Kasino was born in the Sutherland area of Sydney in 1970. He first started tagging trains in Sydney in 1984 on the Cronulla line. Like most of his peers he was copying what he saw on film clips and movies like Breakdance. His school Port Hacking High had a few murals in it, the names of who he has long forgotten. He would catch the train out to Cronulla beach and he would bomb in red posca pen on the way. It was on the way to the beach that he first saw a door to door with nice clouds and he was hooked.
“...mum sent me to live with my Grandmother in 1985, she lived in Miranda, on the Cronulla line. I could do pretty much whatever I wanted over the next couple of years. So I used to travel all over Sydney, hanging and bombing with friends.”
Sydney at the time was deeply tinged with a criminal element and the graffiti scene was particularly destructive. He joined the infamous Partners in Crime crew with writers such as HOOD, DIEM, LITTLE AMOS, JENO, AMOS, JECKL, JOSH SKE and others. He says” ...back then it was huge fun, you would go to the Marble at Town Hall, meet up with any number of writers and just go for a bomb… sometimes we would go bombing on the City loop with 15 guys, everyone would attack the back car until the seats were getting ripped out and thrown thru the windows and occassionally the windows would come out too…we loved when the Transits would annouce on the loudspeaker that we had caused a train to be taken out of service due to vandalism… fun times.”
Destructive but still very creative. “... the guys I looked up to then were writers like SPOOK, JOKER, WINNER, BLAZE, TEEDO and of course the FAB 4. FAB 4 were of a world class standard back in the mid 80´s and I would regularly catch the Bondi train to check out walls they had done on that line and to drop a few tags as well….the wall they did still burn walls today…”
We used to panel allot at St James, Waverton, Lavender Bay in the day time. Out on the Liverpool line his friends included CRASE and Bill KRUSH. Bill was a mad letter stylist and his sister dated JOKER for a while. “...they showed me Liverpool where I did a bunch of panels including a DUPE panel (my 43rd panel in 1988), KAS, KSO etc… great yard back then and it still gets hit. I painted Sydney´s Zoo train there with the Brisbane AC boys, at Liverpool and it ran for a week…”
KASINO first went to New York City in 1992. He did five panels in a month including one of his best experiences bombing when he pannelled with SEEN UA at Westchester yards in the Bronx.
QUALIFICATIONS
1998 Completed Masters of Fine Arts, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove Campus, Brisbane.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
“Walk On By” - 30 July 2004, Social Skills Gallery, 621 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.
“Exceedingly Good Art” - 6 til 13 December 1997. Secummbe Art Space, 3 Winn Street. Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
“Sydney Esquisse Festival”- March 31st- April 28th 2005, Aecude Studios, Surry Hills “Tranzit” - , Melbourne, 2005.
“I used to skate once” - March 31st- April 14th 2005,Rics, Fortitude Valley de “Blade Kasino” - March 11 til April 11, 2004. Space 3, Sydney.
“Blade Duel Kasino” - March 3 til 10, 2004. Bourgies, Melbourne.
“Graffite” - July 1 til 30, 2004. Crewest, San Diego, USA. International graffiti drawing show.
“Love Embassy” - December 31st, 2003. Corner Kent and Brunswick Streets, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.
“Area 2010” - December, 2002. Sydney, International Street Artists Exhibition and series of street works throughout the 2010 area code.
“Brain” - March 2000, Pot Bar, Redhill, Brisbane. February. 12-19.
“Mindscapes” - September 1999, Van Gogh’s Earlobe, Stanley Street, Woolongabba, Brisbane, Australia.
“Street Speak” - October 1999, Touring Exhibition, Gallery Nine, Sydney and Melbourne. Included a public comission at Preston Tafe in Melbourne.
“Livid Festival” - September 1999, Brisbane Showgrounds, Brisbane. As part of the Arts component of the Livid festival. Other groups present include Garbage, 30000 + people attended.
“Fresh Air” - 1998, Brisbane Institute of Art, Cordelia Street, West End, Brisbane. An exhibition with Shaun Caulfield and music supplied by DJ Katch. Also included a dance performance by the BBOY ALLSTARS.
“Wall Street Meeting” - 7-8 th June 1997, Kulturzentrum Schlactof, Wiesbaden Gartenfeldstr. 57, Germany.
“LOOMIT DMOTE KSINO” - June 24-25 1997, KunstparkOst, Munich Germany. The work was then used for a long running videoclip for a German boys band.
“Sounds like a Jilted Generation”, - Dec. 1995 Institute of Modern Art, Ann Street, Brisbane.
“Grand Funk Railway” - October 1995, Ipswich Communtiy Gallery, Brisbane Street, Ipswich.
“1st Annual Funk Festival” - July 1995 Festival Hall, Brisbane. Multi media event including 10 bands, live skateboarding demonstration and graffiti art display. Artists came from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
TRAVELS
I have visited and painted in the following cities- Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand, San Francisco and Los Angeles, New York and Chicago in the United States. Frankfurt, Munich, Dortmund, and Berlin in Germany. Zurich in Switzerland, Zagreb in Croatia, Sarevjo in Bosnia, Oslo in Norway, and Mumbai in India.
MEDIA
“Source” - March, 2004. Channel 9. Interview regarding my arts practice.
“Today” - 2003. Channel 9. Interview with Stve Liebman for Area 2010 Street Arts show. Paid to do interview.
“The Arts Show” - September 1999, ABC Television Australia. As part of my role as an artist at the Livid Festival.
“Channel 4 News” - 1997, New York City, USA. A news article on a mural that had to be painted over due to a racist reaction to the depiction of black musicians, Notorious Big and Tupac Shukar.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
“Graffiti World” - Street Art from Five Continents, Nicholas Ganz, 378 pages, Thames and Hudson, ISNB 0-500-51170-5.
“ Cope 2 True Legend” - June 2003, Published by Righters.com, France. Page 177. ISBN 2-9520-0608-6
“ Stealth” magazine, January 2004. Published by Stealth, Sydney Australia.
“ Backspin” magazine, October 2003, Hamburg, Germany.
“ Artillary” - street arts magazine. December 2003, Australia.
“ Stress” magazine, Issue 11, Febuary - March 1998, Hollis, New York City, New York, page 86.
“ Wholecars, Graffiti on Trains”. A book by Bernhard van Treeck/ Marcus Wiessse, 1996. Published by Edition Aragon, Neumarkt Moers, Germany.
“ XPLICIT GRAFX” - street arts magazine, Issue 8, Published by Olivier Monmagnon, Marsyses, France, page 31.
“ New York Post” - April 30, 1997. Article on a mural project in Queens, New York City. Mural project was a collaboration with John Edwards.
“ New York Daily” - April 30, 1997. Newspaper article on a mural project I did in Brooklyn NYC.
“ Walking Together” - Number 12, June 1996, Front cover and article about mural project at Limestone Park, Ipswich. Project was with Neil Weir and Peter Dodds and a number of volunteers.
“ Backspin” - Issue 8, Summer 1997, Published by Bodo, Hamburg Germany.
“ Tuff Stuff” - Issue 5, 1996. Published by Volker Schallenkammer. Aschaffenburg, Germany. Pages 4/5.
” Blitzkrieg” - I produced and published 7 issues of this street arts magazine. Last issue was 84 pages and had a print run of 7000. Each issue featured my work.
” Disrupt” - street arts magazine published in Auckland New Zealand. Aug 2005.
WEBSITE PUBLICATIONS
http://www.kasino.com.au
http://www.oneeightthree.com The official One Eight Three site.
http://www.graffiti.org/kasino.1 An international Graffiti site created by Susan Farrell and Brett Webb. This site has a 5 page interview and a series of photographs of my work.
GRANTS/AWARDS/PRICES
1996/97 - Awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship to study Aerosol Art in Europe and the United States. Study included work at the Phun Phactory in Long Island City, New York. I also worked with John (Crash) Matos in New York City and Mathias (LOOMIT) Kohler in Munich, Germany.
1995 - Inconjunction with the Combined ServiceClub of Goodna, Redbank and Redbank Plains.The grant was received from the Department of Tourism, Sport and Racing to develop Aerosol Art mural in local community.
1994 - Inconjunction with Neil Weir successfully completed a Regional Arts Development Fund grant to paint a mural at Limestone Park, Ipswich.
1993 - Kay and Robert Bryan- Jack Manton Prize. First prize in 3rd Year Graduation exhibition.
OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
1999 - Co-ordinator for the Albany Creek Skatebowl Redevelopment plan. Worked with Redlands Shire Council, Queensland University of Technology. A three month consultation program with local, business, residents and young people with the aim to redevelop a local skateboarding facility into a family park with basketball half court, large Scuptural piece and large new skatepark.
1999 - Member of the Brisbane Graffiti Taskforce. A group brought together to put forward a paper to State Government in regards to solving the current graffiti problem in Brisbane.
1999-97 Produced 7 issues of BLITZKRIEG magazine. Issue #7 was 84 pages with articles and interviews of artists like Daim and MERDA. Distributed throughout the United States Of America by Tower Records.
February - May 1998 - Tutor within the Sculpture Department, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane.
1997-00 - Produced five videos in the “183 Videozine” series. Each video is 30-50 minutes long. I have licenced these videos in France, Germany and the United States.
— Minimise
