Art bag project

ARTIST NO. 25. GEMMA O'BRIEN VIA FOUR ATE FIVE, SYDNEY.

O is for Single O, O’Brien and ‘Oh wow’, check out this art. And seeing as Gemma is a typography artist, here are a few other letters and numbers to help tell her story. FOUR ATE FIVE, on 485 Crown Street, is Gemma’s original Sydney hang. It’s a café with great food and coffee (Single O since its inception in 2009) and a magical doorway where swarming customers and staff somehow avoid collision. Tables are found, even for large groups, like the cyclist party Gemma first frequented with. Which brings us to the pivotal letter B. Bikes are a thing for Gemma, including her current beloved pushie she found on Gumtree for a hundred bucks. Brisbane is where she grew up. Back-to-back espressos is her coffee order. They’re scoffed in between belly laughs. To borrow from the lettering world, this gal is just our type. Bachelor of Law is what Gemma studied. Is this echoed in her lettering precision and principles? With the unconventional bold strokes representing her breakaway into art? Are we allowed to be art critics now that we run the Art Bag Project? Big murals under her belt include crackers for Nike, Google and Tiffany & Co. Onto smaller (but hey, still significant) canvases, 20 years of Single O was the inspiration Gemma used for this bag artwork. She’s captured our wild and wicked ride with a mash up of coffee cherries and meteorites. Bean us up! Gemma ethos to bring art beyond the traditional gallery space resonates with our Art Bag Project, which takes art to the street via cafes. Cheers Four Ate Five for the connection and thanks Gemma.

BAGS AS DYNAMIC AS THE COFFEE THAT’S INSIDE THEM.

After a decade of rocking blank bags as a statement against the heavily branded, style-over-substance coffee scene at the time, we founded the Art Bag Project in 2013. As the name implies, artists are commissioned to strut their stuff on our bags. We rotate a new artist every quarter. Through our coffee eyes, this constant updating, planning and creating speaks volumes about how we treat the coffee inside the bag, ever fresh with new harvests.