Monthly Archives: June 2014

Pure Evil Free Art And The 365 Project

Captured yesterday afternoon, a Free Art drop by London street art legend Pure Evil. Someone’s day is going to be made.

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Gonna drop this…somewhere

Pure Evil is currently embarked on an ambitious project to make at least 1 piece of new street art every day for 365 days. In part this has been inspired by the recent sad loss of his father the artist John Uzzell-Edwards.

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Pure Evil temptation

There was a really good two page interview in the Evening Standard last week discussing Pure Evil’s 365 Project and a lot more about this street artist, whose work and interactions with many many street artists from all over the world have helped in a large measure to create the varied, colourful and truly international street art scene we have in Shoreditch.

Oh, the collector of that piece of free street art came from Belgium. Spreading the love abroad and bringing the love from abroad, that’s Shoreditch’s international street art scene!

New Street Art In Shoreditch At The Weekend

We have just had another exciting weekend of fresh new street art created by local and international street artists around Shoreditch this weekend and all of the pieces in this selection were seen as “work in progress” by guests of the Shoreditch Street Art Walk.

Belgian artist ROA is in London for his tremendous new show at Stolen Space Gallery and on Saturday not even a mid afternoon downpour put off painting the stunning scary looking flea.

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ROA work In Progress, also feat. Tizer ID

Nearby, British artist Pure Evil continued his 1-a-day-for-365-days project with this stunning rampant flock of evil bunnies.

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Pure Evil Bunnies

The artist Sell Out played to the “3 Lions on the shirt” theme prior to England’s shock defeat to Italy with this little flotilla of butterflies on a Rolls Royce on Brick Lane (you read that correct!). We have seen street art on cars before but not quite like this before!

Sell Out v. Spirit Of Ecstasy

Pedro Saci from Brazil got busy with a quick one on new hoardings, the structure of his work, particularly the way the mouth is done reminds me a lot of Mymo from Berlin who was here back in 2009.

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Pedro Saci, Sao Paulo, Brazil

In the background you can see parts of the art by Cept (UK), Run (It), Faith47 (S. Afr), Mysterious Al (UK) and Rone (Aus).

This busy weekend caused much excitement for the guests of the Shoreditch Street Art Tour!

Street Artist Roa – New Show In London

Roa’s new installation based show opened at Stolen Space Gallery last night and is just as dark and rough and briliant as you’d hope for from this star.

Virtually all of the images here look like ROA could just as easily have painted these on the streets as indoors in a gallery and it has been a while since there was a show that managed that trick.

For a full appreciation and lots more pictures head over to my personal blog here

Banksy v Roa – the World Cup’s got nothing on this!

Who would win in a fight between a Roa hedgehog and a Banksy rat? We might find out as there’s a fascinating week in prospect in the world of London galleries who show artists who are more at home on outdoor walls.

BANKSY: The Unauthorised Retrospective, Curated by Steve Lazarides

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Banksy canvas: Avon and Somerset Constabulary; image courtesy Sothebys website

Steve Lazarides in conjunction with, or thanks to, or despite Sotheby’s is staging a “selling show” of Banksy print and canvas artwork. Steve Lazarides is famously known as the svengali who co-piloted spaceship Banksy to enormous heights until the relationship ended a few years ago. “He’d hate it. It’s about as far removed from something he would contemplate as you could get” says Lazardis though it’s probably not as far off the Banksy Christmas card list as a show exhibiting Banksy’s street works in a boutique hotel basement.

What you will get are about 70 prints and canvasses by Banksy, supposedly the largest exhibition of his work ever but it will be asurprise if it matches the scale of the epic 2009 Bristol Museum and Art Gallery show (which of course was “authorised” Banksy).

Chances of getting to see the private view are virtually zilch, especially if you are reading this the day after tomorrow. “Go and see it when it’s quiet” said my friend on the inside. The last time anything “quiet” happened with Banksy was back in ‘05 when our whole family trotted along to the Crude Oils show with the live rats and just walked in off the street over the weekend. It may be a little different this time.

11 June 2014 – 25 July 2014

Monday – Friday 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Saturday 28 & Sunday 29 June 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Sotheby’s S|2 space

31 St. George Street, London W1S 2FJ

ROA: ‘PROJECTUM 06’

Roa has to be one of the few street art talents who can rank up alongside Banksy and he has an original show opening head to head in London in the same week as the Banksy retrospective!

ROA first exhibited in London at Pure Evil’s gallery in 2008, a show that propelled him to stardom as we fell in love with these dishevelled, skinned and disembowelled creatures painted on anything but conventional canvas. Stolen Space’s first show in what has now become their home was the cracking 2012 Hynagogia staged before the gallery became the cleaner, whiter two roomed permanent gallery home it is now. This return to Stolen Space sees the Belgian painter create another installation based show which is sure to have us gasping at its unconventional surfaces and grubby dirty creatures. Can’t wait.

“Deer”; image courtesy Stolen Space

MAX RIPPON: “Pentimento”

Also opening at the same time in the other Stolen Space room is “Pentimento” by Max Rippon aka NY street artist/graffiti writer RIPO. Expect top quality graphic art with a graffiti twist.

max Rippon aka “RIPO”; image courtesy Stolen Space

A huge heap of talent there in those two rooms. Both shows:

13 June – 6 July (private view 12th, 6pm)

STOLEN SPACE GALLERY
17 Osborn Street
London E1 6TD

TRUST.ICON: “Tears of a Clown”

Meanwhile, on the far side of town, Trust.Icon opens Tears Of A Clown, RSVP required. Some of Trust.Icon’s street artsuch as this recent location specific single layer stencil image is top notch. Some not so!

Trust.Icon (photo: nolionsinengland)

Tears Of A Clown

12 – 26 June (private view 6.30 pm, 12th)

Graffik Gallery,

284 Portobello Road,

London, W10 5TE.

Street Artists From Jordan and Bahrain Visit Shoreditch

A few weeks ago Shoreditch Street Art Tours received one of its more unusual assignments when our friend Cedar Lewisohn asked us to guide four street graffiti writers/street artists from Jordan and Bahrain around Shoreditch’s street art. Wesam Shadid and Mohammed Al Abbar from Jordan and Mahmoud Al Shargawie and Mike Derderian from Bahrain were visiting the UK on a street art study tour funded by the British Council.

Their action packed week took them around London and Bristol and saw them painting in the legendary Leake Street Hall of fame, check out their experience on this short film produced by the British Council.

Chatting with these characters was certainly eye opening, the conditions they paint under in their home countries and the expense of getting paint supplies mean creating art on the walls of their homeland requires heightened passion and self sacrifice, not to mention expense.

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Cargo’s security not what it used to be, feat Wesam Shadid

Cycling home the next day via Leake Street tunnel I came across the guys again and Wesam did me the honour of putting up my name in Arabic on the legendary Leake Street walls. Thanks Wesam, for me this was a real honour and a privilege.

“Dave” by Wesam “West One” Shadid