Article – Gabriel Rivas aka ‘Nerviswrek’ Discusses his Drone Blank Figure and Custom Show

We at Art Whore have loved the designer toys of American artist Gabriel Rivas aka ‘Nerviswrek’ for over half a decade  now – and even had the pleasure of interviewing the man himself for an Art Talk back in 2014. Well, recently Gabriel revealed to the world a new Platform Toy he designed, the ‘Drone Blank’ figure.

What’s a Platform Toy I hear you ask dear readers? Well simply put it’s an unpainted toy, with a basic design that is sold for the purpose of being customed by it’s new owner. Kind of like a blank canvas in toy form. Classic examples are the Dunny and Munny figures from ‘Kid Robot’, the Qee from ‘Toy 2 R’ and now the Drone Blank from ‘Nerviswrek’ – which cost $US 25 shipped within America.

Describing the Drone Blank, ‘Nerviswrek’ states how he,

Just thought that this would be a different type of platform, one that doesn’t give you a limited platform. Most other platforms are kind of outlined for you, like coloring books. But this one I think leaves it open to a lot of different designs.

Plus I’ve been using this base for a long time in  a lot of my original work, like over 5 years.

On top of the huge news of a new, made in America resin Platform Toy – and one that is being sold for a very reasonable US $25 – is the fact that Nerviswrek has also decided to play host and curator for an upcoming group show to be held at DesignerCon / Dcon in November this year! For the show, a slew of well known and highly respected artists will get the chance to publicly display their own customed Drone Blanks, which will also be for sale throughout the show – Exactly the kind of scene building event Nerviswrek is known for.

(Photo below of the flyer for the upcoming Drone Blank multi artist custom show – Coming to DCON in November)

Well we thought it would be a good idea to find out more about Gabriel’s ‘Drone Blank’, and the associated multi-artist custom show, so as usual we asked him a few questions… Read all about it, below…

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Art Talk – Benjamin J Adams aka ‘Freak Street’

Ben Adams is an Australian artist, designer, screen printer and sculptor going by the name ‘Freak Street’. Ben creates unique work that  is imbued with a vibrant, frenetic DIY-punk-fury. It’s a style reminiscent of the 1960’s outre-comic scene, combined with the results of growing up in the 1990s – weird lines, hypercolour, drugged out dudes, surfing, monsters, pop culture references and lots of weirdos.

Ben freely admits that his style comes from a youth spent skateboarding, that one time he did hallucinogenic drugs, toys and the underground comics scene, stating:

As a youngster, all of the World Industries and Blind skateboard graphics were hugely influential, I used to draw them all day in my books at school.

In later years, discovering counter-culture artists like Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton was very eye opening, they set my drawings on a forward trajectory.

(Some art by Freak Street below)

Recently, Ben has been firing on all cylinders art wise: he set up his own screen printing studio and is taking orders; has been working on his masks and sculpts; and in epic news – has did the art for the new ‘Regurgitator‘ LP Head Roxx, and also provided the band some masks to wear onstage!

So get to know Ben and his art, by reading the Art Talk Interview, below…

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Art Talk – David Laverty of Multi-Media Art and Music Project ‘Snake in the Jar’

David Laverty is a 27 year old Australian musician and the big cheese behind multi-media music project ‘Snake in the Jar’, who have just released their debut LP Saddle Backs from Beyond the Stars.

Growing up in the Blue Mountain region of NSW, Australia in the 1990s, David got introduced to the guitar at the age of 15 and discovered his life purpose.  Soon after David began forming, and playing with a slew of heavy metal bands in the region – groups such as ‘Machine Spirit’, ‘Resonator’, ‘The Aussie Metal Knights’, ‘Sodomize’ and ‘The Moist Ones’ – gaining experience, fans and local recognition.

However, during these years David’s psyche kept returning to the idea of an epic-sci-fi-metal-multimedia project… So he worked and slaved on it for over 9 years in his spare time. Developing the universe, characters, narrative and very importantly, the music.

To bring his project to life, David recently assembled a group of musical and artistic collaborators. This motley crew has recently released their aforementioned debut album, with plans afoot to eventually release other media such as comics, books, games, cartoons and more!

Saddle Backs from Beyond the Stars, the debut LP from ‘SITJ’ is a 19 track musical concept album exploring the (mis)adventures of a bunch of space bounty hunters. It’s equal parts power metal, comedy LP and intergalactic space opera. It is made up of skits, narrative pieces and more standard form rock songs. Think ‘Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’ interpreted by a bunch of Frank Zappa loving, power-metal playing musicians… and you’re maybe half way there.

Discussing the ‘SITJ’ project himself, David states,

If Gwar, revived and kidnapped Prince, Lemmy, and David Bowie, drove back to the 80’s to steal the costumes of earth wind and fire, whilst making a pitstop for a bunch of Ren and Stimpy/Teenage mutant ninja turtles/Flash Gordon VHS tapes, plus 3 season of Rick and Morty, and went on a joy ride to the star wars universe. That would be a fairly accurate picture that defines Snake In the Jar.

Snake In The Jar is a Sci-Fi comedy about a group of alien bounty hunters (Saddlebacks) whom have this vast story packed with adventures, they main bulk of it revolves around them trying to save their universe called Aityees, from the dreaded Canaliens, who are trying to take over the universe senate, and lead to mass genocide of many races/species.

The main story begins at the birth of Snake in The Jar and ends when they ended up here on earth, of course, they have been here for a long time, however, and have influenced mankind’s history. Such as wiping out the dinosaurs, accidentally founding earth religion, inspiring many technologies of mankind. Loads of stuff…

It’s a crazy story involving many organizations and characters, there are about 50 or so main characters including the 8 illustrated in the first album: Commander Shaddrach, Headditch, Shredasaurus, Techno Shred, Agatha Fauxx, Dic, Rahh, and Dave.

With the Kickstarter successfully funded, and debut record released – now is the perfect time to get to know all about ‘Snake in the Jar’ via our interview with the creative mastermind behind it all, Mr. David Laverty, below…

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Art Talk – Will King aka ‘3310er’

Will King is an Australian creative, who, under his ‘3310er’ moniker releases wild-lined semi-autobiographical comics, many of which deal with his early life as a teenage vandal.

As an adult, Will has also turned his adult talents to illustration, digital art and set design – with a major focus on the aforementioned comics and cartooning.

Growing up in the regional town of Goulburn in NSW, Will moved to Sydney proper as a young adult and has recently relocated once more – this time to a small-town in Northern NSW (location undisclosed).

When asked to explain his interest in all things art – Will thanks his mother, stating:

My mum would be my biggest influence – She was a graphic designer before I was born and when I was a small child she was making and painting clothes before she got sick…

One things that definitely influenced me with comics was the birthday present I got just before going into year 7. Mum had asked what I wanted for my birthday, I had no fucking clue so I said “I dunno…comic books”. She got me this box of late 90s comics that were all these dark as shit experimental story arcs that just blew my mind.

She’d always buy me art supplies as presents, when I’d stay at her house i’d do tags in my room or in the laundry like a normal fuckwit kid and she never really tried to stop me bless her.

(Some art below by Will depicting him and his mother hooning around on her mobility chair)

With Will constantly pushing his art, and an appearance in Australian indie comic anthology ‘Hash Brown Comix’ in the works, now is the perfect time to get to know both the man and his art, by reading the Art Talk Interview, below…

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Art Talk – Christian “Bees” McGowan of ‘Pigeon Comics’

Christian ‘Bees’ McGowan is a major young American artistic talent who can go from sculpting a perfectly detailed dragon, to painting beautiful watercolours of animals, to drawing hilarious cartoons featuring vomit in a single day. She is a veritable Renaissance-woman!

We discovered Bees’ and her work through Mr. Chance Priest of ‘Victory Comics’ – as Bees has collaborated extensively with Chance on his art toys, painting figures, character art, display backgrounds and more.

Aside from her work with Chance, Bees has an interest in animation, runs her own comic brand – ‘Pigeon Comics’ – and works in almost every artistic medium known to man.

Whilst capable of being aesthetically varied as mentioned, all of Bees’ vast and varied catalogue of works are soft yet strong, feminine yet tenacious, full of movement and detail; and oh so damn funny. We fell in love immediately and know you will too!

Explaining what led her to become an artist, Bees states:

When I was around 4 years old, I saw a behind the scenes clip of Disney’s “The Lion King” where a group of artists were sitting in front of a wall of tiny drawn out thumbnails and I was entranced.

 How could thousands of these small drawings become one big movie?? I had to know!

I’ve been drawing ever since.

(Some Overwatch inspired art by Bees below)

Wanting to know more about her work, we asked Bees some questions about working with Chance, growing up, love, sex, gaining a foothold in the art scene; and much much more! Read all about it, via the Art Talk Interview, below…

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Art Talk – Edwin aka Redwine

Edwin aka Redwine is an Australian artist, vandal and all round mensch currently living in Britain. Edwin creates beautiful and thought provoking art in all mediums – graffiti, painting, sculpture, video, mixed media, collage and illustration.

We got hipped to Edwin’s work thanks to fellow Australian artist Elliot of ‘Loser Unit‘ – and boy are we thankful. As Edwin is a damn talented lad. He has the ability to paint like a Renaissance master, draw like a Cubist, sculpt like a toy-maker and vandal like a doped up 16 year old child prodigy.

(Graff by Edwin below)

With his graffiti Edwin is fighting back against the current intricate and beautiful mural trend – stating:

The new wave of commercially successful painters that, without knowing, are playing a willing (or naively innocent) role in the devastation of the impact of public art.

Commercial muralism is so easily confused with corporate advertising and to have people complicit in the latter does not help.

To this end Edwin refuses to make his public works beautiful – leaving this instead to his private works. Instead his graffiti is bold, simple, in your face, huge and impactful: letters and graphics placed eloquently in their urban surroundings. Commenting on gentrification, class and the street art scene with a wit that references the acidic humour of Quentin Crisp and a style that harks back to the French Situationists. It is amazing and wholly unique.

Get to know all about Edwin and his art by reading his Art Talk Interview below, you will be glad you did…

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Art Talk – RJ Williams aka ‘A Nameless Force’ aka ‘The Massive’

RJ Williams aka ‘A Nameless Force’ (previously ‘The Massive’) is an Australian artist, designer and vandal well known in the Australian scene thanks to his eye catching graphics and ability to get his art up all over Sydney, Australia and even the Globe. Indeed, there is something magical about RJ’s work – all symbols and bright colours. As if all his art is just part of a never ending spell or sigil. To what end – only RJ knows.

(Photo below of RJ’s huge tag done by the famous Hollywood sign – check top left of photo)

Born in 1980 RJ grew up on hip hop, toys, body-boarding and surfing – activities that continue to influence his art today.

And currently? With RJ having recently re-branded to ‘A Nameless Force’ and pushing his art hard all round the globe – now is the perfect time to get to know the man and his art by reading the Art Talk Interview, below…

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Culture Talk – Richard Masters aka Richard Wolstencroft

Richard Wolstencroft aka Richard Masters is an Australian director, nightclub owner, writer and general provocateur. In his mid twenties during the 1990’s Richard gained Nationwide fame as a result of establishing the ‘Hellfire Club’ – The first S+M / kink based club in Australia, which Richard ran from 1993 to 2003. Originally beginning in Melbourne, and later expanding into other territories such as Sydney.

Importantly, with ‘Hellfire’ Richard not only championed outsider sexuality and fashion, but also music – with musicians as diverse as Ollie Olsen, Andrew Till and David Thrussell regularly DJing their experimental electronica at the night.

(Richard and friend photographed back in the ‘Hellfire Club’ days)

Whilst gaining fame, fortune and infamy with the ‘Hellfire Club’, Richard also found himself establishing the ‘Melbourne Underground Film Festival’ aka ‘MUFF’ in the year 2000. This was established – like ‘Hellfire’ – out of Richard’s sheer will, desire and need.

In this instance as a result of one of Richard’s own films not being selected for the more mainstream ‘Melbourne International Film Festival’. Instead of complaining and wallowing, he started his own competing festival to champion underground and emerging film of all type – gaining international recognition for himself and many of the directors and creatives involved in the festival over the years since.

Indeed, Richard is so committed to artistic freedom that he is willing to put his own safety and freedom on the line – which he did in 2010 by screening the banned in Australia film ‘LA Zombie’ from infamous American director Bruce La Bruce. An act which resulted in his very home being raided by police.

And as Richard has been at the forefront of Culture creation, he has also been making movies himself since his teen-age years. Most notably ‘Pearls Before Swine’ (1999), ‘The Beautiful and Damned’ (2008) and the documentary ‘The Last Days of of Joe Blow’ (2012).

However, Richard’s lifetime of personal creation and support for the arts was recently challenged when he made an objectively shocking, scientifically wrong and simply hurtful Facebook comment on the eve of the successful Gay Marriage campaign in Australia late last year. As a result of his comments, Richard became a pariah – seized upon by the social-media-outrage-mob-mentality. He was attacked – both verbally and psychically. A series of events which culminated with Richard publicly resigning from his role at ‘MUFF’ and making a very sincere and open apology.

Richard was seemingly another tragic case of a man’s worth being judged on a single instance of public discourse, as opposed to a lifetime of action.

BUT Richard, like the zombies in the aforementioned Bruce La Bruce film, just can’t be stopped – as he admits in his Culture Talk below, he has re-taken the reigns of ‘MUFF’ and has many other projects on the boil.

Read all about them and much more, below…

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Art Talk – Steve Carter and Antoinette Rydyr of ‘S.C.A.R’

Steve Carter and Antoinette Rydyr are the immensely talented duo behind ‘S.C.A.R’. As individuals, and collaborators Steve and Antoinette are Gods in the Australian underground art scene. Working as artists, publishers, musicians, script writers and editors for over 30 years now!

Their art is full of the vibes of greats such as Basil Wolverton, Ray Harryhausen and George A. Romero to name a few. Look wise it’s beautifully detailed, unique, surreal often tongue in cheek, occasionally soft, but often brutal. Very very brutal.

We love it and so does the international comic community!

… sadly, however, many of the Australian populace and the very Government itself have had, and continue to have, knee jerk reactions to the art of S.C.A.R; resulting in their work being banned, ostracized and also vilified by the press, members of the moral outrage brigade and general wowsers. Also for over 30 years now!

Indeed, S.C.A.R are makers of creations that can objectively be called polarizing – an attribute attributable to the most important artists since time immemorial.

(Some art by S.C.A.R below)

So get to know all about both the origins of the Australian outsider comics scene, and the works of S.C.A.R by reading their eye opening interview, below…

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Art Talk – Mr. Chance Priest of ‘Victory Comics’

Chance Priest is an American artist, sculptor and man of many talents – weapons making, hunting, snake wrangling, antique dealing, law enforcement and a whole lot more.

We fell in love with Chance’s art immediately upon discovering it early last year. We had never seen anything like it: 1960’s bold comic colours, cubist lines, storyboard-style movement, photo-realistic details and a unique singular vision.

As a result, we fell hard into the glorious rabbit hole of Chance’s creations. It’s a whole world – comics, paintings, sculptures and toys. All interconnected yet able to stand on their own.

Simply put? It’s pure art and we have never seen anything else like it before.

As Chance himself states, art for him is an unrelenting force. Something that he can’t ignore and must pursue above all else:

I’m a 100% dedicated to my vision. And to be honest if nobody buys it I really don’t care; I’m at total peace with what I consider success. I will build on “my world” till the day I die, if my art sells then wonderful because I really want to share it. If it doesn’t sell then if will not hinder me in any way except for the time it takes to make end meet.

(Photo below of Chance and some of his art)

With Mr. Priest our new favourite living artist, and the fact that the man himself is always working on something new to blow the mind of his fans – you must, we repeat MUST get hip to the man right now, by reading his Art Talk Interview below…

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