Facter is a Melbourne based, Australian multi-disciplinary artist, toy maker, writer and curator, best known for his colourful, fantastical creatures rendered in a unique illustrative style. His work has featured in numerous publications, as well as being featured in several documentaries and TV shows on street art in Australia.
Biography
Early life
Facter has been involved in street art and graffiti since 1990, and began as a graffiti artist in Perth, Western Australia. After several years hiatus from graffiti, Facter returned in 2007 with pasteups and stickers, and began producing larger scale works again after relocating to Melbourne in 2008.
Career
His practice encompasses street art, designer toys, painting, illustration, publishing and writing, and has painted murals across five continents, in countries such as Australia, USA, Mexico, Taiwan, Guatemala, Norway, Poland, Latvia, Hungary, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. In 2016, Facter started the designer toy label Irikanji, based on his work as an artist. The creatures within the Irikanji urban vinyl line inhabit a realm called The Known. Alongside his visual art practice, Facter is the creator, editor and chief writer for the Invurt.com website. Invurt maintains news of exhibitions and events, interviews and photography of street art across Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.
Other abilities
Alongside his co-host Ariana Leane, Facter is the producer and host of Invurtion, a weekly podcast on arts and artists around the Melbourne and Australian area. As an arts writer, Facter was responsible for coining the term "paintspotting", a portmanteau word now widely used for photographers and street art enthusiasts who capture new street art, much like "trainspotters".
Achievements
Facter is a well-known figure for his advocacy of street art and graffiti in Australia, in addition to consultation with numerous local governments, he has also written numbers articles on street art in Australia, as well as on issues of copyright. In 2012 Facter was instrumental in the overturning of a proposal to install CCTV cameras in Hosier Lane, and in opening of the lane way from a permit based painting zone to one that allowed artists to paint without permission.
Notable works
Under the Invurt banner, Facter has been responsible for the production a wide range of large scale painting productions in Melbourne. In 2013, alongside Land Of Sunshine and Just Another Agency and the National Gallery of Victoria produced 'All Your Walls', a large scale repainting of the entirety of Hosier Lane involving over 150 artist. In 2012 - 2014 Facter curated over 100 artists in the creation of Artist Lane in the City of Stonnington, under the Aerosol Alley events banner. He assisted in the production of the 2016 graffiti event “Meeting Of Styles Melbourne”, also under the Invurt banner. Facter was the chief curator, alongside Dean Sunshine, David Russell and Luke McManus for the Melbourne publication of the Google Street Art art project. Alongside Jo Jette, Facter was the co-editor for the short lived print publication Damnit! magazine. Facter also worked as a freelance writer for XPress Magazine, Knowledge Magazine, and Drum magazine, for which he wrote hundreds of articles and interviews on electronic music artists.
