Tyrone Wright, the much-loved Australian street artist better known under his nom de plume Rone, is famous for large scale portraits of beautiful women. The artist finds new life in destruction: he creates his colossal masterpieces on the walls of abandoned and decaying buildings.
As a street artist best known for his charming images of women’s faces blended into prosaic surroundings, Rone understands better than most that beauty can be fleeting.
Rone’s artwork on the wall of an abandoned building in Hawaii.
Finding the friction point between beauty and decay is a thread that runs through much of his work.
An inveterate traveler, the artist is followed by his female muses around the world. His distinctive artwork can be found everywhere from New York, Paris, Tokyo and London to Christchurch, Santo Domingo and Port Villa.
A woman’s portrait by Rone on the wall of an abandoned building in Australia.
Just like most beginners of street art, Rone started out decorating skateboards and skate parks in 2002. He began meeting other artists through this avenue.
A few of them decided to begin working collaboratively on some pieces and share a studio. After that Rone and his mates became known as Everfresh.
A woman’s portrait by Rone on the wall of an abandoned building in Melbourne.
Now, Rone’s work can also be found in galleries as often as it is on the streets.
A woman’s portrait by Rone on the wall of a construction site.
His paintings have been acquired by the National Gallery of Australia, commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria to work with Jean Paul Gaultier and shown by galleries including Stolen Space and in London, White Walls in San Francisco, Urban Nation in Berlin, and Opera Gallery in New York.
Some of Rone’s projects include abandoned houses which he turns into temporary exhibitions just days before they are to be demolished.
“The Omega Project” is the most extensive piece of art Rone has ever created in one space.
Within this project, the artist totally transformed the inside of a crumbling old house in Alphington, the last remaining home on a development site in Melbourne that was marked for demolition at the end of July 2017.
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© Photo : Courtesy of Tyrone Wright
A woman’s portrait by Rone on a kitchen wall of an abandoned house in Alphington.
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© Photo : Courtesy of Tyrone Wright
After the developer saw Rone’s Empty exhibition in the soon-to-be-demolished Star Lyric Theatre in Fitzroy, the artist was offered the chance to “do something with the space before it disappeared.”
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© Photo : Courtesy of Tyrone Wright
Rone’s artwork on a dining room wall of an abandoned house in Alphington. The ceiling and walls of the house have mildew.
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© Photo : Courtesy of Tyrone Wright
For “The Omega Project,” the artist was granted access to the house and given free rein to do as he pleased, without the usual troubles common to the street art genre.
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© Photo : Courtesy of Tyrone Wright
Rone’s signature “Jane Doe” mural portrait stares out from the blue room wall of the abandoned house in Alphington, which was furnished with objects of nostalgia by interior stylist Carly Spooner.
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© Photo : Courtesy of Tyrone Wright
A woman’s portrait by Rone on the wall of an abandoned building.
