Monthly Archives: July 2013

Street Art Zine VNA London and NY Faile Edition Launches

Exciting news, Very Nearly Almost, the cult street art and graffiti magazine that has been publishing my photos and occasional articles since for ever hits the streets soon and Issue 23 is set to be a cracker.  Cover artist is the New York duo Faile whose stencils were among the first to excite us back in 05 and 06.

 

To celebrate, VNA have arranged their first US launch at Reed Space this coming Wednesday.  Fear not, there will also be a London launch on 8th August at Lazarides in London, Lazarides has of course staged some stunning Faile shows such as Lost In Glimmering Shadows in a dis-used south of the river school in 2008 which I wrote about here and the lurid Fluxx Deluxx joint show with BAST in 2010.  See launch details on the VNA flyer below.

 

Issue 23 will be available in two versions, the webstore and subscriber’s cover and the normal retail  cover versions, more details on the VNA crew’s website here.

 

PS – Shoreditch Street Art Tours knows the location of a still visible Faile stencil bunny girl from those early days, check it out with us sometime (info correct at time of publishing!).

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Thurs 1 Aug 2013 Street Art previews

For many years Thursday evenings has meant exploring art show private views when street artists take their skills indoors to galleries.  This Thursday 1 August is set to be one of the busiest evenings of art viewing that I can recall.  The locations are actually quite scattered around London but build your own itinerary out of the following possibilities:

UPDATE: BREAKING NEWS!

Pure Evil and Martin Whatson have a live painting event in Trumans Yard, Shoreditch starting 16.30.  I’ve just had a sneak peep this morning in the Pure Evil Gallery dungeon at some collaborative canvasses they are working on right now and they are WOW!  Pure Evil’s Distressed Nightmare series just gets even better!

“We Are All Skateboarders”

Cultivate, Vyners St.

Collective art action in protest against proposed demolition of The Undercroft, Southbank, including open call for artists:

“We at Cultivate, as working artists (who, on the whole don’t know one end of a skateboard from another) feel strongly enough about the misleading tactics and arrogant destruction being forced on us by those who run the Southbank complex and who claim to care about art, to cancel our planned August First Thursday Pop Will Eat Itself show and instead put in a completely new show called WE ARE ALL SKATEBOARDERS”

Do check full details here:

http://cultivatevynerstreet.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/change-of-august-plans-a-call-to-artistic-arms-we-are-artists-we-are-all-skateboarders/

 

Know Hope: ‘The Abstract And The Very Real’

Know Hope, Shoreditch, 2008

The Outsiders (Lazarides)

11 Rathbone Place,

West End

London W1T 1HR

Press release: http://www.lazinc.com/content/pdf/2013-08/know-hope-the-abstract-and-the-very-real-press.pdf

 

Bob Motown: “OH HAI!!”

Details: http://blog.bobmotown.com/post/56335218603/oh-hai-is-the-london-debut-of-artist-and-print

Look Mum No Hands (yes, the cyclists café)

49 Old St.

London, EC1V 9HX

A FREE mini-zine will be given away on opening night to the first 50 guests.

 

Roll Over Play Dead –group show presented by High Rollers Society,

Participating artists include 45RPM, Aida, John Atherton, Mighty Mo, Sweet Toof, Nylon, Will Barras, Malarky, Mantis, Gold Peg, Rowdy, Sickboy to pick a few  of our favourites from the line up.

Will Barras, Leake St, 2008

Full details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/378673452255696/

Stour Space

7 Roach Road,

Hackney Wick

London E3 2PA

 

Andy Seize: “Off The Rails”

Expect pop cartoon super characters and an amazing installation from old school graffiti writer Seize.

Andy Seize, Shoreditch, 2009

Details https://www.facebook.com/events/131642050364306/

28 Redchurch Street

Shoreditch

London E2 7DPb

Possible RSVP required, other events at this space have been zero tolerance guest list jobs.

 

Andy Warhol & Tim Bessell:  ‘Warhol Surf’

STOLENSPACE GALLERY
17 Osborn Street
London E1 6TD

Map: http://www.stolenspace.com/section.php?xSec=12&xPage=1

 

Will Vibes:  “Forward Motion”

Sure to touch the heights of his solo show with Rarekind from 2009 as we described on Graffoto here: http://graffoto1.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/bill-london-they-seek-him-here_11.html

Vibes RT, Shoreditch, 2009

39 Great Windmill St

London W1D 7LX

Forward Motion Poster- Will Vibes

 

Mr Penfold: “Debut Solo/New Works”

Mr Penfold & Numskull (Aus), Shoreditch 2012

Details: http://www.mrpenfold.com/2013/07/london-solo-show.html

69 Camden High St

London NW1 7JL

 

UPDATE

Bomb The Box:

Story is each Sunday for next 6 weeks, an “international” graffiti crew gets to paint a container and this Thursday there’s a viewing of work by the crew members.  Mysterious undisclosed artists but free drink promised so who’s saying the sales pitch is missing the important bit?

Box Park

2-10 Bethnal Green Road

Shoreditch

Event page here

Please note some of these may require contact with the gallery to get a name on the guest list.


Street Art tributes to Royal Baby

It may have escaped your attention that a new prince was born, or maybe you don’t care but either way, the event didn’t completely pass by some street arts.

Mr.Farenheit sends his regards and best wishes:

Mr Farenheit It's A Girl

An editorial sub heading on the front page of London’s local paper proclaimed today that the economy was “on the mend” due to “heatwave and Royal baby”.  Last year politicians claimed the Olympics was having the same effect and Mr.Farenheit’s street art was nimble in response to that too.

Mr Farenheit Olympics Rip Off

Meanwhile Alex Senna from Brazil completed a 4 panel black and white mural opposite Village Underground.

Alex Senna

Look closely and we see Alex also has noticed a baby was in the news.

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We expect to report shortly on other artists’ tributes, don’t let us down Don!


London Street Artists We Love: A.CE

Anyone looking at the wonderful street art in Shoreditch over the past 10 years cannot have failed to have fallen in Love with A.CE.

Many a door way and hoarding has been decorated with A.CE’s collaged wheatpaste paste-ups.

His work has a strong London leaning and frequently forges an imaginative mash-up of landmarks, cartoon characters, corporate slogans and debonair icons permeated with pop art overtones.

From the archives: ACE in Shoreditch, 2008


ALO Creates New Street Art In London

We have loved the Basquiat style work of ALO ever since bumping in to him on his first London paste up mission on a cold night in January 2011. This is located close to the Fun Factory at 133-135 Bethnal Green Road where original ALO works are sold at (currently) very reasonable prices. The spot where this street piece is painted is commonly used for peaceful gatherings by gentleman of the road seeking refreshment in an urban environment 😉

ALO has been very active around Shoreditch in the past few months, for more photos, click here

 

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DScreet Owl lurking in doorway

Lovely to find this fresh bronze and black spraypaint art from the master of the urban owl, DScreet.  Wide awake but hiding in this dark doorway from the strong sunlight, DScreet’s owl looks as punk and streetwise as always.  This particular doorway is more commonly used by paste up artists and it is unlikely that anyone (except possibly advertising execs at a record company) is going to be too upset at DScreet’s owl taking the heads off advertising masquerading as street art for a newly released album.

DScreet has a joint show with one of our favourite London based street artists RUN.  More details from Cock and Bull Gallery on Rivington St here (closes 25 July 2013)

Also found a couple of these “Audio Surveillance Zone” on Brick Lane, artist current not known!  And there is no reason to believe that the stencilled rat getting its nose into the photo is a genuine Banksy.

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Street Art Photography Tour in London

Experience the visual delights of Shoreditch’s amazing colourful street art. The culture, the magic and the techniques used by the world class local and visiting international street artists who leave their mark on Shoreditch’s walls will be laid before you by your expert guide specialised in Street Art. Bring a camera, for in addition to being a street art expert, your guide is a world renown street art photographer and will be delighted to make suggestions on stunning shots to capture your perfect memories. This is one of the most exciting tours in London.