Tag Archives: Art

Best Of Shoreditch Street Art Tours Kiss Of Death

Should this Shoreditch Street Art Tours post start with an apology to the spraycan virtuoso Jim Vision? Perhaps.

Last night we held a short notice online virtual ramble through some of the art that provided great food for thought on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour in 2021. With the benefit of being able to show slides from the past, we were able to look at the waxing and waning of Jim Vision’s Jerome St mural which concluded with the photograph shown at the top of this post mural taken 2 days earlier on 29^th December. This is the story of that mural and it ends with the dramatic update based on what we found today!

The history starts in 2020 with a curved wall pretty heavily battered with graffiti of varying styles and levels of accomplishment. The artistic highlight on the wall was probably back in 2014 with a beautiful paste-up from the French street artist Ludo.

Street Art in Shoreditch by French street artist Ludo

Ludo, 2014

Street Art in Shoreditch by Spraycan artist Jim Vision

Wild! Featuring Noze, Lap406 Oct 2019

Forward to 2020 and Jim Vision secures consent to paint the wall with permission and has claimed the spot as his since, painting a couple of portraits as part of his admirable “Colourful Women” series. In the artist’s words this was “celebrating all women of colour with their vibrancy and strength, at the same time addressing an imbalance in the representation of women of colour on walls. This first dates from early Summer 2020.

Jim Vision, June 2020

The next portrait on this wall came complimented by a pod of killer whales. In this next early December 2020 photo we see the mural in great condition with 8 killer whales swimming through, to the right is a cluster of illuminations and the background is an abstract veil of almost luminous vertical streaks.

Jim Vision, 2nd Dec 2020

Just a few days later the negative spaces in the margins have been targeted with graffiti, including sundry tags and a nice piece by Lap in the background:

Jim Vision, lap406 , 22nd Dec 2020

Things are relatively unchanged by July 2021, a throw has gone over the cluster of lights to the right, a couple of tags and Lap in the background appears to have been painted out. Still the augmentations are occurring away from the main subject:

Jim Vision July 2021

By October there is fascinating development in the artistic interactions taking place on this wall, Jim Vision covers up new tags with the creative and playful expedient of adding Orcas where the tags were. Now the pod has grown to 20 killer whales and something a bit albino, or perhaps a 21st whale with only its white parts turned to us:

Jim Vision Oct 2021

Halfway through December heavy tagging appears in quite aggressive spots at the centre of the portrait and a green tag close to the front of the face where the white whale was. Ours is not to cast judgement!

Jim Vision, tags, 19th Dec 2021

Then, on 29th Dec, a new killer whale appears to be likely to see in the New Year, its placaement jumping through the earring brings to mind the cruelty involved in keeping these beautiful beasts in captivity in sea life parks. This was the state of play at the conclusion of the timeseries presented in the “The Best Of Shoreditch Street Art Tours 2021” virtual tour last night (New Years Eve):

Jim Vision, 29th Dec 2021

New Years Day, this morning, look what we found:

New Years Day 2021 Jim Vision with Slak & Cuso

Gonna take a lot more whales!

Jim Vision instagram

all photos: Dave Stuart

Tour Catches Boishakha Mela

Not many things bring the street art tour to a halt but every year one event we love putting a tour on pause for is the passage of the Boishakha Mela parade down Brick Lane.

Happy New Year! No, were aren’t late to celebrate the roman calendar 1^st day in January, this time Brick Lane explodes with even more life, colour, music, song and dance than usual as the Bengali community in Tower Hamlets celebrates the Bengali New Year with the Boishakha Mela festival, the largest of its kind outside Bangladesh. The festivities are delayed slightly in the hope that we will have more sunshine in July that we get in April and this year the weather delivered.

The Mela began with a Grand Parade starting in Alleyn Gardens, headed down Brick Lane to see the Shoreditch Street Art Tour then on to the main festivities located in Weaver’s Field in Whitechapel.

A beautiful burst of energy as far as the eye could see were a sea of floats, dancers, singers, musicians and onlookers.

In celebration of the coming of the rains the head of the parade was led by boats afloat on rivers propelled by oarsmen with red paddles. The bounty, a catch of silver fish is carried aloft by symbolic fishermen.

The two main floats this year comprised a fish and a tiger. In previous years a raucous trumpeting elephant brought the street art tour to a jaw dropping halt.

The parade was put together by local schools, artists, youth and community organisations working with Emergency Exit Arts.

Bangladesh is home to the world’s largest Mangrove forests so it is appropriate in a parade themed around the Rivers Of Bangladesh that we see Mangrove trees bursting with flora and insects.

It was a pleasure to sight Mr Hussein from Preem Restaurant in the front ranks of the parade, Mr Hussein has been a wonderful supporter of street art for many years and has permitted his walls on Hanbury St to host some of the World’s top artists, including the hugely popular and auspicious bird by ROA.

Here is a little of that Boishakhi Mela Grand Parade action, we look forward to next year.

All photos and video: Dave Stuart

Lumiere London is back for 4 nights and the opening night in Thursday was blessed with a crisp clear sky.

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Camille Gross & Leslie Epsztein – Voyage

54 illuminated installations split into 6 kind of distinct areas are visible from 5.30pm until 10pm, you’ll never do it in one night. Here is a snapshot, literally, of a few of the installations around Mayfair and the West End that blew my photo neurons on the first night.

Rhys Coren – Love Motion

Cédric Le Borgne – Was That A Dream?

Atsara – [M]ondes

Michael Davis – Ilumaphonium

Alexsandra Stratimirovic – Northern Lights

Impulse by Lateral Office and CS Design

There is a more comprehensive recollection on Graffoto, including more of the installations enjoyed last night.

At the time of writing (Friday morning) there are another 3 nights left to run. More information on the Lumiere London website, I tried the free App, the download map (contribution required) and the physical map available from vendors at various locations for £5, the hard copy map; was by far the most convenient for navigating a lot of the back street mazes navigating from one to the next.

It is street art, just not the tye Shoreditch Street Art Tours usually focusses on!

All photos: Dave Stuart

Free Art by Sean Worrall #43 Project

Artist and gallerist Sean Worrall devoted a huge amount of energy in 2015 to a project he called #365ArtDrops, leaving painted art on found materials on the streets for people to find, keep and treasure. Quite a number of guests over the year had the good fortune to finish the tour clutching a chance find piece of Sean’s art. Today we had an echo of that joy.

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#43 No 1/43 by Sean Worrall

Sean has a new project #43. Sean’s information page says: “#43 will be a new piece from Sean Worrall consisting of 43 parts and revealed somewhere in London on the 43rd day of 2016.”. The 43^rd day of 2016 was last Friday, Ingrid and Raja spotted this free art on Brick Lane today, they knew a good thing when they saw it and claimed it immediately.

Ingrid and her #43

How nice that their piece is number 1 of the 43.

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Please Take!

We hoped that Sean would share something of the impact that last year’s #365ArtDrops and in the middle of January Sean wrote the beautiful, moving tale of #365ArtDrops piece 348/365. In his writing Sean speaks of the stories that came back to him of the fate of the artworks, the connections established through email and social media. This taps into a particularly awesome power of street art and is well worth reading

The Moving Tale of The 365ArtDrops Piece Left At Moor Street Railway Station Birmingham

As guests on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour collected Sean’s free art over the passage of the year Sean’s project featured quite often here on the blog, you can share in our reminiscences on those older stories HERE.

all photos: Dave Stuart aka NoLionsInEngland

The Light Fantastic

It’s not street art as we would normally look at but it is art on the streets. And in parks, and in Trafalgar Square, and it is fun. Lumiere London launched this evening and runs for the next 3 nights to Sunday night.

Les Limineoles by Porte par le vent

“Les Lumineoles” by Porte par le vent literally did dance in the breeze weaving a dreamy tapestry of colour.

Les Limineoles by Porte par le vent

I got around just over a half of the installations and loved them all. Crowdstopper and road blocker of the lot is on the façade of 218 – 222 Regents street where Keyframes, a matrix of animated light stick figures by Groupe LAPS dance and cavort over the building to a bleeping symphony of computer game musical sound effects, quite mesmerising and the conclusion of the cycle drew a deserved round of applause from the 100s gathered to watch.

“Plastic Islands” by Luzinterruptus brought to mind the thought “this represents exactly what Gorillaz were signing about in “Plastic Beach”

Plastic Islands, Luz Interruptus

Garden Of Lights, Leicester Sq by TILT

You can’t go wrong with goldfish.

Aquarium by Benedetto Bufalino & Benoit Deseille

Lightbench by Bernd Spiecker for LBO LichtBankObjekte

Sanctuary by Sarah Blood

The lights which have illuminated to top of the landmark office block Centre Point towering over Tottenham Court Rd tube station have been relocated to Trafalgar Square, a far more appropriate location since this is historically where all distances from London have been measured.

Centre Point at the National Portrait Gallery

Brothers and Sisters by Ron Haselden

Trafalgar Sq

Lightbench by Bernd Spiecker for LBO LichtBankObjekte

I have a soft spot for Julian Opie’s Shaida Walking as an edition version of Suzanne Walking adorns our wall at home, his “RUth Walking In Jeans” has been illuminating Regents Place in Euston for years but sadly is often static or malfunctioning.

Shaida Walking by Julian Opie

Elephantastic by Top’la Design/Catherine Garrett

“Light Graffiti” by Floating Pictures at Kings Cross is described as technology which converts a moving source of light into lights projected onto a building, I will reserve judgement on the appropriate use of the word graffiti until it proven that it is possible to paint comedy male anatomy. Await updates.

For more information, check the event website at http://www.lumiere-festival.com/ or http://www.visitlondon.com/lumiere/programme#ref=nav

All photos: Dave Stuart/NoLionsInEngland

Mustafa Hulusi: Flyposter Art

Over the past Summer some guests on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour were introduced to an unusual interaction between street art and flyposting. The artist Mustafa Hulusi turned illegal adverts on walls into art by declaring them “A Retrospective of Flyposting”.

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Mustafa Hulusi – Flyposting Retrospective

This was clever and amusing. This month, Mustafa Hulusi has an exhibition in a space in the East End called “Flyposting”, a collection of art imagery and signage which Hulusi has put up on street walls since 1998.

Flyposting – Indoor show

Since I first became aware of Hulusi in 2008 when he participated in a panel talk it has been a pleasure to find and photograph Hulusi’s art on the streets, always paste ups and always the same size as standard flyposting formats.

Mustafa Hulusi – Pomegranate, Whitechapel, 2015

There is a much deeper consideration of Mustapha Hulusi’s work and loads more photos from the past, from the recent street campaign and from the exhibition on another blog which I write on here

Mustafa Hulusi, 2011

Do hurry, the exhibition only runs until the 30^th of the month.

Mustafa Hulusi –“A retrospective of FLYPOSTING” – already happened on the streets

Mustafa Hulusi – “Flyposting”, 29 Sep – 30 Oct 2015, Cass Bank Gallery

59-63 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7PF

Mustafa Hulusi: website

Graffoto: Mustafa Hulusi: Flyposting (Indoors) & A Retrospective Of Flyposting (Outdoors)

All photos: Dave Stuart aka “NoLionsInEngland”

Meeting Of Styles UK 2015

Meeting Of Styles returned to Shoreditch recently for the second Summer on the trot. Over a 2 day period spraycan graffiti writers and street artists from Brazil to Russia via Spain and UK threw a wild ribbon of colour around Shoreditch.

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Tyme (Swe), Adno (Rus), Awone (Swe), DJa’Louz (Fr) and from the UK Jim Vision, Zadok and below them Kak, Ekto and Wisher.

Meeting Of Styles UK 15

Meeting of Styles is an international and not-for-profit federation of spraycan festivals, this year 22 MoS festivals around the world are responding to the “Mind Above Matter” theme, though not all were as focussed on the theme as Neoh below.

Neoh

The focal point for the festival was a dramatically transformed elbow of land trapped between a knot of railway tracks now under new ownership and currently renamed the Nomadic Community Gardens. A primarily Bangladeshi community have transformed the Fleet St Hill end of the gardens with raised beds of allotments while a temporary village of tents, vans and dens of upcycled wood and canvas housed kitchens, bars, decks and admin.

Nomadic Community Gardens

Wall locations were geographically more wide spread this year, the centre of weight shifted over to the Bethnal Green side of Brick Lane with some painting taking place even further east than the Nomadic Gardens Community Centre.

Stendec & Soma

Traditional bubble letters and wild style sit happily alongside 3D, abstract, the “post graffiti graffuturism” and calligraphy based graffiti writing. It is not all letter writing though, characters and creatures and even sculpture made an appearance.

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For a lot more photographs and a bit more analysis, check out the Graffoto post of which this is essentially an abstract of highlights.

All photos: NoLionsInEngland

Very Nearly Almost Issue 28 Features Shoreditch Street Artists

Issue 28 of the cool Street Art zine Very Nearly Almost comes out this week. Cover artist for Edition 28 is world reknown tattoo artist, graffiti writer, skater, Rebel8 Tee Shirt designer and all round cool dude Mike Giant. The limited edition version of this issue has just been previewed and looks tat-tastic. It’s not just a screen printed cover, it’s a “MIKE GIANT LTD EDITION SCREENPRINTED BOX SET” ..wooooooooo.

Mike Giant Limited Edition Box

A refreshingly candid interview with Nick Walker doesn’t gloss over his wobble and fall from stardom’s elevator after the spectacular success of some of his work in Bonhams’ notorious 2008 auction (covered here on Graffoto).

Nick Walker, Shoreditch, 2007, photo NoLionsInEngland

VNA have managed to pull together every single member of Da Mental Vapors crew from France for a group interview. This must have been a high risk gambit, those in the know may recall what happened a few years ago when London’s then top street art crew gathered in a room at VNA’s invitation! Say no more.

The launch celebration couldn’t be held at a better place, we are looking forward to popping in to the Nelly Duff gallery on Columbia Road in Shoreditch. Nelly Duff is one of the most important galleries in the street art scene and one of our favourite London hang outs. Nelly Duff’s roster of artist includes primary and secondary market works from so many of our favourites including Aida,Banksy, Cept, Cyclops, D*Face, Dave The Chimp, Dr D, Elbow Toe, Gaia, Highraff, Jo Peel, Jorge Gerada,Mighty Mo, Miss Van, Pure Evil, Sweet Toof, Nick Walker….etc etc many of whom grace the walls of the Shoreditch Street Art Tours. Host Mr Cassius Duff has an extraordinary eye for enduring quality so if you need a gallery that has its finger on the pulse and does not make mistakes, you’ll find some great art in Nelly Duff’s gallery

In 2012 Nelly Duff hosted the grittiest and most compelling one night street art event for the past many years in a derelict car park under a council block, well worth checking out the photos and write up of Banger Art on Graffoto. That sensational evening was the first time we came across the intricate, vintage looking illustrations of Dan Hillier, another artist with a great interview in VNA Issue 28.

Dan Hillier at Banger Art, 2012; photo NoLionsInEngland

The augmented reality Gif-iti work of INSA has been lighting up the Shoreditch Street Art Tour for the past month and it is great to see INSA discussing his past in the “Diggin In The Crates” feature where artists dig out their old photographs from the attic. (In the Dan Hillier photo above, clock Will Barras, gripping subject of Issue 27’s “Diggin In The Crates” feature)

INSA: The Cycle Of Futility, Shoredoitch, 2014; photo NoLionsInEngland

So, there is a great magazine packed full of great interviews, the chance of a very cool limited edition cover version, some superb art on display in a cool gallery and did we mention beer sponsored by Sixpoint Brewery?

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VNA28 featuring #MikeGiant / @giantrebel8 / @rebel8, pictures from #Birdman /@birdmanphotos AND #JamesSharrock @jamessharrock_photo, contributions from #NoWay / @omfgnoway, Damo / @damovna, t-world’s Eddie ‘Goddammit’ Zammit / @eddiezammit, new #GIFFITI from #INSA @insa_gram, artwork from #SMUG @smugone, #Nunca /@nunca_art, #DanHillier / @mrdanhillier, #NickWalker @apishangel, #AlexanderMitchell & Backwoods / @a_h_mitchell @backwoods_gallery, #ChadMuska / @themuska, Berlin’s #1UPcrew /@1up_crew_official, DMV (Da Mental Vapors) / @sowat_dmv @bomk_dmv @jaw_dmv @bruskdmv #INTI @inti_cl and images from the streets by Nadine Emans / @nemans, #ClaudeCrommelin, @hookedblog, #NoLionsInEngland 1XRUN’s Mike Popso and more!!!

All photos courtesy Very Nearly Almost mag except NoLionsInEngland where noted

Street Artist’s “yes to no” on Scotland leaving Shoreditch

Bang on time, Shoreditch’s street art now incorporates a political piece referring to today’s crucial “Thanks for all the help but we can make our own mess” Yes or No referendum in Scotland. At least, the caption, a pun based on the “och aye tha noo” Scottish cliché seems to be saying “yes to the no”.

T.Wat

Channelling New York native Mel Gibson, street artist T.Wat casts Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish Nationalists Party as Braveheart. Scotland has until 10pm tonight to cast its vote!

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T.Wat

In doing so, there seems to have been a little street art politics coming into play. Exactly a week ago, Syd cleaned up the mess of stencils and fly posters and layers of tags and torn paper when he created this musician:

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Syd

Syd maybe Shoreditch’s Pied Piper but “I didn’t paint this wall for you” suggests a little discord playing out under the public gaze but both artists showed respect for the sculptural tile by Dr Cream and floppy discs by Fezwitch.