Monthly Archives: February 2015

Ducks and Superheroes Street Art from Sell Out

The London street artist Sell Out was very busy in Shoreditch on Saturday morning and the Shoreditch Street Art Tour found a variety of his work at various locations.

This fountain on Brick Lane has been used as a scene for a number of Sell Out installations, this time a Sell Out Duck floated around while butterflies skirted around its head. There was something about this duck’s stare…..not the kind of duck that hangs around nurseries, kids baths or fairy tale illustrations!

London, Shoreditch, street art, street artist, Sell Out, superheroes, sculpture, Spiderman, Batman, butterflies, tour, tours, walk, walks

Duck

Then we found Spiderman scaling this sheer brick wall, the lattice detail was stenciled by Mexican duo Lapiztola but in the close up of Sell Out’s Spiderman, it takes on the appearance of a web.

London, Shoreditch, street art, street artist, Sell Out, superheroes, sculpture, Spiderman, Batman, butterflies, tour, tours, walk, walks

Spiderman

We also found Batman who seemed to be helping the citizens of Shoreditch by handing out Sell Out’s butterflies.

Batman

Finally, a huge flock of hand painted butterflies stuck on with blu-tack invited people to find the butterfly with their name as a souvenir of the Shoreditch street art, the effect was a bit like those tourist shops where you buy personalised gifts with individual names but of course with Sell Out’s particular spin on artists using street art to promote their art sales, he actually wants people to find their name and keep the butterfly. There were several dedicated to Dave 😉

name butterflies

Sell Out website

All photos: NoLionsInEngland

Borondo London Exhibition – “Animal”

Spanish street artist Borondo moved to London in early 2014 and has been a firm favourite among the guests of Shoreditch Street Art Tours ever since for street art such as these:

Shoreditch,London,Street Art,Tour, Street artist,Borondo,Spanish,window,figurative, Street art,graffiti,London,Shoreditch,walk,tour,Borondo,Spain,Spanish

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Tours, Borondo, impressionist, impressionism,

He made us wait quite a while for a gallery exhibition but the wait is over, his show “Animals” is in the London Newcastle space on Redchurch street and is a superb exhibition.

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Tours, Borondo, impressionist, impressionism, animals, beasts,

There is a fuller critique with a lot more photos on the Graffoto blog, click here

Wow – You Are Awesome (yes you!)

Wow – you guys are awesome! You’ve only gone and written 500 brilliant reviews on Tripadvisor of Shoreditch Street Art Tours. In doing so you have made Shoreditch Street Art Tours the 3^rd best thing to do in London out of 1179 activities! For a while your support even made us No. 2, maybe we’ll get back there sometime.

The thing is, these reviews are the independent opinions of guests of Shoreditch Street Art Tours, we can write all the waffle we want on our website but none of it will ever mean as much as your independent feedback, that’s the beauty of Tripadvisor, it is you folks and your brilliant summaries.

So, thank you very much to all of you who have shown unanimous appreciation of the passion and dedication put into making Shoreditch Street Art Tours such a memorable and powerful experience.

There are over 200 super photos taken by guests on the tour have been uploaded to the Shoreditch Street Art Tours Tripadvisor profile and as a tribute to you, we have created brief slideshow of a selection of those pictures. The guests whose photos feature in this selection are acknowledged in the picture captions and of course we thank all other Tripadvisor reviewers who have also uploaded a selection of their photogenic memories of the tour.

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Otto Schade: Busy In Shoreditch

London dwelling Chilean street artist Otto Schade was busy yesterday replacing older Otto Schade works with new. Continuing his theme of kids and weaponry, we get the chilling sight of a mother with her two children caught in the cross hairs of a rifle’s telescopic sight.

London, Shoreditch,street art, street artist, Otto Schade, stencil, Chile, tour, tours, walk,walks

This replaced a piece with young kids firing catapults in a one sided battle with military attack helicopters. About a week ago this one was defaced with the tag “Fashion Is Fake”, Otto was quick to replace tagged with new.

2014

The other piece painted yesterday has armed children taking on a court jester.

London, Shoreditch,street art, street artist, Otto Schade, stencil, Chile, tour, tours, walk,walks

This replaced an unfinished and rather half baked image from the same theme series.

London, Shoreditch,street art, street artist, Otto Schade, stencil, Chile, tour, tours, walk,walks

2013

Nice to see Otto busy in Shoreditch creating a quality of stencilled artwork which owes little to the rush of stencil bombing and a lot to accomplished stencilled street art.

VERY NEARLY ALMOST (VNA) Issue 29 – Launches in LA!!!

Coming soon, something that should interest anyone from LA who has been on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour (and indeed anyone interested in culture who ought to come on the SSAT) – the latest issue of Very Nearly Almost magazine. More of the same street arty and graff stuff but this time a little bit different too. Now taking on the world, oh yeah! Issue 29 launches in Los Angeles this Saturday (Valentines Day, 14 Feb).

Cover artist is Cleon Peterson, painter of black and white man beasts pillaging, fucking and slaughtering their way across the pages and onto a special limited edition (150) silk screen printed box-set featuring a custom screen-printed box, die-cut sticker set, postcards and hand screen-printed copy of VNA 29. Compare the silk screen printed cover in the box set contents pic below with the scan of the regular cover further down

Box set contents

There are elements of the traditional photos of street art, photo specials on the murals of Las Vegas and San Juan (and of course London), a great interview with Blek Le Rat (France) and the wonderful “Diggin In The Crates” series continues with corporate iconoclast Ron English dissecting and reminiscing about the conception and execution of a whole bunch of his propaganda subversions.

VNA Blek Le Rat interview. Original photos – Blek, Sybille Prou

Then, as the zine editorial points out, they explore “..the broader culture that surrounds street art and graffiti”. This means profiles of a gif designer (Mattis Dovier), a clothing brand founder (Tony Arcabascio, ALife) and confessions of a New York street photographer and paparazzi (Ricky Powell).

original photo: James Bulloch

An interview with Pursue, a brand director and mural painter, take VNA right over onto classic Juxtapoz turf while closer to home Jessica Albarn, sibling to Damon and Nelly Duff artist discusses her illustrations. There’s plenty more besides and as always (cough, blush) some great photography.

Regular cover

The LA launch is being hosted by Subliminal Projects, 1331 W. Sunset Blvd, LA, CA 90026. 6pm – 9pm. Free alcohol plus a free copy of the mag to the first 100 through the door on the night. Drink sensibly (first two beers only). To be sure to get your free copy, RSVP to rsvp@verynearlyalmost.com and arrive early on the night!

Don’t worry London fans, there is something special promised for a London launch, we believe the 26 of Feb may be a good date to keep the social congestion clear. No news on where but…well, Cleon is a Laz artist ..and VNA has had some very successful launches there in the past…and they have a relatively new space people might like to see….this is most likely not what will happen as it is pure speculation on my part. For the real deal as it gets announced, follow @vnamagazine on the usual anti social media channels

Free Art Finds Fresh Home – #365ArtDrops Sean Worrall

Found Art, art left on the streets by artists specifically for members of the public to find and keep for free is always incredibly exciting. “PLEASE TAKE” says the inscription on the rear of this piece, the invitation could not be more precise.

Shoreditch, London,Street Art,Artist,Free Art,Found Art, Sean Worrall,#365ArtDrops,spraypaint,wood

Please take!

London based artist Sean Worrall has embarked on a 365artdrop project which sees him leaving little nuggets painted on found materials around London for people to collect.

Shoreditch, London,Street Art,Artist,Free Art,Found Art, Sean Worrall,#365ArtDrops,spraypaint,wood

Sean Worrall #365ArtDrops

This little gem is going to get a good home with Daniel and Anat in Tel Aviv

Shoreditch, London,Street Art,Artist,Free Art,Found Art, Sean Worrall,#365ArtDrops,spraypaint,wood

Good find!

We previously found number 22 in the #365artdrop series having a crafty cigarette outside a pub, Sean commented that this piece appeared to have gone off for a beer because he hadn’t dropped it at this spot.

Shoreditch, London,Street Art,Artist,Free Art,Found Art, Sean Worrall,#365ArtDrops,spraypaint,wood

#365ArtDrops number 22

Sean has been connected with a very energetic artist run space in East London and has previously supported causes such as the Save The Southbank Undercroft campaign. You can find details of Sean’s project and it’s progress HERE (perhaps better in chronological order here) and keep your eyes peeled, you may just spot one yourself if you pay enough attention to your urban surroundings in London

previous examples of some of the gorgeous Found Art that guests on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour have taken home with them can be seen HERE.