Who is Up Ferret?: August 2010

Maryanne Oliver's girls have thrown their copies of "New Moon" into the literary blender of obscurity (at least one can only hope), ditched hanging out on half crescent moons (as cool as that would be) and left their cats with their dorky, half sisters' to hit the streets to quaff the necks of some unsuspecting mother fuckers. Either that, or just hang out and look shit hot in front of graffed up walls, posing for some cool myspace/facebook photo ops.

The Brisbane based artist has teamed up with Destroy and Rebuild's Avone (pronounced A-V-ONE) from NYC for an exhibition in Brisbane due to be held in late October.

Maryanne is all over the place at the moment, in the best way possible of course. She is a regular featured illustrator for Amelia Magazine (UK) and earlier this year illustrated designs for Bryce Aime, Andrew Majtenyi, Belle Sauvage and Charlie Le Mindus' shows as part of London Fashion Week. Maryanne is featuring at the “Unwrap Your Mind” exhibition held at “That Gallery” in Hong Kong and “Get the Lead Out II” at "Swoon Gallery" (a popular online gallery which promotes prominent international artists and arranges ‘pop up’ shops all over Los Angeles) along side such artists as Stella Im Hultberg, June Leloo and Christopher Umana. She was also a 12-month artist-in-residence at RAW Gallery. From 2006 - 2009 Maryanne’s work hung in the exclusive Tiffany Jones Fine Art in Buderim, alongside distinguished Australian artists such as Pro Hart, Norman Lindsey and Margrate Ollie.

However, it's pretty safe to say, Maryanne has probably never worked along side the likes of an artist such as Avone. Avone's respected and often imitated style of work, which is hand crafted using a variety of mediums including photography, paints, illustrations, oxidation and collage, was conjured up in 2006. He was incarcerated for graffiti. Talk about finding oneself during a period of hardship.

It will be interesting to see how Maryanne's work will look after her sketched sirens have been churned through the streets of the big, bad city.

Maryanne will spend a month with Avone in NYC to complete their collaboration in time for the opening in Brisbane on the 28th of October. The ‘Brooklyn-Queensland Expressway’ Exhibition will run at The Fort Arts Hub from 28 October to 11 November 2010.