Graffiti News

TFC is bringing several generations into one exhibition

Taking Full Control, the graffiti crew known as TFC, is preparing a group exhibition at SAVA Gallery in Perth’s Shenton Park. PerthNow describes TFC as Perth’s longest-lasting graffiti crew and reports that about 18 local artists will contribute. The exhibition marks 39 years of the crew’s existence, with work spanning the graffiti culture of the 1980s and 1990s through to the period covered by the report.

SAVA co-founder Zac Cawdron told the newspaper that the crew had wanted to stage the exhibition for more than a decade. Artists from different generations will participate, and the show will use the whole gallery. The subject is therefore both the work and the history of the people who have kept the crew going.

For followers of street art, that collective focus offers a way to look beyond an individual signature or a single wall. Bringing generations together creates an opportunity to consider continuity within a local scene. The report does not identify the full artist lineup or individual exhibits, so the precise selection remains unspecified.

An empty Railway Road building has become an artist-led venue

SAVA Gallery opened in March 2026 in a long-vacant building on Railway Road in Shenton Park. Cawdron, musician Nelson Mondlane and finance director Ryan Christopher Fernandes established the venue together. PerthNow also identifies Cawdron as a 2026 Young Community Citizen of the Year.

The space combines fine art, graffiti, street art, tattoo art and murals. It contains two gallery spaces, artists’ studios, mural walls and an event space. That mix matters to visitors following artists across different settings: a painting exhibition and a mural practice can be part of the same programme, while the building also provides places for making work.

The building is more than 100 years old. According to PerthNow, its revitalisation forms part of a partnership between the City of Subiaco and urban-renewal organisation Sparemarkt to open creative hubs. SAVA’s story consequently connects the reuse of an existing building with the creation of a permanent venue for artists previously working through temporary exhibitions.

Common Thief precedes the planned TFC show

Jordan Rush’s Common Thief exhibition runs until September 4, 2026, with the TFC exhibition expected to follow about two weeks later. Rush is a Perth muralist and painter. PerthNow reports that much of his work in the exhibition had already sold.

The newspaper does not give an exact opening date, closing date, admission price or visiting hours for TFC’s exhibition. Railway Road and Shenton Park identify the location, but the report does not supply a street number. Those limits are relevant when turning interest in the crew into a visit: the September 4 date belongs to Common Thief, rather than to TFC’s opening.

Since opening, SAVA has held an exhibition each month, with three sold-out opening nights. Cawdron said the venue had reached six shows. Those figures describe the gallery’s early programme; they do not establish ticket availability for the forthcoming TFC event. The programme’s changing artists also give returning visitors different reasons to engage with the same space.

SAVA’s work also reaches people outside the gallery

SAVA’s permanent venue follows two years of pop-up exhibitions around Perth organised by Cawdron and Mondlane. In 2024, they published SAVA: Art on Canvas and Walls, a book featuring work by a collection of artists. Cawdron estimates that they have worked with more than 200 artists over the course of their activities.

The organisation also accepts mural commissions and has developed clothing in collaboration with artists it has worked with. At RAC Arena, the team curates Passing By, a youth art exhibition presenting 16 artworks at a time and changing every six months. The project places art in an area with substantial passing traffic, encouraging people to stop and give the work and its stories their attention.

Together, these activities show several ways to encounter a local art scene: through a gallery exhibition, a mural or work encountered along an everyday route. TFC’s planned show adds a sustained look at one crew’s history within that wider picture. Explore other street-art locations through the Wallscape map.

Source: PerthNow