Tag Archives: Borondo

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Digging In The Archives Pt 10

When I first began to explore street art one my favourite artists was and indeed still is French stencillist Jef Aerosol.  This Aerosol masterpiece was on Hanbury street and marked more or less a the time that this wall was just beginning to be used for permissioned murals.

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Jef Aerosol 2010

Shoreditch street art was dominated by stencilism in the 00s and why not, Banksy was the stencil artist kicking down the doors of public disinterest and general hostility.  K-Guy was and again still is a great personal favourite.  This is his take on the dual significance of the national flag, a symbol of pride yet also racism.

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K-Guy 2008

The next photo shows K-Guy’s artwork in context.  In 2007 Shepard Fairey hit that spot with a long lasting paste-up (a spot he returned to in 2012).   Sotheby’s and Bonhams started their urban art auctions in early 2008, others then hitched to that bandwagon.  This was probably the first occurrence I came across of an arts related organisation destroying a piece of street art in pursuit of advertising.  This shit still goes on and basically if you see street art being damaged in pursuit of the commercial interests of galleries, auctions and online sellers, then it’s a clear sign the fuckers do not get the culture, steer clear.

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K-guy 2008 featuring Shepard Fairey – defaced, dissed and abused

Special Offer: Free Art! The stencil on cardboard below was a piece of free art by the prolific, varied and much missed street artist Mr Farenheit. Hopefully it went to a good home. This doorway in fact the whole building, now demolished, was always intensely distressed and beautifully decayed; muscular rust on the iron door had very little sympathy for any paper pasted onto its surface. “Special Offer” is a detail from an ACE paste up; the thick black bars emerging over Twiggy’s left shoulder are a Paul Insect relic; D7606 also did great paste up montages on this door and it’s a rare photograph where you can’t see one of his pieces at this spot.

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Mr Farenheit, 2013

The pair of birds in the next photo by artist and graffiti writer Dr Zadok are done in the swirling style which characterizes both his graff letters and his art.   Alleyn Gardens habitués will note the virgin brickwork on the then relatively new North London Line.

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Dr Zadok 2013

The image below shows Dr Zadok’s hand finished bookcover in aid of Joe Epstein aka LDNgraffiti’s fundraiser for Great Ormond St Hospital.    More details and information about how you can to support the fund raiser and maybe win one of these fantastic prizes in the #LDNGOSHLottery is HERE.  Keep an eye out on LDNGraffiti’s Instagram for further announcements of more prizes.

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LDN GOSH Charity Book with Dr Zadok Cover art

Swoon again, simply because she rocks.  Close to Broadway Market, 2011.

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Swoon, 2011

Borondo was an extraordinary painter who lived in London for a number of years in the early part of the 00s.  His impressionist murals channelled the effect of strong colours but he first appeared doing single layer portraits created by splashing emulsion on the outside surface of glass windows then etching imagery into the paint with a fork.   Two artworks survive, the “11 Apostles” on the Bull in a China Shop on Shoreditch High Street as appears in the featured image above is easy to find.  This pair of figures from 2013 play with the window frames; the scraped paint has settled like frost on the window ledge.

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Borondo, Brick Lane 2013

And now, something consigned to the archive in just the past fortnight  !Things turned a brighter shade of orange across a locked down (ish) Picadilly Circus as the iconic illuminations displayed a charity digital artwork by Stik.  Stik must be alongside Shep Fairey and Banksy in the ranks of street artists who most consistently use their art for deserving causes.  This installation was in support of Young Westminster Foundation.

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Stik Picadilly Circus June 2020

Stik is also one of the 9 street artists who have joined Joe Epstein to raise funds for @GreatOrmondSt Hospital.   Each artist has created a special version of the book by hand painting the cover, so that’s 9 unique versions of the book.

See HERE for a blogpost with more images, details and link to how to support the fund raiser and maybe win one of these fantastic prizes in the #LDNGOSHLottery and keep an eye out as well for further announcements of more prizes.

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LDN GOSH Charity Book with Stik Cover art

We didn’t clap for carers in the UK this week, the mood switched more to pressurising the government to fund the carers properly, and reward them not to mention try a little bit of planning for a change as a second wave is held likely.   Seems like a good moment to shelve Diggin In The Archives, though it has been a happy accident of exploring my own archives and memories and so don’t rule out DITA’s resurrection sometime.

Check out the previous Diggin’ In The Archives weekly compendiums starting with week 1 and then hopefully navigate the index to find the rest: DITA 1

All photos: Dave Stuart

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:

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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.

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

Busy Easter Bunnies

There was no break over the Easter weekend for street artists in Shoreditch, productivity was high and a number of super new pieces of street art appeared.

This year’s star Borondo lived up to his soaring reputation in the London street art scene by painting the iconic Sclater St car park wall.   Previous pieces on this wall by Jimmy C and Dal East lasted roughly 10 months and 11 months respectively so hopefully Barondo’s new piece will prove equally enduring. At first glance the intertwined bodies suggest the aftermath of a roman orgy but as someone on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour pointed out over the weekend, it might also be a body pit, a mass burial grave. You decide!

 

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Borondo

The Shoreditch Street Art Tour also chanced upon the Portuguese talent Furia ACK completing a wonderful portrait in charcoal and chalk.

 

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Furia ACK

Otto Schade was also spied out on Brick Lane with the slightly curious task of painting a yellow ribbon based acid smiley map of London over….. a yellow ribbon based acid smiley map of London! This is at least the 4th painting Otto Schade has created on this particular wall, the new version is a tad larger than the old and a misty fire now smoulders at the bottom of the wall.

 

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Otto Schade

We don’t see much street art composed as a dyptich but that seems to be exactly what Lex Dura has done with this “Life is beautiful”/ ”So is my Mum” two parter.

 

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Lex Dura

Jim Vision made huge strides on a mural of a white horse thundering through the shore break on a beach but the continuous rain in the latter part of the weekend means this is yet to complete. Many other artists were out making clandestine marks on Shoreditch’s walls over the weekend ensuring continual change to the bright, colourful and interesting street art.

all photos: NoLionsInEngland

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Shoreditch Street Art February Highlights

February was a month of unrelenting street art activity by street artists in Shoreditch, mainly wearing anoraks and wellington  boots.    Most months of the year, my friend HowAboutNo, the guy who has spent the best part of the past 10 years oscillating between wandering streets and alleys exploring street art with me and propping up a bar with me, and I throw together a pictorial review of the months street art with a few pithy words for description.   in February, a month where the elements really tested the longevity of paper based art, with a sculptural slant.  Here are just a small selection of  the highlights, for the full recap it will be worth popping over to our private blog Graffoto

Love Piepenbrinck placed several new fancy dress piggies out on the streets and has teased us with a photo on Facebook caption “Most Hidden Piggy – almost impossible to even photograph”, which we haven’t seen hide nor hair of.

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LovePiepenbrinck

Without doubt one of the cleverest and most exciting things we have seen this month, perhaps this year, has been Borondo’s face by the canal on Hackney Wick, already drooled over on this blog here.

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Dee One’s Heavenly Rejects has been a delightful presence on the Shoreditch streets for about a year, his work such as they devils painted on acorns is often easy to pass by.   One of his most pleasing and most difficult to spot is this aquatic scene.

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Dee One

Full review of the month on Graffoto.

All photos NoLionsInEngland

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Borondo, Spanish Street Artist painting London

Last November we met Spanish street artist Borondo creating a window portrait on Brick Lane, he said he hoped to return in the Spring and so he has and what a spectacular return it’s turning out to be.    Only last weekend I wrote a blog piece on www.graffoto.co.uk about the stunning work he had created since his return but that is already out of date with two masterful painterly pieces created since Saturday (above and below).

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That letter E is a little bit of “archaeology” from a bit of work a couple of generation of street art back.

It’s fantastic to see Borondo back in London and we look forward to details of a forthcoming solo show, when we hear more we will be sure to let you know so sign up to the blog, the twitter feed and the facebook links on this page to be certain you don’t miss the news.

Another recent Borondo highlight, taken from the Graffoto post:

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Spanish Street Artist Borondo Displays Novel Technique

Spanish street artist Borondo was in Shoreditch last week with his unusual street art style, scraping paint off windows.   His exquisite control of light and shade facilitates some quite dark compositions as in this Dias/Noche (day night) diptych, check out the figure reflected in the open window.

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Shoreditch Street Art Tours had the pleasure of a bit of chat and we saw that scraping action at work.

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We look forward to more in the not too distant future.

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