England is experiencing a temporary geo-psyche shift; our footballers think they are Brazil and our weather thinks we are Los Angeles and for the time being we have almost no need for weather forecasts. This past week Memi Martinez and Veracidade, two street artists from far sunnier countries have made London their temporary home bringing a Latin heatwave of their own.
I don’t know if their presence at the same time is coincidence but any excuse will do to post this picture capturing two international artists in action on opposite sides of the same property.
Memi Martinez is from Argentina and over three days painted a colour scorched surreal cartoon of one three legged being pouring tea into an umbrella masquerading as a teacup held by a mirror image plump thighed “thing”. It’s about Brits initially spurning umbrellas as an effete French fad before eventually adopting them so ubiquitously that they became almost as British as that other great tradition we appropriated from another culture: a cup of tea.
We had the opportunity several times over three days to bump into this charming visitor and all who came across Memi were overwhelmed by her bright spirit and her generosity, here we see a group of international students from the USA over for a semester excitedly showing off some stickers Memi kindly gave them.
Memi’s stickers
Memi made a small video clip of this group and it appeared on her Instagram as a “story”, lovely to see who pleased the character on the passing truck is with the artist interacting with her new fans.
Memi in action:
Memi worked for three days on this single mural and when you look closely at the solidity of the limbs and the beautiful graduation of the shading on the inside and outside of the cup clearly her meticulous approach paid off.
Meni Martinez detail
Veracidade aka Mauro from Brazil paints portraits and drops images of houses as a tag. First sighting was last weekend, a “quick thing” down Brick Lane.
Then a couple more paintings all featuring people raising their eyes to the skies appeared.
Veracidade, also featuring Brazilian artist Milo Tchais (detail of)
Both the artworks above feature a stylised house in the image, Mauro totes his painting gear around in these fabulous pvc bags in the style of the houses that he uses as his tag.
This piece is opposite the Pure Evil Gallery and features a lovely “hat tip” to Pure Evil’s “nightmare” series with the long tear running down the face
Two Veracidade artworks, a bag and the artist!
Here are a few of those Veracidade tags that have sprung up around Shoreditch:
Veracidade – also featuring Glor Mowcodelico
Now, I must dash, something about the heat and the colours Memi has brought to London has left me with a craving for a Harvey Wallbanger.
LINKS:
Memi Martinez Instagram
Vercidade Instagram
All photos: Dave Stuart
