The Powerstation by Smug

Melbourne’s street art scene is seriously amazing, moving from true underground and illegal street art about 15 years ago to widely embraced, and an essential part of our culture. We now see Street art as a major tourist attraction and there are plenty of large scale work commissioned on building in and around Melbourne’s (Australia) inner city.

I’ve chosen one of these – a legal piece commissioned by an electricity company on what is left of an old power station – the power station itself was replaced with a series of apartments (which you can see in the background). I’m told it cost $25,000 AUD or about $20K US which seems cheap to me.

The artist is Smug, who was Australian born and practiced in Melbourne back in the day but is now based in Scotland (I think). You can see more of his stuff here: https://www.instagram.com/smugone

The couple in the painting are apparently Smug’s own grandparents, the painting on the wall behind them in the painting is the old power station – which stood abandoned for many years – and I remember, ironically enough for the graffiti ‘Save the Tarkine’ scrawled across one side of its tall chimney, and ‘No Jobs on a dead planet on the other. This is a reference to the Tarkine rainforest in Tasmania, at the time threatened by loggers.

Why I like it? Its style which photorealistic. Its subject, the older couple representing what used to be there and finally the scale – you can see the motorbike and people in the foreground, this is a very big piece and its impact on what is otherwise a boring street is amazing.

It was photographed by me (obviously) back on the 10th of September last year and was originally shared on Instagram. You can find the actual art piece on Lonsdale street Melbourne Australia, between King and Spencer Street