An Auckland, NZ based art collective focussed on cultivating collaboration and creative relationships. Comprised of artists Component, Enforce1, Flox, Kool and Trustme, the Cut Collective aims to work with many like minded creative peeps on a wide variety of art projects with an emphasis on street based work and exhibition events.
All members of the Cut Collective have histories in commercial art and design, illustration, exhibition curation, commissioned artwork and mural painting. Through our central Auckland studio CCHQ, we offer a wide range of creative solutions.
Contact cutcollective.nz@gmail.com for more information.
www.myspace.com/cutcollective_nz
Component
The central Auckland suburb of Grey Lynn was once an inner city refuge for artists and the poor. The kind of place you went to create or live between jobs, now you got to have two just to make rent. Hip Hop culture has been going though a parallel metamorphosis, transforming from a mouthpiece for the dispossessed to a hideous cartoon used to sell everything from soft drinks to porn.
Stencil artist, DJ and O.G Grey Lynn resident Component has seen both gentrification of his home and the comodifacation of his passion. But rather than be bitter, he brings together the authenticity of the past with the immediacy of the present. His work captures that solid boom bap aesthetic while never feeling like shallow homage to a bygone era.
Similarly component chooses to incorporate that old school Grey Lynn feel into his work, while making it fresh enough to sell to its new residents. His iconic T shirts with the jandels and hibiscus flowers have become as much part of the local landscape as the SUVs and Soya latté’s.
Part of that old school feel is his D.I.Y approach to art and business. Self taught in the true sense of the world, Component has built up not only a solid rep as an artist, but also a business through the sale of his T shirts and artwork.
Enforce 1
Enforce One has been practising visual art in Auckland for the past ten years and has built an impressive portfolio across many creative disciplines, with experience working as a freelance graphic designer, curator, art director and stencil artist.
He has a passion for site-specific projects, and is probably most wellknown for his stylized stencil works of animals that have been appearing in public spaces throughout Auckland in recent years. “The animal reference has been a recurring theme in the works I create for the streets and gallery shows,” says Enforce One. “It comes from a fascination for something beautiful or ugly and an urge to make marks out of a thought or an idea.”
His work blurs the boundaries between disciplines, relevant both on the street and in a gallery setting. He believes the distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low brow’ art is overrated, “I like to think outside of a labeled art practice, creating art for the sake of it. The subject matter of my work can usually fit within in a gallery space or be placed on the street. What’s different is the presentation…Art in public spaces is about adding to the site but when exhibiting in a gallery, a new presentation must be designed. I find this to be an intriguing process and will keep exploring new possibilities.”
Enforce One has a long exhibition history and has been involved in a number of high profile projects as a co-organizer and curator. Last year he has released his clothing label Branch, a new venture in exposing his art.
Flox
Flox is currently one of the leading female stencil-based artists in New Zealand today. She is a clothing designer, painter, mural contract worker, business operator, and a mum. Flox is also one of five artists that make up “Cut Collective”, a group of artists who paint on the street, exhibit together and run their own individual businesses from their new commercial space in Auckland, Cut Collective HQ.
Flox is a self confessed workaholic and is very dedicated to making a living out of what she is passionate about. “I knew it was going to be hard, if not impossible to make a living out of my art, but I was not prepared to push it aside in favour of a nine to fiver. So in 2005 I started up my own clothing line. It was my intention to have the two disciplines working in sync with one another, so both my art and the clothing could promote each other and be branded under the one umbrella.” And she has done just that. You can find Flox’s wares at the new City Designer’s Market on High Street in Auckland CBD, and at various stockists throughout New Zealand. Check out her latest paintings, prints and merch at the new Cut Collective HQ any day of the week, or alternatively, visit www.flox.co.nz to get the full story…
Kool
Auckland based Musician, Artist and designer Kool’s work is characterised by bold images presented in an irreverent manner. His design background is evident in his logo-like motifs, the most prolific being his Remuera Gun Club brand which features prominently in his Kool branded t-shirt range.
Kool’s work scratches the surface and exposes the dark underbelly of society; he confronts issues of temptation, youth culture, drugs and religion with a mixture of stencil and screen printing. His intention is to engage his audience and challenge people to think differently about current issues.
He places emphasis on conveying a clear message that can be understood immediately, and this is why it is so accessible to such a wide audience.
This combination of an iconic aesthetic coupled with a straight up message delivery has wide appeal and a powerful impact in any context – whether in the gallery, on the street or on a t-shirt and has the ability to reach audiences at all levels of understanding. He sums it up best by saying “Art on the street is inspiring to anyone and every one. Open your eyes. Art is all around you, take notice”
TrustMe
On TV screens across the country as host and interviewer for TVNZ6’s creative culture flagship show, The Gravy. TrustMe has emerged from a behind the scenes role in the creative sector, to one in the front of it.
A founding member of Auckland based art collective, the Cut Collective, his work covers many areas and mediums, from generating graphics for NZ streetwear label Moneyshot, to exhibiting in New York City, to winning Metro magazines Young Photographer of the Year award in 2007.
While an exhibiting artist for 10 years, with an ever -growing curatorial practice, he has been engaged in a special project over the last 6. A project created under the nom-de-plume TrustMe.
TrustMe would be one of the most prolific and industrious artists around, with over 6000 stickers, posters, stencils and paintings produced in a 5 year period. From lamp posts to corporate interiors, TrustMe’s work has reached a wide audience in this time. His work has emerged from amongst the pop culture milieu to strike a chord with the public, evoking nostalgic references and lampooning our insecurities as a good friend might.
