User:Poncho Army

Trina Alexe Collins, who works under the pseudonym Poncho Army, is an artist who isn’t afraid to get some paint under her fingernails. Known for her detailed line work and signature splatter paint skies, she has appeared in numerous gallery shows, been a finalist in multiple art prizes, and exhibited alongside many leading urban and contemporary artists including Banksy, Kid Zoom, ROA, Vexta, Arthur Apanski and Anthony Lister. In June 2012 ArtsHub named Poncho Army as one of the top ten street artists in Australia. Her work is held in collections around the world including New York, Japan, London, Melbourne and Sydney.

The central theme for Poncho Army’s art is the exploration of contrasts – between urban and rural spaces, between internal and external realities, between melancholy and joy. She loves to capture youthful innocence and often draws upon her experiences growing up in a shrinking rural landscape to gather inspiration for her work.

Poncho Army got her start in visual arts by designing posters for her band (she has been a drummer since age 11), followed by attaining a BA in design from UOW in 2003 and entering a career in graphic design and multimedia, working as a lead designer for Fairfax Australia while also running her own freelance design business creating band posters, album covers and websites. In 2011 Poncho Army opened a pop up gallery, Sinking Ship Studio, for 6 months. In early 2012 she completed a six month residency at urban warehouse space Gallery 5 in Wollongong, Australia. In mid 2012, Army decided to take the risk, give up the day job and work full time as a visual artist after beating out many talented artists and securing the coveted artist residency at Wollongong City Gallery, Australia for June 2012 to June 2013.

Using the 12 month WCG residency to work on a new 13 piece, 715 print series titled ‘Fight or Flight’ Poncho Army is pushing the boundaries of her chosen mediums. Her work combines water based screen prints of her unique line and hatch style illustrations with the use of hand cut stencils and solvent based spray paint in a style that many told her couldn’t technically be done. “I felt like a crazy scientist with numerous beakers of inks on the benches and failed prints scattered on the floor. I knew somehow I would get the water and solvent based paints to work together and in the end I got there. I could almost write a book on the process”.

www.ponchoarmy.com

Triva

 * Plays drums for the band Handlebar www.canyouhandlethebar.com