Humphries, Jimi Hendrix,Jean Michel Basquiat, Paul Klee, Spike Milligan, Peter Cook, Peter Sellers, Christopher Walken, Dave McKean, Stanley Kubrick, Brett Whiteley, Antoni Gaudi, Otto Dix, Marcel Duchamp, Charles Bukowski, Andy Goldsworthy, Iggy Pop, Robert Rausenberg, Yves Kelin, Picasso, Francis Bacon, Brian Eno,David Byrne,Goya,Jean Paul Sartre,Franz Kafka, Marc Chagall.
PAINTINGS BY TIM VAGG
KICK GALLERY 239 HIGH ST. NORTHCOTE, MELBOURNE, VICTORIA 3070
OPENING FRIDAY AUGUST 24 7-10PM
Opened by Mr. Andrew Sibley
TIM VAGG- ARTIST/PAINTER/DESIGNER/MUSICIAN/DJ
I have made myself known in Melbourne and surrounds as a dynamic artist and musician, involving myself in everything from music festivals, theatre, and comedy, to highly personal and raw exhibitions of my paintings, which have found their way onto the walls of art collectors and led to four sell out solo shows in recent years.
I paint in a lyrical and gestural style that covers a wide and appealing ground. From the whimsical, naive, childlike and emotive, suggestive of the figurative work of Australian artists such as Joy Hester or Brett Whiteley, to a harder graphic street style which draws on the influence of graffiti and artist’s such as Jean-Michel Basquiat. More recently, I have been inspired by the narrative street art of Brazilian twins Os Gemeos and an appreciation of the Folk Art vernacular with it's celebration of colour, pattern and the everyday.
"Through his skillful use of artistic techniques and characters that act as metaphors for his underlying thematic considerations Vagg is able to convey to his audience the contradictions, irony, beauty and, at times, repulsion of the everyday from a more localised perspective.”
Jake Hoerner
Kick Gallery
Director 2002-2007
TIM VAGG - "THE THEATRE OF YOU & ME"
AUGUST 2007
Tim Vagg's new body of work is essentially a dynamic follow-up to 2005's highly successful sell out exhibition, "NORTHCOTE STORIES" in which the artist observed local Northcote personalities through the prism of his highly imaginative, whimsical and decorative gaze.
Here in "THE THEATRE OF YOU & ME," the artist once again presents the viewer with a host of intriguing characters that inhabit the theatre of the artists ’ inner world, staring to one side, sometimes melancholic, feverish and self conscious, beguiling and perhaps intruded upon by the viewer, as if in an awkward photograph. Partly inspired by some the imagery of late New York photographer, Diane Arbus and the faces of yearning in the work of Australian artists, Joy Hester and John Brack, the artist brings together such diverse influences as Mexican Folk Art, 1970 ’ s garish wallpaper design, Brazilian street art, children's book illustration combined with a narrative whimsy in the vein of Marc Chagall or even Australian artist and cartoonist, Michael Leunig.
As with "NORTHCOTE STORIES" there are no direct portrayals of anyone living or past, but the characters are both autobiographical and observations of others represented in a symbolic way, existing more as an allegorical expression of a particular mood or emotional state. The artist has then places these self-conscious figures in the back drop of an empty room, or an emotional stage, minimal and reductive and slightly awkward and claustrophobic, to accentuate and direct the viewer's focus upon the emotional reading of the face . This stage-like setting of flocked wallpapers and rose stenciling enhance the theatrical context of the melodrama of the characters and almost act as a character themselves in story of "The Theatre of You & Me." Tim Vagg ’ s work is a synthesis and embodiment of 15 years of experimentation, including dalliances with street art stenciling, music, dance, performance and design and printmaking, that brings his investigations into line with the breaking down of barriers between Fine Art and "outsider" forms such as naive art, children's art, street art and illustration. The artist seeks to elevate what was once considered ‘ lower art forms ’ to the status of Fine Art.
Themes that permeate the artists work include; loss of innocence, beauty in everyday detail, simplicity, redemption and the yearning for the unattainable, all forces which drive the human condition but perhaps have a quiet and distilled voice only audible to those who take the time to hear it. These works are concerned with private rather than social realities, with psychological rather than visual coherence, with the prototypical and mythic rather than topical and temporal. Hopefully you'll agree that when these works speak, they speak loud and clear.
One of the strongest influences on my work is perhaps the intuitive and emotional power of the drawings of both young children and madmen. I have worked with primary-age children for 5 years and always been fascinated by the intrinsic visual logic of their imagery. This is raw visual communication free of pretence and self consciousness, a state of expression that as an adult I aspire to achieve. I think when you want to express something emotionally but not to be over the top, simplicity and humour play an important role in communicating genuine aspects of the human condition.
Examples of my work here, cover some of the main exhibitions of the last ten years and although there is alot of diversity in my approaches, there is a consistent line of inquiry that hopefully expresses my intentions towards expressing sophisticated adult concepts through simplistic, child-like and direct imagery.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
1973 -Born Canberra A.C.T.
1975 -Raised in Ballarat
1993 -Moved to Melbourne
1996 -Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting) Ballarat University
2001 -Graduate Diploma of Education (Fine Art) Melbourne University
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2007 The Theatre of You & Me
Kick Gallery, Northcote
2005 Northcote Stories
Kick Gallery, Northcote
2004 Dogmatika
Kick Gallery Northcote
2003 Face Up
Kick Gallery, Northcote
2000 Simbolos Sagrados
Hogan Gallery Collingwood
1997 Surface Tension
Metro Gallery, Nth. Melbourne
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2002 Inner Sense
Kick Gallery, Northcote
1999 Three -Eltham Library
1998 Re-view -Eltham Library
1997 New Visions -Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
1996 Contemporary Art Fair, Melbourne
1996 Highly Strung -Ararat Art Gallery
1995 State Library Emerging Artists Exhibition
1993 Mural Eureka Museum Ballarat
COLLECTIONS
State Library of Victoria
Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
Ararat Gallery
Private Collections
PRIZES AND AWARDS
1999 Warrandyte Youth Arts Award
1996 David Pratt Drawing Prize
Timmie!!! I am good brotha! I am in Palma de mallorca in Spain drinki Sangria a crushing scooters all most down a fuckin cliff!!! As long as it could give you a good laugh and I amstill alive it;s ok!
yep the thingy is right..although i was cooking in the kitchen:dutch potatoes and cauliflower.. i didnt ring you yesterday i thought you may be recovering too much! it was a fun hopesttparty..see you on thursday for los amates mexicana?! x
Come to my new exhibition,"HIDE". Opening 7-9 pm Thurs May 29. Runs May 28 - June 14. Kick Gallery 239 High st. Northcote Vic.Aus. Open wed- fri 12-8pm sat 12- 5pm
Happy Birthday, you disco dumpling! I shall be in town in a few days... I hope to catch up with you. May your year be filled with creative abundance and positive prosperity. XXXOOO
Timmmmmyyyy!!! Single life is fuckin' awesome, but God bless the ladies anyway! Miss you,the kidz and the land of downunder. Thinkin' to take a trip to Europe yet?
no/yes/no its a lego and shufti mixedup mash up and they became cats in space..they have their own television show in Russia and they have asked me to be their manager! misty is a bit upset as she really wanted a career in showbusiness too..we are working on her profile and background at the moment!
