kyle hughes-odgers artwork

kyle
hughes-odgers

I continue to focus on ideas of life, death and survival shown through my interest in narrative, texture, folklore and handmade objects....

kyle hughes-odgers, 2010

 

Kyle Hughes-Odgers is better known in Perth as Creepy, the popular street artist, renowned for his large scale murals and wall paintings.

These adorn the walls of the Norfolk Basement, the Condor Tower Carpark, the Northbridge Western Power building, Bar 399, and Juicebox Creative. His most recent commission is a whopping 40m, 7 panel mural for Murdoch University. You’ve probably also recently seen his work on the wooden hoardings surrounding new developments on William Street in Northbridge, and around the city in laneways, music festivals and on forgotten walls. His street work is not confined to Perth, he was very happy to discover that some street art he did in New York had been selected for Street Art New York, published by Prestel (Random House) in April 2010. Other travels and interactions with city walls include London, Barcelona, Berlin, Sydney and Melbourne.

Since 2005 Kyle has started exhibiting his distinctive paintings in galleries, both overseas and in Australia. His work has encompassed a variety of mediums, working on canvas, wood and paper using inks and paint, and of course aerosol for outdoor work. His palette consists of warm muted colours and earthy tones contrasted with pastel hues.

Kyle’s highly stylised thick torsoed, big-headed and spider-limbed figures exist in a unique folk tale world. This world exists without technology, but this does not stop the inhabitants from trying to solve problems and build things using wonky mechanics and producing structures that do not heal or help. Strange stilted buildings, often out of scale to their melancholy inhabitants, are connected to each other with lines. The lines represent communication, and the basic building forms represent the communities that inhabit them. Sparse plant forms appear in some works, and in most an exuberant patterning beautify the sometimes darkly humorous themes.