Monthly Archives: September 2013

Saki,Saki and bitches,street art,installation,geisha,girl,erotica,bottoms,girls

Saki and Bitches Run Wild On Shoreditch Streets

Of all the street artists active on the streets of London, Saki and Bitches is one of our most surprising, her slight frame belies the large and high up pieces she installs on the street while her innocent smile masks her interest in vintage Japanese erotica.

The barred windows and doors of a former squat on Sclater Street evoked the idea of a cage in Saki’s mind, a cage is a thing you would find in a zoo and these cages now are the unofficial Shoreditch Life Zoo.  Saki is the zookeeper, the cages now house a trio of lively, colourful, energetic and predatory Shoreditch beasts, the kind you may see prowling through the clubs and bars of a Shoreditch evening.   Saki probably shouldn’t be regarded as just a street artist as her work is much more varied, like the very best street art though this installation starts from seeing what kind of canvas the street provides then creating something to suit that location.

She previously used this same idea of the cages to display a trio of Yoji girls, the most expensive of the high class Japanese prostitutes who during the daytime relax in gilded cages while their ultra wealthy patrons come in to inspect the fayre.

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Skai and Bitches, Yoji display

In the middle of last week, another long standing and very high piece of Saki street art, Jenny the bicycle girl (ok – we all mentally picture the Queen “Fat Bottomed Girls” song)  disappeared but on Saturday night a new sexy apparition appeared on the Shoreditch skyline, She’s a fast worker Saki!

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all photos: nolionsinengland


Shoreditch London Street Art by Dee One

Yesterday a guest on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour found a demonic looking acorn destined to grow into a Heavens Reject.  Artist Dee One has decorated this little acorn and placed it high on a rough bit of Shoreditch brickwork, it looks like the closest anyone has come to challenging 616’s painted pistachio shells.


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Street Artist + Gallery = Urban Art + Alcohol

As Thursdays go this is a comparatively quiet one and the one big opening isn’t even in Shoreditch, so plenty of time to linger.

Copyright: Lucky 13.

London Westbank Gallery

133-137 Westbourne Grove, W11 2RS

Copyright used to be based in London and delighted us with female portraits and a lot of single pink roses, obviously he’s a romantic.

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Copyright on Shoreditch Street Walls pre 2008

Back in the heady days of 2007 a huge queue formed outside Brick Lane Gallery for the opening night of a joint show with Hush.   Although Copyright decamped to Bristol he has frequently returned to London to exhibit including a huge solo show at Urban Angel (RIP) in 2009 and successful show at the Red Bull space in 2010.

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Expect dark colourful females with gothic overtones and plenty of tattoos (on the canvasses!)

all photos: NoLionsInEngland except featured gallery spam image


Street Artists in Shoreditch Unscheduled Interaction

Shoreditch Street Art constantly refreshes and amazes, one moment you are mourning the theft of a genius piece of work from the streets, the next your breath is taken away by an astonishing dialogue between new art and old on the walls.

Syd the stencillist, who previously spotted that Jon Drypnz’ running graffiti man could be seriously improved with the addition of some oversize flesh eating ants has come up with a beguiling modification and reinterpretation of a naïve portrait painted back in 2009 by Mymo.   Syd has incorporated a stencilled Joker face from the Batman franchise within the confines of Mymo’s original ultra-wide face and played with the juxtaposition of the eyes, making a triple eyed beast.  It’s all in the unplanned dialogue, the unscheduled interaction between artists and the update.

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Syd + Mymo UPdate, 2013

Here is what it looked like originally, when Mymo who was around for her solo show at the Pure Evil gallery decided that this patchy decaying paintwork was reminiscent of a face!

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Mymo face, 2009


Shoreditch Street Art’s Brutal Life Cycle

London visitors who have enjoyed the Shoreditch Street Art Tour will be familiar with the street art life cycle and the potential variations within that scheme that may occur.  Hearts sank this weekend when rounding corner as where once a stunning Jonesy bronze sculpture delighted us now was found a hole drilled into masonry.  So, one art thief has a piece intended for public enjoyment which of course they can never share for fear of being revealed as the cretin they are while the public is deprived of the amenity of a fantastic piece of free street art.   This is the way of things, one of the many risks a piece of street art faces, no point in crying over spilt milk!

What we loved:

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Half Life: Jonesy

How we lost:

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Low Life: Brick wall

We thought quite a bit about whether or not to publicise the fact that some scumbag somewhere has figured out how to remove a Jonesy.  Hopefully broadcasting the fact that we are now all keeping a closer eye on remaining Jonesys will deter the thieving bastard(s) plus the fact that the other pieces are monitored by many CCTV cameras and in more populous public highways will be sufficient impediment to the greedy harvesting of such glorious street art.

 

Jonesy the Shoreditch Street Artist has previous featured on our blog here

All photos: Nolionsinengland


Top Shoreditch Street Artists revealed!

The challenge – list 10  Shoreditch Street artists!  We all hate lists though this one is a little more interesting than most.  Complex.com in the US asked us to write a feature on the top 10 Shoreditch Street Artists.

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This was quite tricky, there are hundreds of artists for whom Shoreditch is home turf, whose street art naturally gets its premier viewing on a grubby wall in this part of London.  After tortuous deliberation and raging internal debate, we struck a compromise, the list would extend to 25 active Shoreditch Street Artists you ought to know.   Check it out now on www.complex.com.

We are pleased that every single one of these artists currently features on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour at the moment.  It was also  a secret pleasure digging out the photos for the artists, some of which are 6 or 7years old so look out for the thumbnails below each artists main picture, there are some gems in there, happy viewing.


Art Private View Mayhem To Last 2 Nights Sep 17th and 18th

Bit of an early “heads up” this week to which artists are showing what where, mainly because of a double header courtesy of Nelly Duff and Aurum Press which is on Wednesday, I mean, crazy or what?

Weds 18th September

Eine Tenderloin print release and “World Atlas Of Graffiti & Street Art” book release

 

Nelly Duff are putting on a show illustrating the production of EINE’s Tenderloin A-Z screenprints, and of course prints will be for sale.

Street Artist Art Shoreditch London gallery show

Eine Tenderloin

At the same time, Rafael Schacter releases his book and it appears a random 10 copies have Eine spraypaint on the cover.  And another reason why I look forward to this is that Rafael may have included a number of my photos of various artists repping London.

RSVP essential and apparently they may be “staggering “ admission but what s the rush, whose to say the Eine hand finished books won’t be the last 10 sold (though of course the screen prints are strictly limited).

THe location for this extravaganza is being kept secret but should be announced any moment……any moment…….

 

UPDATE..and the secret location is…

Street Artist Art Shoreditch London gallery show

Eine Tenderloin A-Z

10 Gorsuch St, London E2 8HA

 

 

Then on Thursday 19th, two reasons for putting on the party frock:

Stanley Donwood “Far Away Is Close At Hand In Images Of Elsewhere

This first original show from Radiohead’s cover artist is a definite must not miss.  Expect increased sentimentality and pastoralism, apparently.

Street Artist Art Shoreditch London gallery show

Stanley Donwood “Far Away Is Close At Hand In Images Of Elsewhere”

The Outsiders (Lazarides),

8 Greek St, London W1D 4DG

 

T.Wat: “ Straight outta Compton”

T.Wat is a long serving London based stencil street artist who reacted to the Snowden NSA leaks with that “America’s all ears” paste-up.

Street Artist Art Shoreditch London gallery show

T.Wat: “ Straight outta Compton”

Graffik Gallery

284 Portobello Road, London, W10 5TE

 

ALL PHOTOS STOLEN FROM RESPECTIVE GALLERY’S SPAM


Shoreditch Street Art Sticker Slap on London Lamppost

It’s not unusual in this modern era of street art to come across street artists in Shoreditch London decorating the street boundaries in daylight, indeed on the Street Art Tour we have often found an artist or two in mid mural.  However, not too often do we come across something in daylight as athletic or of such questionable legality as this gentleman climbing 25 feet up a street lamp to place a sticker up high, nice action!!

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Tour guest Charlotte-Anne Sadd was on hand with a camera, thanks very much Charlotte for these wonderful pictures which captured an exciting moment on that particular Shoreditch Street Art Tour.


Fresh Interventions: Cranio and Art Is Trash hit Shoreditch Streets

More excitement with new street art pieces found on the Shoreditch Street Art Tours today.  In the morning we were able to inspect the new painting Cranio of Brazil completed yesterday evening.  This characteristically colourful beauty features a host of partying rainforest Indians in a denuded landscape, flush with cash from the sale of their forest to the loggers, now what happened to that forest heh?.  Cranio returned to Brazil today and certainly has left London streets a little bit brighter than when he arrived.

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Cranio Rainforst Indians Party Time

Then in the afternoon we found a truly spectacular new fly poster subversion by Art Is Trash of Spain.  We must have been so close to the performance of this action as he evidently started and finished it in the short gap between the two tours passing by.  This picture comes from Shoreditch Street Art Tour afternoon guest Mark Truman, thank you very much Mark

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Art Is Trash (Arte Es Basura) fly poster subversion

Photo: Mark Truman

We reported Art Is Trash’s previous fly poster hijack last week here, those fly posters were “collected” by persons unknown looking  for some Art Is Trash material for their private collection.

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Subverted Fly Posters

Photos NoLionsInEngland  except Mark Truman as noted