Lighting Darkness

But the cool member of the Everfresh crew is simply excited, especially about having a show in the CBD. Earlier this year, Rone had painted the façade of a building – a Collins Street office slated for development – and says it was just a simple matter of asking the owners if he could put on a show inside one of the very plain offices. “Every other exhibition I’ve done has been in one of the hip parts of the city like Fitzroy or Collingwood. I like the idea of bringing a bit of our culture to this area. Here you see a lot of suits and it can be like a faceless, grey blur. But I’ve realised that a lot of the people working here actually live in Collingwood and know our work, and are really excited that we’re doing this in their office.”

While his last Melbourne show was heavily inspired by the bright colours of Cuba and Miami, Lumen is much more stripped back, comprising of 11 large portraits of a woman based on a photo shoot he did with the model almost a year ago, the highlight of which is the 12-metre high mural on the adjoining building’s ventilation tower overlooking the street. She appears in darkness, lit by a single source, giving the paintings an almost religious tone. “I wanted something that was dark but with that hint of lightness and colour from my previous work.” Each of the pieces is decorated with splotches of colour and cheeky references to Everfresh – Rone’s crew – balancing the sombre mood of the young woman stuck in a dark world.

Just around the corner, Rone has done four murals of Gaultier’s Australian muses Kylie Minogue, Gemma Ward, Cate Blanchett and Andreja Pejic in the NGV halls. “They asked me to be involved and of course you say yes even though you don’t have time. After pitching something to them and knowing that I only had five days to paint it all, I just worked double shift, working all day there, then coming back to the studio and painting all night for Lumen. But it was just a huge honour to work with those people.”

Getting his dream job designing T-shirt graphics, the once skateboard kid from Geelong, he started travelling internationally on research trips for his employers.  This gave him the opportunity to “meet other artists whose work is really incredible and realise that they’re not that much better than you. It pushed me to make my work at a higher standard.”  Now an internationally renowned artist who has exhibitions in London, Berlin, New York and elsewhere, Rone’s says his work is still very personal.