Monthly Archives: November 2013

New Street Art Hits Shoreditch

Some of our favourite street artists are fresh up on the walls of Shoreditch. I’m road testing a Nokia camphone and today’s tour guests kindly allowed me to indulge in taking a few photos alongside them, as there was so much new stuff to capture.

Firstly, we were delighted to find some new paste ups by DONK, the first one above was soaking wet and subsequent ones were drier and drier so we suspect we were walking in the opposite direction to him. That first beauty also features a new paste up by 616 which appeared over the weekend.

The one below is screen printed onto a deliciously light transparent paper

Then we located a delicious new seasonal painting featuring a pop art Father Christmas and reindeer by FAN HC (Horror Crew). Particularly interesting is that FAN has integrated the photorealistic fox by Odeith into his work, see the Odeith fox in its original context below.

Street Art, Shoreditch,London, tour, walk, Odeith

Odeith (Nikon DSLR)

While on the subject of 616, quite a bit of lovely fresh work has appeared in the past week, possibly our favourite and definitely winning prise for skankiest doorway location is this collaboration between 616 and Benjamin Murphy. As I hadn’t charged up the Nokia Lumia, I had to revert to the old Blackberry at this point, compare and contrast folks!

Art Is Trash is our runaway Find Of The Year for new street artists making a huge impact in Shoreditch and after many blank weeks it was a delight to stumble across a new piece in a secluded dark corner of Shoreditch.

Previous posts waxing lyrical about Art Is Trash’s stunning street art in Shoreditch can be seen here, here, here and here.

Photos: NolionsinEngland – technical note, other than the Art Is Trash and the 616/Benjamin Murphy collab taken with a Blackberry and the original Odeith taken with a Nikon D90, the images are high Res from a Nokia Lumia 1020, all photos have been taken straight off the phones then reduced in size for interweb using Easythumbnails on a neutral setting (no saturation or contrast changes).

Cyclops, Borf, Giles Walker and Candice Tripp – Thursday 28th Nov 2013

Three intriguing shows open this Thursday (28th), none of them in Shoreditch. RSVPs required for all these events.

Giles Walker and Candice Tripp:

I’m Never Shopping Here Again

Anyone who saw Giles Walker’s “Last Supper” gothic bacchanalian animatronics extravaganza at Black Rat Press back in 2012 will be praying for more of the same, though how his more potty mouthed creations might interact with the waif-child terror of Candice Tripp will be fascinating to see. This is just on Lower Marsh at the far exit from the Leake St tunnels and the gallery is saying that all private view slots are fully booked and your best bet if you aren’t booked is to catch the public opening from Saturday.

John Tsombikos – The Borf Show

Although this was very much a Washington/East Coast thing, quite a few here in the UK will recall observing the mist of confusion and controversy among American fans as to whether Borf was a collective, a concept or a tagger. The spirit of whimsical slogans and tagging captured on canvas, or abstract colour scribbles?

Lazarides Rathbone

11 Rathbone Place, London, W1T 1HR

Cyclops: The Way Of All Flesh

We’ve been big fans of the work of Cyclops for many years, a fine art education has moved him on a long way from the Basquiatesque images of the middle of the last decade. What is curious is the reversion to his street artist pseudonym rather than the real name that has appeared over the door in more recent shows.

The Outsiders

8 Greek Street, Soho, London W1D 4DG

All photos: stolen from galleries’ blurb

Night Time Street Art Photography

As we settle into Winter mode, one thing worth a cheer is that we can head out for some night time photography and still get home in time for dinner! This week Shoreditch Street Art Tours extended its Street Art Photography programme to offer night time photography tours.

Night time is when the photographic opportunities are at their most exhilarating. It is the time when this clandestine street art is created. Night time photography captures the completely changed ambience that settles on our urban landscape. Streets that bustle by day become deserted by night, the lighting and the shadows totally change. Long exposures result in people ghosting through shots.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We were delighted to be joined by Nico who wanted to take photographs and movie clips. Lending him the Shoreditch Street Art Tours’ Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod, Nico captured some stunning night time photography.

Shoreditch,London,Street Art,Tour, night time,photography,

Phlegm

We will be offering further night time photography tours on both a fixed schedule and by bespoke private arrangement. Groups will be small, no more than 4 photographers. Please don’t hesitate to drop us a line for further information if the schedule does not have a date that suits you.

All photos: NoLionsInEngland

Thanks to Nico for permission to include photos with him in

D*Face “One Man And His Dog” Book Review

D*Face has an almost peerless right to be regarded as father to London’s street art scene and guests of Shoreditch Street Art Tours will know that I position him as globally significant. This great new self penned book lays out clearly the evidence to justify those garlands.

D*Face “One Man And His Dog” Book

Hardback
500 colour illustrations
344 pages
290 x 240 mm
ISBN 9781780672779
Published November 2013
Laurence King Publishing Ltd.
Weight 1 tonne 😉

There are plenty of stories lifting the curtain on D*Face escapades which make fascinating reading, such as the driver turning up to deposit six 1 tonne poured cement spraycan sculptures around central London tourist spots wearing a German army officer’s hat with plastic doll’s legs sticking out the sides.

Shoreditch,London,Street Art, Street artist,DFace, D*Face,Book,photos,review

Limited Edition boxed version, photo: Laurence King Publishing

The 2010 installation of the Zombie Oscars in Hollywood struck me at the time as one of the ballsiest illegal street piece installations and I am not sure there has been much to challenge that status since.

Zombie Oscar, Mels Dinner

Few of the revelations are quite as astonishing as what D*Face’s wife carved in ice on a 2006 trip to the Arctic circle but you’ll have to read the book to get that little nugget!

Banksy is eventually mentioned as a friend, partner and collaborator though one gets the impression that D*Face remains a little sore at Banksy’s sudden universal withdrawal from social contact in 2007.

There is a revealing anecdote regarding a war dividend painting he did on a building site hoarding which featured a collage of corporate logos of companies profiteering by securing privileged post war access into Iraq. An advertising agency who claimed to like D*Face’s work were a bit put out at their client’s logos being corrupted in this way, so their course of action options were Plan A follow a due process, engage lawyers, issue cease and desist letters, follow up with compliance and enforcement notices etc, or plan B, send down a young girl on an internship with a roller and a bucket of paint and have her paint it out. D*Face’s self confessed anger overwhelms any admiration of the ironic “do it yourself” punk approach the agency adopted!

“I thrive on the visual, ephemeral feast that surrounds us City dwellers, from the overlaid and torn flyposters to the tagged doorways, the jammed rotating billboards displaying parts of two adverts at the same time and the chopping of sounds I hear while cycling through traffic. I am naturally drawn to my visual environment.”

At several points we get a sense of the inherent conflicts of being a street artist, a gallery artist and a gallery owner, particularly where it comes to relationships with the law! In 2008 I was intrigued by D*Face’s switch to showing with Black Rat press and in the book we now learn that showing with an outside gallery frees D*Face to concentrate on producing the art and secondly, Black rat offered a step enhancement in screen printing refinement above and beyond what had become the Pictures on Walls standard in-house product. The resulting “aPOPcalypse Now” was a stunning show that I found simultaneously mesmerising and disorientating (pics here).

Having said the book reveals all, there are perhaps a few things curiously overlooked. Apart from a note in the shouts at the back I didn’t find any mention of the 2003 Finders Keepers exploits. I’m going to extrapolate, infer and guess a bit here but Finders Keepers was about the punk do-it-yourself approach, some of the key Finders keepers members have recently shown with Stolen Space and appear to be still in touch with D*Face, others plough a far more independent, righteous and outside-the-system furrow quite distant from the path D*Face has followed, so perhaps there is some breakdown of the old intente cordial there.

There is even a full page sticker kit, I wonder if anyone will ever be mad enough to remove the stickers..just keep the book out of the hands of 5 year olds.

In among all the material which revives memories for me of stuff I lived and experienced as a fan looking in from the outside, I was surprised to find strands to D*Face’s work which I have no recollection of, such as the butterflies and insects which are clearly influenced by Damien Hirst.

“Trying to explain to US border police why you have an industrial drill with you for a holiday is no easy task,”

If you like the work of d*Face or have found this review interesting, you might like to do a little time travel and see a bit of previous stuff written by NoLionsInEngland (ok…yes, that’s me too!) on the door closing 2013 solo show at the old Stolen Space premises a,d, as noted before a small number of my flicks from the 2008 aPOPcalypse show are here.

This is a large and heavy book, there are hundreds and hundreds of fascinating photos in there of both outdoor and indoor work. Clear some shelf space and pick up a great read.

Book text copyright: Dean Stockton

Book photos copyright: as stated in the book

Publisher link: http://www.laurenceking.com/en/the-art-of-d-face-one-man-and-his-dog

Photos NoLionsinengland except where noted

PS – stickers photographer’s own 😉

Another Satisfied Customer

At Shoreditch Street Art Tours our total commitment is to give every guest a fantastic insight to the street art, the culture, the artists, the techniques and the history of the scene in Shoreditch. It works, clearly, ranking as a Top 20 London activity out of 502 on Tripadvisor does not lie!

One pair of guests from earlier this month have kindly taken the time and trouble to express their delight and satisfaction with their tour experience in a post on their blog, I think you should look at and enjoy the words of Rosie at Storm Brand Design, thanks Rosie and Rob.

Here is a selection of art on the particular route around Shoreditch that Rosie and Rob took with Shoreditch Street Art Tours.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Whats On: Street Art gallery shows Nov 14th and 15th

Quite an exciting end of week for gallery related street art work. Or is it street related gallery work. Or perhaps Urban Art. Who cares, good art, friendly faces and possibly some free liquid refreshments thrown in.

Pure Evil Department Store

Pure Evil has long been a corner stone of Shoreditch’s street art scene. From the murky leafs of his address book all kinds of radical international street art talent have had their first London break through the Pure Evil Gallery. Names like Roa, Pablo Delgado, Artiste Ouvrier, Spectre and Robbo had legendary solo shows in the Pure Evil dungeon. Always seeking the novel and bizarre, Pure Evil has decided to open what he calls a department store just a couple of doors down from his own gallery. Expect carpets, sports equipment, cookery and a perfume counter just inside the front door …hang on a minute….no, sorry, that’s a normal department store. Actually, the only thing to expect from Mr Evil is the un-expected.

Pure Evil Department Store

96-98 Leonard St

London EC2A 4RH

D Face One Man And His Dog,

Stolen Space Gallery

Banksy hasn’t returned the calls from his publisher for quite a while so perhaps the most significant street art literary disclosure for many years will be DFace’s book. They call it a monograph but I don’t know what one of those is so on account of the covers, pages, words and pictures I am sticking with “Book”. Certainly there should be no lack of material regarding the man, his art and his contribution to the London street art scene to make this a fascinating read and we look forward to doing just that. Hang on…isn’t Banksy’s publisher…Banksy? So what’s his excuse then?

While there punters can also take in the work of Gregory Euclide’s “Whose Land We Laid Down & Wiped Away” show, which continues.

STOLENSPACE GALLERY
17 Osborn Street
London E1 6TD

Space Invader – Art4Space

On Friday Lazardes hosts the London Premiere of Space Invader’s film Art4Space. Shoreditch Street Art Tours guests will be familiar with the work of Space Invader . All we know thus far about the film is that the mosaic meister does somehow genuinely invade space. It will be interesting to see if Space Invader avoids the arrest episode which accompanied his time in New York recently for a screening there.

Lazerides hosts but the film is being screened offsite at Soho House. There are two fully screenings which we understand are likely to have been fully booked and there is rumour that a third 9pm screening has been added. RSVP definitely required (info@lazinc.com)

Spanish Street Artist Borondo Displays Novel Technique

Spanish street artist Borondo was in Shoreditch last week with his unusual street art style, scraping paint off windows. His exquisite control of light and shade facilitates some quite dark compositions as in this Dias/Noche (day night) diptych, check out the figure reflected in the open window.

Shoreditch Street Art Tours had the pleasure of a bit of chat and we saw that scraping action at work.

We look forward to more in the not too distant future.

D7606 Pop Art On Shoreditch Walls

Among the street artists featuring on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour walks, D7606 is always a favourite for the simple witty ideas, the colours and the collaborations. With the most recent crop of Marilyn as Valentine Cowgirl, D7606 has kicked the Warholian pop art imagery up another level. The locations are also superbly “storied” street art sports, particularly the “Glory Portal” doorway.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

D7606 also featured in my “25 Shoreditch Street Artists You Need To Know” feature for Complex website, click HERE

Shoreditch,London,Street Art,Tour,D7606,Street artist,Marilyn Monroe, valentine cowgirl,Warhol, Pop art

Twiggy at the post box

Feminine icons in phone boxes

Very Nearly Almost Zine Issue 24 Paul Insect Special

Street artist Paul Insect is the cover artist for the 24^th issue of Very Nearly Almost magazine, something to really look forward. The launch will be marked by a party at DreambagJaguarShoes on Kingsland Rd.

London, Shoreditch,street artist,Paul Insect,VNA magazine, Very Nearly Almost magazine

VNA Issue 24 Launch

Apart from hopefully picking up one of the special Paul Insect signed artwork covers (£40), there are all the other cracking features on artists including

Matt Small
Tim Biskup
Joram Roukes
Jaybo Monk
Jon Burgerman
Medhi
Oliver Jeffers
Eleven
Jacob Ovgren
Ojey
Graffuturism

VNA Issue 24 Regular Cover

I have great memories of several long and intensely cold February nights spent on a Hackney Rooftop a couple of years ago with Paul Insect and his friend Sweet Toof making this little film:

Sweet Toof and Paul Insect, London Rooftop, 2011 from NoLionsInEngland on Vimeo.

For a little insightabout why a Pual Insect special edition cover is so exciting, check out this collection of online photos which is a fraction of the beautiful Paul Insect art I have photographed down the years HERE.

VNA will have its customary great selection of photos including as usual hopefully a smattering from myself as well.

VNA Issue 24 – pop art teaser

THe event page to attend the launch is HERE and pre-orders for the magazine can be made HERE

There have also been reports that the VNA guys will be doing a charity sale of some of Paul Insect’s artwork, all hand finished test prints or APs to benefit the charity Shelter From The Storm.

All photos stolen from Very Nearly Almost magazine