Miso is really taken with the idea of art , and especially street art, as something which binds us as a community. It functions in a  very old fashioned way, in that it becomes a way of telling and sharing stories and images, embedding them within the city. Like folk art, it comes to have a very particular, practical function. It brings us together as makers, viewers and consumers, finding new pieces and exploring the possibilities of our cities. In this sense, a lot of Miso’s work deals with telling stories. it is heavily inspired by the Ukranian folklore she grew up with, alongside sharing stories from Eastern Europe today, as well as from her new home in Melbourne.

Her work deals with passing on myths and folklore, as well as portraying everyday scenes – strangers in the street, portraits of friends. And in turn, these instances are pasted back onto the city from which they came, or exhibited in its galleries. This preoccupation is something that has led Miso to use relatively simple, if not altogether old fashioned materials. She borrows a lot from Ukranian folk and craft traditions, often reserved as womens’ work, as well as from street art – ultimately, a boys’ club.

Recent work sees her relaying between pen and ink, pencil, watercolour drawings, as well as paper cuts and embroidery. Across both gallery and street strands of her work, she uses mediums with their own stories in tow. Weathered wood panels, scraps of clothing, newsprint paper offcuts from industrial printers – as well as city walls, laden with tags, cleaned and weathered, rained on and cracked with time.

Miso is 20 years old, and lives in Melbourne, Australia, where she works with the MF artist collective, and shares a studio with her partner, Ghostpatrol.

miso (at) cityofreubens.com