Street Art vs Brexit

Yesterday evening the UK’s parliament voted to show that they had not changed their mind since December on a withdrawal agreement that hadn’t changed since December. Street artists have not been impressed with the political process over the past three months, nor indeed the past three years or so.

Artist Not Known, March 2019

“Bye Bye” says an anonymous artist who spotted a gate in Shoreditch conveniently painted EU flag blue. This flag with one member missing piece echoes Banksy’s enormous EU flag with a tromp l’oeil worker chipping away a star brilliantly greeting UK leavers as they depart through Dover.

Banksy, Street art, mural, Dover, Brexit, EU Flag, painter, ladder, stencil

Banksy, Dover June 2017

It was noticeable and disappointing how little political street art appeared during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign. The most memorable from a very small entry list were these spoofs on the adverts for Banksy’s street art documentary “Exit Through The Gift Shop” lampooning Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.

Boris Johnson, Artist Not Known, June 2016

Nigel Farage, Artist Not Known, June 2016

Since then we have seen a ramping up of the Brexit street art as the unthinkable went from implausible to likely to now pretty much unavoidable.

Brexit Through The Chip Shop – CodeFC, June 2017

Scrap Brexit – Uberfubs, 2018

In the aftermath of the referendum result the immediate targets for street art scorn and derision were David Cameron, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson, the architects and chief pom-pom wavers for the Leave cause.

Spineless Nigel Farage, UKIP party by MCLN, August 2016

Boris Johnson buffoon, fuckwit, bellend, racist, snob by Boo Who Up North

3 Brexiteers – Derek Davis (gone), Boris Johnson (missing inaction), Jacob Rees Mogg by Subdude, April 2018

Boris Johnson is DUMBO by K-Guy

The political paralysis and consequential insertion of heads into the sand really gained a head of steam in December.

Scrap Brexit – Uberfubs, Dec 2018

Theresa May faced a vote of no confidence by her own party after cancelling the first so-called “meaningful vote” in December

Street Art, Shoreditch, London, Street Art Tour, Political Art, Joe Bloggs, Jonesy, Theresa May, Brexit,

Maygo by Joe Bloggs, Dec 2018

I was recently obliged to take a few weeks away from the walls and pavements of Shoreditch and on resuming street meanderings last weekend I was bowled over by the amount of Brexit street art that appeared in that short absence.

The duo Quiet British Accent belatedly brought George V into the debate.

Quiet British Accent – Bugger Brexit, last weekend

Theyen Rich aka Corrosive 8 deploys the sound political debating stratgey of making your opponent look simultaneously stupid and obscene, the Prime Minster’s watersports would certainly rate triple X. He also borrows the buses to nowhere from anarcho-punk artist Jamie Reid and adds a Carrie Reichardt slogan.

>Mistress Theresa’s Golden Shower – Corrosive 8, last weekend

Corrosive 8 with nod to Jamie Reid & Carrie Reichardt, last weekend

Benjamin Irritant’s rabbit asks a very pointed rhetorical question, is it great again yet?

Benjamin Irritant, last weekend

The Misfortuneteller has developed a witty street cartoon style in the past couple of years, this largest piece to date borrows its style from a closing down sale, its simplicity belying the fact that it is emphasizing the gap between the Brexiteer’s promises of “the easiest trade deals ever negotiated” against the visibly increasing isolation the country faces with borders and barriers hardening, no deals and inward investment evaporating.

Britain Closing – The Misfortuneteller, March 20219

Subdude, producer of a lot of Brexit related art over the past few years, has deviated from his usual distinctive style of political humour on flat colour blocks to deliver a hand drawn condemnation of petty sectarian spats, photos and cartoons on newspaper pages make it clear who is the target of the jibe. Apparently Subdude has put six out on the streets but so far I have only found three, one of which overlays a political cartoon illustrating Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn both facing a common dilemma, Brexit actually threatening to irreparably split both of the UK’s main political parties. Ironically, in order to placate their parties both are having to turn away from the fact that neither actually supports the position they politically obliged to adopt, we live in weird times.

Subdude, March 2019

Cigarette packet health warnings have been used as the basis for political street art for over 10 years, in fact almost since the regulations came in in 2003, think K-Guy in the mid 2000s. Wanker’s Of The World, whose mission is to identify and award that sobriquet to suitable candidates in the public eye are responsible for enormous cigarette packets mocking the main proponents of the Brexiteers. There are apparently 6, we located 5 in the past week. Ironically, the adoption of those cigarette packet warnings is actually an EU law which mandates the format, size and range of messages in all EU countries.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, chair “European Research Group”. Brexit Can Be Fatal, last week

Theresa May, Brexit Causes Family Arguments (who’s putting out the bins?)

Street Art, Shoreditch, London, Brick Lane, street artists, graffiti, tours, Miss KK, Sell Out, Northern Southner, Agos_Art, Catmousey9, Subdude, political art, EU art, Brexit art,

Boris Johnson, Brexit harms your children

Michael Gove, Quit Brexit Now

IN the interests of fairnessm here is a comprehensive review of all the pro Brexit street art seen since 2016:

Who knows what the monkeys in the chamber are going to do next, certainly they don’t!

Banksy Bristol Museum Poster 2009

This is a condensed version of a blog post that originally appeared on Graffoto blog

LINKS:

Banksy website

CodeFC Instagram

Uberfubs Instagram

MCLN Instagram

Boo Who Up North Instagram

Subdude Instagram

K-Guy Instagram

Joe Bloggs Instagram

Quiet British Accent Instagram

Benjamin Irritant Instagram

The Misfortuneteller Instagram

Wankers Of The World website

All Photos: Dave Stuart

All Change Street Art Gallery

The public gallery we call “Shoreditch Street Art” changes every day. Give the pavement wanderings a couple of weeks break and the accumulation of brand new art is breathtaking. Here is just a small sample of the new art seen this morning on my first tour for 15 days.

On International Women’s Day it is a pleasure to feature at the top of the page MissKK, a female artist from Budapest who has put up a number of quirky but charming collaged females including Daphne Groeneveld and Vivienne Wood (below)

Street Art, Shoreditch, London, Brick Lane, street artists, graffiti, tours, Miss KK, Sell Out, Northern Southner, Agos_Art, Catmousey9, Subdude,

Vivienne by Miss KK

Neon Savage was certainly busy, several collaged clusters of soul divas and cure fluffy animals appeared and only someone with no heart could possibly resist a blue furred three eyed bunny rabbit.

Grace Jones, The Ronettes by Neon Savage

Totally neon blue 3 eyed bunny, Neon Savage and My Dog Sighs

An artist who has been grabbing our attention in the past couple of months is daddystreetfox, one of my favourites from a recent prolific burst of activity is this paste up image of a photographed collage to which it appears sequins are added.

DaddyStreetFox

The recent stencilled “you warm my heart” piece by Northern Southner has been augmented by Sell Out and turned into a crazy, wild haired expressionist character who appear grateful for your affection.

Sell Out with Northern Southner

Making a welcome return to Shoreditch is Agos_art from Tenerife who takes the credit for and ouroboros and serpent spotted today.

Agos_Art

It was striking how much Brexit related street art was created in the past fortnight, and in this context our minds go back to how little appeared during the actual campaign in 2016. These political statements have the chilling form of cigarette packet warnings, from the imaginatively monikered WOTW collective who kindly include their weblink in the image!

Jacob Rees-Mogg, chair of “European Research Group” is WOTW!

Boris Johnson – WOTW

Subdude has been doing his political humour on paste ups for a number of years but it is always great to find hew has new targets for his ire.

Street Art, Shoreditch, political art, EU art, Brexit art, London, Brick Lane, street artists, graffiti, tours, Miss KK, Sell Out, Northern Southner, Agos_Art, Catmousey9, Subdude,

Subdude vs Trump & Kim Jong-un

We were also amused by this adaptation of the EU flag on an appropriately coloured door panel, credit to the always prolific “Artist NotKnown”.

Bye Bye EU

Probably the piece I most feel in love with was this cardboard collage sculpture by Catmousey9, if Adam Neate and Basquiat had a baby…….

Catmouse 9

All the walls in the “Shoreditch Triangle” curated by Outside The Zone are getting their periodic makeover which means goodbye to the amazing mural by Tom Lewis but we look forward to seeing the emergence over the next few days of what will undoubtedly be a brilliant new collection of murals. Follow developments on our instagram and facebook feeds.

au revoir to this amazing mural by Tom Lewis & Carl Stimpson

You can’t cover everything in a one morning wander and we did see so much recently new art, just a sample of which is shown here but unfortunately a 3 year old iphone only has so much battery power!

Links:

Neon Savage instagram

DaddyStreetFox instagram

Sell Out aka Alex Arnell instagram

Northern Southner instagram

Agos_Art Instagram

WOTW: weblink per image

Subdude instagram

Catmouse 9 website

Tom Lewis website

All photos: Dave Stuart

24 Hours – Street Art Changes

Almost every day Shoreditch Street Art Tours comes across new art on the streets and it is a privilege to be able to reveal constantly changing art through the tours and through our social media channels like Instagram and Facebook. Last weekend a huge quantity of new art was found on Sunday which we believe was created since the previous visit 24 hours earlier, this is a little insight into the extent to which the street art can change in just one day.

Paste up by Brighton based artists The Postman Art proved very popular when they first appeared in Shoreditch in November last year so it was lovely to find a number of new works from them on Sunday morning, The framing and the brickwork make the Ewan McGregor particularly photogenic.

Shoreditch, London, Streetart, paste ups, change, ephemeral, street art tour, tour guide, The Postman's Art

Trainspotting era Ewan McGregor – The Postman Art

Robert Smith – legend! The Postman Art

Amy Winehouse (small!) – The Postman Art

Jean Michel Basquiat -The Postman Art

It became apparent on Saturday that there was going to be a new body of work from The Postman Art in Shoreditch when we disturbed a bit of daytime action by this duo the day. Photo used with The Postman Art’s blessing – many thanks.

The Postman Art in action

Also new on the walls was work by Winniemmay, as a group we did spot the artist installing a few of these on Saturday, so it was nice to see the finished articles.

Shoreditch, London, Streetart, paste ups, change, ephemeral, street art tour, tour guide, WinnieMmay

I roll and fall – Winniemmay

Winniemmay put one of her paste ups over a large freehand painted portrait she did late last year but had accumulated a number of tags and stencils, she told us “everyone else has gone over me, why can’t I?”

Let’s get messy you & me – Winniemmay

We love Uberfub’s sequined skulls and there evidently have been more than one dance macabre over the past week. A couple of skulls born early last week (instagram) had disappeared by Saturday, been laid to rest perhaps. On Sunday the largest sequinned skull I have seen loomed over Brick Lane reminding us to “Scrap Brexit”.

Shoreditch, London, Streetart, paste ups, change, ephemeral, street art tour, tour guide, Uberfubs,

Scrap Brexit – Uberfubs

On Saturday morning we came across a new sculpture by the Italian duo UrbanSolid. It was as single brain emitting a wifi hotspot signal, very clever. It was also, as you can see below “signed”. Overnight that single brain hotspot had grown to a multi coloured quartet.

Shoreditch, London, Streetart, paste ups, change, ephemeral, street art tour, tour guide, UrbanSolid

UrbanSolid Saturday 1piece

UrbanSolid 4UP on Sunday

Benjamin Irritant highlighted his loathing of the “want it all, want it now” society we live in with this message in screaming capital letters nicely framed on a distressed door panel, again on Brick Lane. Several other new paste ups by Benjamin were spotted.

Shoreditch, London, Streetart, paste ups, change, ephemeral, street art tour, tour guide, Benjamin Irritant

CONSUME DESTROY TOMORROW TODAY – Benjamin Irritant

Finally, a few dental additions appeared in Shoreditch on Sunday.

Sweet Toof

On Sunday I spotted 28 new pieces of street art that I had not seen before despite having had a good look at all those walls just the day before. This was just a small sample of Shoreditch’s street art hinterland, there was almost certainly much more art put up on other walls in the area. This daily evolution and transformation of the street art is typical of Shoreditch, now it’s your turn to go out and enjoy it!

Links:

The Postman Art Instagram

Winniemmay Instagram

Uberfubs Instagram

UrbanSolid instagram

Benjamin Irritant Instagram

Sweet Toof Instagram

All photos Dave Stuart (Instagram)

Happy Christmas, Maybe

Here is how a few street artists have wished yuletide greetings to anyone who tears their eyes away from the bright lights and window displays to observe their seasonal street art.

I’m sure many of us emphasise with Benjamin Irritant’s swipe at excessive Christmas consumption’

Benjamin Irritant – Hysterical Mass Consumerism

Inkteractive has gone a little bit robust with the fond felicitations, lets hope the weather is a good as captured in the instamatic polaroid pic.

Inkteraktiv MERRY FCKN XMAS

Inkteraktiv MERRY FCKN XMAS AGAIN YOU FCKRS

The MisFortuneTeller has a new business line selling Christmas Unicorns as the healthy alternative to Turkey, bloody GM research!

The MisFortuneTeller – Have A Unicorn For Christmas

Some artist really entered into the Christmas spirit by placing free art out on the streets as lovely stocking fillers for the eagle eyed. On Christmas Eve a lovely Sean Worrall piece found a new home, this one seemed to be some kind of “re-issue” or a rare “number error” piece, the Sean Worrall equivalent of a Penny Black!

Inkteractiv also left a lovely framed piece on the street which Santa should now be conveying to North Car

to a nice home, from Inkteraktiv

Inkteractiv also left a lovely framed Xmas gift on the street which Santa should now be conveying to North Carolina if all goes to plan.

Finally, all that remains is to wish all a Happy Christmas or Seasonal Greetings as appropriate and best wishes to all for the New Year.

Dave

LINKS:

Benjamin Irritant instagram

Inkteraktiv instagram

The MisFortuneTeller Instagram

Sean Worrall website

all photos: Dave Stuart

Outside! NOW!

One of the best programmes on British TV over the past couple of weeks has been a long running comedy programme called “The New”s.

Last week the British Parliament was scheduled to have a “meaningful vote” following 5 days of posturing and debate in Parliament, the day before the vote the Government, meaning actually Theresa May, postponed the vote. The next day she faced a vote of no confidence from her own parliamentary party which she survived. The title of this blogpost is a reference to that hilarious slapstick moment the day after that vote when Theresa May squared up to Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels.

YOU OUTSIDE NOW (photo courtesy RTE)

Satirist and subverter Joe Bloggs pasted up a lovely modified mayonnaise jar on Brick Lane selling “Maygo” with “zero confidence”, referring to the vote of no confidence in Theresa May last week, which we know actually 200 conservative MPs indicating that they did not at this moment wish Rees-Mogg to be their leader. Kraft is now Krapt, a phonetic reference to crap (for the benefit of readers reading in their second language) and Mayonnaise becomes Real Malaise. Note also Joe Blogg’s trademark subverts “Boots The Chemist” which becomes “Bloggs The Alchemist”. Fast, political, amusing and on point, this is just everything we hope for from street art.

Maygo by Joe Bloggs

Compare and contrast:

Kraft Mayonnaise (product illustration, believed creative commons license)

Jonesy has done a hand drawn illustration which makes the point that leaving with a deal or without a deal is basically two versions of the same thing, just like shit or crap are the same thing. Using shit and crap as the similes for Brexit probably indicates that actually the better thing would be to not leave.

Street Art, Shoreditch, London, Street Art Tour, Political Art, Joe Bloggs, Jonesy, Theresa May, Brexit,

Finally, spotted yesterday this rather bizarre but gorgeously drippy slogan on Great Eastern Street, “Gloria 22/02 BrexItalia” with the BREX component deleted. It is fairly obvious that the intention is political but an online search does not reveal too much in relation to any political events in Italy scheduled for 22^nd February. Tweet or facebook #shoreditchstreetarttours if you can shed any insight on the significance of this message.

Gloria 22/02 BREXITALIA

Late Addtion: Blunt Rollers, evidently a member of the Secret Society Of Supervillain Artsits also had a particular view of a warlike Theresa May last week, stencilled on paper.

Street Art, Shoreditch, London, Street Art Tour, Political Art, Joe Bloggs, Jonesy, Theresa May, Brexit, Blunt rollers, Secret Society Of Super Villain Artists, SSOSVA

Theresa May prepares for her next cabinet meeting

British street artists were a bit slow out of the blocks with comparatively little Brexit related street art appeared during the 2016 referendum campaign but since the result Brexit has been a very visible recurring theme. Street artists were anything but “nebulous and imprecise” last week as they showed via the public art gallery known as street art.

Gloria 22/02 BREXITALIA audience

LINKS:

Joe Bloggs Instagram

Jonesy Facebook

All photos Dave Stuart except where stated

Street Art Against Hate

In a weekend when a lot of new street art appeared in Shoreditch one creation particularly stood out, the new “Wall Of Love” from the #NoHate family of street artists. This consists signature art from 355 artists rendered in a circular format under the slogans #StreetartAgainstHate #ToLiveAndLetLive

Streetart Against Hate; Live And Let Live

This London installation was put together by 8ArmsToHug from Cologne assisted by street art friends in the area, so perhaps it would be more appropriate to use the German versions of the slogans #StreetArtJajeHass #LevveUnLevveLoss

Featuring Homo Riot (LA)

The impact of seeing this on this wall in real life is immense. I was humbled to share the experience seeing this for the first time in the company of Patricia and Manuel Oliver whose son Joaquin Oliver was a victim of a mass killing earlier this year in the US. Joaquin was one of 14 high school children and 3 school staff killed along with 17 others wounded when a 19 year old male armed with a semi automatic rifle entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with murderous intent and devastating consequences.

Parkland Florida Victims, image courtesy CBS News

Patricia and Manuel have set up a charity Change The Ref “To empower our next generation so they can fight for their values, have their voices heard, and impact change for their future.” Founded in the memory of their son Joaquin who was one of the 17 victims, Manuel and Patricia Oliver are committed to making sure that their son’s life and the lives of the other 16 victims are never forgotten and that real change happens to prevent future tragedies like this from happening ever again.

Manual told me that they aim to change the American gun culture by making powerful graphic statements all around the world and urban art is part of their efforts to send their message in non traditional ways.

WE DEMAND…. Mural by Manuel Oliver, Winwood, Miami. Photo supplied by Manuel Oliver

Notice the electrical box cleverly simulating a lecturn inviting visitors to declare their support.

Gun control and anti hate are not perfect synonyms but they are facets of the same coin. I felt honoured to be able to show Patricia and Manuel a lot of politically engaged art in Shoreditch including Jimmy C’s Trayvon Martin mural, Bambi’s tribute to Michael Brown and of course the epic new NoHate wall.

Live and Let Live: Germany’s legendary 1Up graffiti crew

Live and Let Live

The #StreetArtAgainstHate originated in Cologne just one month ago and has gone viral. Live and Let Live or #LevveUnLevveLosse in its original German is actually the motto of Cologne, described as a s, 8ArmsToHug says there are now over 530 artists from all over the world taking part, see how many you can identify in the photos! The #NoHate derives its power from its volume, each individual artist makes a small contribution but the mass of messages combine to project a message far louder than the sum of the individual artist’s voices.

Street art is a platform which many artists use successfully in transmitting powerful messages to an audience larger and more diverse than their own social circle, and yes, street art supports many campaigns to end advertising, smash capitalism, prevent injustice, stop gentrification, education for all and so on, all brilliant causes passionately cherished by their champions but surely there can’t be a more power purpose that ending hate and ending the insanity of human on human gun violence. My only regret is that I don’t feel capable of capturing the intensity of seeing this wonderful wall in person.

#NoHate

#StreetartAgainstHate feauring Mythos BLN

Many thanks to 8ArmstoHug for her patient help with background, not to mention of course putting up the London Wall Of Love

featuring Smiler, a tour regular

Links:

Live and Let Live/levve Un Levve Losse Instagram

Change the Ref: Website

8ArmsToHug Instagram

All photos Dave Stuart (Instagram) except where noted

This post originally appeared on the Author’s personal street art blog Graffoto

Street Artist Xenz Exhibits At Nelly Duff

Former guests who have received follow up information about the tours will have noticed Nelly Duff listed as a key gallery. Last week the amazing street artist and highly collectable urban artist Xenz opened a fresh show at Nelly Duff under the title xEnso.

xEnso, Nelly Duff Gallery

Elegance is a word that sits very comfortably in a description of a Xenz painting though the graffiti writer always lurks among the branches, literally. As a graffiti writer the letterform must reign paramount and outdoors Xenz produces stunning landscape paintings with his name cunningly disguised within the branches and trees.

Meeting Of Styles, Shoreditch, 2009

Hackney Wick, with Busk, 2011

Meeting Of Styles, Nomadic Community Gardens, 2018 – This young boy was entranced by this Xenz artwork

The circular paintings were inspired by the zen buddist ensō symbol, ensō circles capture a concept of fulfilment, calm, strength and most particularly, elegance and enlightenment.

xEnso, Nelly Duff Gallery

A collection of beautiful watery paintings on handmade paper discs roughly a foot in diameter were painted in a very gestural manner; simple colours , dots, lines and drips were applied and left as they fell, no corrections, no smoothing of curves or sharpening of edges and a sense of grace and flow in the finished article is clear.

xEnso, Nelly Duff Gallery

The paintings in the show may look a million miles from any graffiti aesthetic but look closely, again the letters are subtly secreted inside the lines of the flora.

Golden Mist

Golden Mist with lettering highlighted (photoshopped, with apologies to Xenz!)

Xenz’z interior art has often featured wispy forest fronds and filaments frequented by flying fauna. The colourful birds flitting through the branches and hovering in front of soft petals are based on humming birds. This goes back to an occasion when Xenz was enjoying some traditional hospitality high up a Jamaican mountain when a humming bird flitted out of the forest canopy to perch on his finger like it owned it. A few magical seconds and some herb imprinted the experience in Xenz’z mind and thence into his art.

The Golden Branch

Turquoise Dreams

Flutter

The show runs until Thursday 8th November. Nelly Duff is open late every Thursday.

This blog post is an extract of a post published on Graffoto, same author

Links:

Xenz website

Nelly Duff website

156 Columbia Road, London, E2 7RG

all photos: Dave Stuart (instagram)

Banksy Shredding – Update!!

Banksy shreds Girl With Balloon but not his credibility.

Two weeks ago the art world was “en fête” at London’s art week and the major auction houses held champagne swilling contemporary art auctions. There can be very few people who are not aware of the amazing stunt Banksy pulled off at Sothebys auction when his “Girl With Balloon” shredded itself at the very moment the auctioneer concluded the sale.

London, street art, urban art, banksy, girl with balloon, Sothebys, auction, shred, shredding,

Going, Going, Gone! source: Banksy

The stunt is a work of genius in its production, execution (Sotheby’s involvement?) and impact Banksy of course is mocking the art world’s obsession with wealth, value and profit.

“I Can’t Believe You Morons Buy This Shit”, Banksy, 2006, source: Banksy website

Speculation and conspiracy surround this particular stunt by Banksy. Could this possibly have been fabricated in 2006 . Could this possibly really have been fabricated in 2006 in anticipation that it might appear in an auction years later? How many would Banksy have to make to ensure that the stunt could be executed in public rather than stymied by a private sale? Was it pure chance that this particular art piece would be mounted so visibly on the auction room wall rather than just wheeled in, given its 2 minutes in the sunlight on an auctioneer’s easel then trundled out again? Back in 2006 we had not yet had the first gold plated white gloved Urban Art Auctions (here), could anyone have reasonably predicted that Banksy’s art would be so lauded (i.e. expensive) as to be the highlight of an art week contemporary art auction?

Last weekend Sothebys put the so called new artwork on public display. Queuing was about 45 minutes on Sunday afternoon, the guards marshalled orderly lines of visitors, the artwork was beautifully hung to be visible from both sides, well lit, well sign posted and well controlled.

“Love Is In The Bin”, Banksy, 2018

The catalogue listing for the original “Girl With Balloon” piece described the work as “signed and dedicated on the reverse”, presumably what looks like black tape in a recess on the back is masking the dedication but there’s the signature in all its glory.

“Love Is In The Bin”, Banksy, 2018 rear view

“Love Is In The Bin”, Banksy, 2018, signature!

Here is the news! Sister blog Graffoto by same author posted last Sunday about the rumours and speculation and associated ironies and included one prophetic statement:

“Was Plan A that Girl With Balloon would shred itself to complete destruction? If it had Banksy would have highlighted the precariousness and ephemerality of the trivia to which the art world attaches its highest valuations. We won’t know ever. “

That last bit – completely wrong! Within the past hour Banksy has released an updated video – well, we won’t spoil the ending, just watch!