Monthly Archives: May 2014

VNA Issue 26: Robert “3D” Del Naja Interview and Special Cover

Just a quick follow up to our post the other day about Very Nearly Almost issue 26, last night at the launch we picked up one of the two special edition screen printed covers and what a beauty it is. Faced with the tough choice between pink and lemon, we went yellow!

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Glittery Special Edition Lemon Cover

There are four variants on the cover Mr Greg Beer from VNA explained last night. The retail over-the-counter edition features a portrait of the artist.

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Cover 1

The mail order/subscription order edition features a cover based on 3D’s art.

Very Nearly Almost Zine Launch Issue 26

Cover 2

Then there is the limited edition screen printed cover which comes in either glittery pink or glittery yellow. This photo does nothing to show how glittery and lemon yellow this cover is in the flesh. The pink is stunning too.

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Special Edition Lemon colour

Finally, we came across this short clip of the VNA interview with Robert “3D” Del Naja made by our good friend DScreet whose art sometimes features on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour, depending upon what route we take. If you can hear the tune that kicks in at about 1 minute without thinking of Ruth Wilson, then you probably missed Luther.

Very Nearly Almost Zine Launch Issue 26

Once a quarter a new edition of street art/urban art/illustration mag VNA hits the streets and excitement is unrestrained. The launch is heralded by not one but two launch parties. Thursday 22nd May sees a launch at Lazarides Outsiders Gallery on Greek St, Soho then on Saturday the festivities move to Weapons Of Choice Gallery in Bristol.

VNA25_launch-party_LDN

Cover artist for Issue 26 is multi talented Robert “3D” del Naja, artist and musician with Bristol’s seminal Massive Attack (my cue to put Heligoland on the hi fi right now). The magazine comes in four versions including a glitter sprinkled limited edition featuring a heavyweight cotton tote bag, featuring one of 3D’s iconic knife and fork prints, and some tasty postcards of his work.

Cover 2

Facebook event pages for the two launches are available here:

Bristol Launch – Weapon Of Choice Gallery – Saturday 24th May – 6-9pm www.facebook.com/events/672665359467071

London Launch – The Outsiders – Thursday 22nd May – 6-9pm – www.facebook.com/events/456982974436187

Having read the Robert del Naja and Aida interviews we can say that VNA’s impeccable coverage of the scene is sustained through this issue. Artists featured in this issue include Numskull (Aus), Augustine Kolfie (LA), Calma (Brazil), Buff Monster (NY via LA), Katrin Fridriks (Iceland), Greg Lamarche (NY), Ernest Zacharevic (Lit), TenTen (Poland), truly an international roster of the highest pedigree. VNA issue 26 also contains the usual slew of great photographs from Mark Rigney, Paul Grey, Claude Crommelin and (cough) NoLionsInEngland, as well as Chasing Ghosts’s photo feature on stickers and street art from Singapore.

Both Covers

Cruise the party, get the mag. VNA Issue 26 is here, details of an online lottery to get the ridiculously cheap special limited edition are due to be announced by VNA shortly.

VNA Bristol Launch

Shoreditch Gets Decorators In!

The weekend of 10^th and 11^th of May saw a huge street art “rehang” in the ever changing gallery of Shoreditch walls.

Despite the rain, the best of London’s spraycan painters had a productive weekend. Jim Vision assisted Louis Masai raising awareness of looming eco-catastrophe with the #saveTheBees mural.

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Save The Bees – Masai

Perhaps by chance this was the wall where a few of our finest ran into a spot of bother with the feds the previous weekend, a truly bizarre situation partially rectified this weekend when the wall was painted not once but twice!! This piece featuring Blair Zaye, Ubangibangi and others lasted barely 24 hours.

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Ubangibangi, Blair Zaye

On Sunday evening, Swizz artist FRA was back in town in company with his compatriot Quendo peppering the walls with a variety of paste up stencils.

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Fra, Quendo

Quendo

London silk screen printer and Master Of Scale Donk was out late on Sunday putting up an awesomely composed Westminster Abbey reimagined as the sinister starship Gothica 2! If you are going to go over a long running masterpiece it had better be good, this qualifies. Look and learn toys!

Donk – Gothica 2

Shoreditch is nothing without its ability to draw high calibre international artists so we are pleased to find this piece from Denver based Bunny M, her lady with unicorn and errrr…antelope? Gazelle? Horns is beautifully intricate and an un-expected surprise.

Bunny M

Rounding a corner we chanced upon the French legend Thierry Noir, king of the Berlin wall faces decorating an also legendary panel outside Cargo nightclub. The Shoreditch Street Art Tour Group had an interesting chat with Noir and one of the group had a lovely discussion about a long wall of sad faces they had found in Berlin.

Thierry Noir

Jim Vision also found time to produce this masterpiece collaborating with Martin Ron from Argentina, who maybe was trying to redeem himself for the horror of painting the Hanbury St wall alongside the ROA piece last September.

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Jim Vision, Martin Ron

In Slater St car park a huge array of London’s street artists turned out to paint a giant cartoon mural in honour of Captain Kris’ (Lost Souls) birthday. In the mix we can see in no particular order Saki and Bitches (that stands out!) Captain Kris, Irony, Ubangibangi, SP067, Si Mitchell, Himbad, Airborne Mark, Squirl Art, Seeds One, Mr Fan HC, The Real Dill, Lilly Lou, Tonyboy – with apologies to any others left off this list. Also present but not visible in this picture 616.

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Too many to shake a stick at

Finally, situationist sloganeering on Hanbury St, not the first time we have seen this yellow paint on clingfilm in Shoreditch, artist unknown. (and of course, not the first time in history it has been done either!)

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“Too much time, not enough sense” Clingfilm artist unknown

all photos: NoLionsInEngland

New Shoreditch Street Art

Another long weekend, another amazing collection of new street art on the streets of Shoreditch.

Although put up a little before the weekend, this piece by T.Wat received huge press attention as he timed this to coincide with Max Clifford, the most notorious peddler of smut and scandal to the UK tabloids, being found guilty of charges of abusing underage girls and sentenced to 8 years in prison. Already considerably modified and tagged.

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T.Wat

Unify is a stencil artist who has been getting busy around Shoreditch quite a bit in the past few months, two new pieces appeared over the weekend including this pop at Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) and his view on the recent budget.

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Unify shafted by Chancellor

Paste up artist IMR Vere did a couple of nice contextual pieces including this javelin thrower

IMR Vere Javelin thrower

We last saw Paris based Monsieur Qui on the streets of Shoreditch in 2010, he evidently is back judging by this awesome paste up we found this morning. Although he has gone over Syd, it looks like Syd’s stencilled girl is poised for revenge.

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Monsieur Qui vs Syd

616 who is always on the look out for unconventional media to paint his tribal characters found a foam mattress but lost his bed.

616 Lost His Bed

The hard working always up Sell Out added butterflies and some Mary Poppins to Jef Aerosol’s Gnawa musicians.

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Sell Out v. Jef Aerosol

Finally and although again painted just before the weekend but too good to omit on that technicality, we love the humour in Cosmo Sarson’s Caravaggio selfie.

Cosmo Sarson

Steve Powers Book/Film “A Love Letter For You”

Photos from “A Love Letter For You”, copyright Steve Powers; Free News Projects, Publishers; credited photographers Adam Wallacavage, Zoe Strauss, Darwin Rowland and Mike Lee; other photo as stated.

Shoreditch Street Art Tours was proud to have among its guests today Jane Golden, Executive Director City Of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and Brian Campbell from Philadelphia Mural Arts Program following an intorduction from our good friend in Philadelphia, RJ Rushmore of Vandalog. They kindly presented me with a copy of the book “A Love Letter For You” (Brick valentines on the Philly skyline) by Steve Powers as Espo Icy.

I was fortunate in 2012 to attend the Moniker Projects screening of Steve Powers’ film of the same name and the Cedar Lewisohn hosted Q&A session with Steve Powers after. I believe this may be the only time the film has been screened in the UK. Many guests on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour will have heard our synopsis of the plot and how it is connected to Steve Powers’ still running “Let Us Adore and Endure Eachother” London love letter.

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London Love Letter

photo: NoLionsInEngland

I was particularly struck by words written by Steve Powers at the back of the book in which he laments the disproportionate 8 years in state prison for 18 yr old Sebastien Perez and 19 yr old Ralph Mirabel, my views on the obscene sentence handed down to London writer 10Foot have been covered before on Graffoto but nothing I wrote matches the eloquence and target smacking punch of ESPO ICY’s words:

“The marks they made will fade before they get out, but their lives are completely and irrevocably vandalised [emphasis mine] by an unrepentant tagger named justice.”

Feel those words.

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