Tag Archives: DFace

Diggin In The Archives Part 6

Is there light at the end of the tunnel?  By the time you read this Boris should have made his “statement” to the nation and one suspects the tunnel will seem to be stretching much much longer.  Activities do expand to fit the time available and blowing the dust off the photo archive is a good a rabbit hole as any to fall into, so here is this week’s selection of gems from the past.

You wouldn’t bat an eyelid at a snorkeler (snorkelist?) walking down the road with a lion on their shoulders in 2013, it was Shoreditch after all.   Twisted surrealism from Dal East.

Dal East, 2013

ACE is full OG London, his comic and pop art influenced collage screen prints were pasted up all over Shoreditch from the beginning. They still appear although nothing close to the quantity he used to put out. One of my all time favourite paste up artists. And there’s Skewville , yet again, he keeps popping up in the archive photos. 2011.

ACE, 2011

In 2009 Graffoto founder HowAboutNo and I wandered Shoreditch and beyond on our lunchbreaks, chatting shit and shooting crap. Daytime street art creation was quite rare in those days and one lunch time we spied an artist in act of pasting up some big faces. He scarpered. Brummie Tempo33 told me a while later they had thought we were cops! Not many people wandered round in office garms photographing street art those days.

Tempo33, 2012

As I started to develop a little bit of an interest in street art I had a conceptual difficulty with stickers;,that fact that anyone could have put them up challenged their authenticity.  Then I started to get my head around “Representation”.

It would be very easy to upload a photo of a stunning mural by D*Face, rightly they are appreciated worldwide but his stickers are in my humble opinion are way more significant to his street presence.

Liskbot’s hand finished stickers and paste ups go back a decade, still prolific!

The unknown sticker looks and feels like a corporate logo.

D*Face, Liskbot 2011

East London in 2011 was full of Malarky cartoons. Superficially they had the characteristics of children’s illustrations but close inspection revealed a real darkness.  Often painted with compadres #Billy, Mr Penfold and Sweet Toof.  These old Hanbury Street gates used to host art by great artists such as Donk , Stik, Saki and Bitches and Macay collab, Mau Mau and Alex Face collab and an Otto Schade “Creation Of Adam” masterpiece. And Curly 😉

Malarky, 2011

In the next pair, the elevated elevation behind the grey gantry is the old Shoreditch Tube Station, closed in 2006. The first picture is from October 2011 and features a Rowdy creature and a piece by fellow Burning Candy crewmate Horror. The second picture dates from July 2012.  The difference is the Olympics buff.   One of these pics cost me a gorgeous Colnago Road bike, stolen by some Tower Hamlets low life as I climbed up on the wall to get the pic

Rowdy, Horror 2011

The Olympics Buff, 2012

When its good, Street Art can be very “of the moment”.  The flip side is that years later the context or relevance of a piece of art may be forgotten. This Teddy Baden multi layered stencil features Mandeville, one of two mascots for London’s 2012 Olympics. Mandeville was named after Stoke Mandeville Hospital, the world famous spinal injuries hospital that organised the first games festival for injured people, seen as a precursor to the Paralympics. The orange flash represented a London taxi hire light.   Mandeville was much maligned in the press, there will always be some mirthless killjoy. He didn’t have a good feeling about Teddy’s feline either.

I enjoyed the privilege for many years of submitting a selection of street art photos to the VNA guys for their quarterly zine. The vast majority of them went unpublished, there were far better photos from far better photographers to chose from. This is one of the unchosen. . . .

Teddy Baden, 2012

I took the liberty of visit to Shoreditch on my bike this morning, first time in over 2 months.  Very little had changed, street artists have been socially distancing from the walls.  Notwithstanding whatever guff we get from Boris this evening I suspect there may well be more sucking from cess pit of my street art photos this week, catch them daily on my Instagram or facebook.

Check out the previous weekly compendiums: Part 1, Part 2,  Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5

Art credits and links are by each photo. All photos: Dave Stuart

Shepard Fairey Facing The Giant

Shepard Fairey was in London in October celebrating 30 years of Andre The Giant Art with a two site exhibition hosted by StolenSpace.

Facing The Giant – Beats Residency space (October 2019)

Facing the Giant – StolenSpace (October 2019)

The exhibition was slated to close at the end of October but actually a great selection of art from the two site display has been consolidated and rehung at the StolenSpace Osbourn St site.

Facing the Giant – StolenSpace (November Rehang)

It looks just as spectacular and is well worth popping in to see if you missed it in October.

Facing the Giant – StolenSpace (November Rehang)

We raved about the exhibition on Graffoto, check it out HERE

Facing the Giant – StolenSpace (November Rehang)

LINKS:

Shepard Fairey Website (subscribe to his email)

StolenSpace Website

Graffoto “Shepard Fairey: Facing The Giant)”  Review

Street Art, Shoreditch, London, Shoreditch Street Art Tours, Stra, Banksy, Shepard Fairey, DFace, D*Dface, parody, copy, humour, Where’s Wally

Street Art Where’s Wally?

Shoreditch Street Art Tours returned from a short break in foreign climes to find a street art “Where’s Wally?” challenge on the streets of Shoreditch, courtesy of French street artist STRA.

Street Art, Shoreditch, London, Shoreditch Street Art Tours, Stra, Banksy, Shepard Fairey, DFace, D*Dface, parody, copy, humour, Where’s Wally

 

This was a Wally hunt with a difference with three of the World’s top street artists being portrayed as the elusive Wally.  A word of warning, this blog post turned into an excuse to dig through lots of old images of some of my favourite street artists so prepare for some gratuitous street art history!

No mistaking the World’s top street artist being spoofed with this monkey Where’s Wally,

Stra, Banksy Where’s Wally

 

“Laugh Now” is a classic Banksy monkey image and from the photo of the silk screen print version below, photographed at Steve Lazarides’ “Banksy Unauthorised Retrospective” exhibition in 2014, you can see exactly which Banksy image Stra has drawn from.

Laugh Now, Banksy, “Banksy UnAuthorised” exhibition, 2014

 

The only genuine Banksy monkey I have photographed on the street is this monkey detonating a bunch of bananas photographed in 2006 but even Banksy has spoofed himself as a monkey as seen in 2010 in the film poster for his street art documentary “Exit Through The Gift Shop”.

Banksy Monkey Detonator, 2006

Banksy, Exit Though The Gift Shop Poster, 2010

 

Shephard Fairey, popular around the world, most famously for his Obama “HOPE” poster, itself subject of more parody copy versions than you might imagine, is also a street art Where’s Wally.

Stra, Shepard Fairey Where’s Wally (also feat Spraychild)

 

This Where’s Wally is based on the Obey Giant image, one of the most reproduced images in modern art history (no evidence for that statement but it sounds impressive and perhaps might even be true!)

Shepard Fairey Obey Giant, 2012

Obey Giant, Shepard Fairey, 2012

Shep Fairey, D*Face, 2006

 

Alongside the Obey Giant paste ups on the back of the road sign by Shep Fairey in the photo above is a D*Face paste up, D*Face has also been Wallified!

STRA, D*Face Where’s Wally

D*Face is represented by his classic D*Dog character, seen in a couple of photos below

D*Face, 2011

D*Face, mid 2000s

There are more out there, good luck with your Where’s Wally hunt!

 

Street Art, Shoreditch, London, Shoreditch Street Art Tours, Stra, Banksy, Shepard Fairey, DFace, D*Dface, parody, copy, humour, Where’s Wally

Street Art, Shoreditch, London, Shoreditch Street Art Tours, Stra, Banksy, Shepard Fairey, DFace, D*Dface, parody, copy, humour, Where’s Wally

All photos: Dave Stuart

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Street Art: Shoreditch, London, The World!

Caitlin Kiernan and those nice people at Yahoo have done a guide to the World’s top street art locations.  It’s not actually a “ranking” as such but naturally, Shoreditch comes first 😉

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London!

As the article points out, among the guys who have a lot to do with the emergence of modern street art in London are Banksy and D*Face

London, Street art, Banksy,auction,stealing,stealing Banksy

Banksy – Shop Till You Drop, 2011

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D*Face

So for a great summary of the vibe in London, Paris, Buenos Aires, New York, Berlin, Miami, Navajo Nation Arizona (new to me too), Sao Paulo, Melbourne,Bethlehem, check out Caitlin’s Yahoo feature here.

Remember these aren’t the only places you find super street art but its a great start.

 

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2013 Street Art Review

Shoreditch Street Art Tours wishes its readers, past guests and future guests a happy, safe and culture filled 2014!

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Dal East

On the Shoreditch Street Art Tours blog we published 74 posts about the street art we saw in 2013, which is rather a lot!   As we look forward to Street Artists in Shoreditch continuing to produce new and exciting working 2014, we thought it would be fun to look back on the brilliant, the colourful and the clever work of 2013.

London,East End,Shoreditch,Street Art,2013, Review,ALO, D*Face

Art Is Trash

Our sister blog Graffoto, written on those days when we need to kick back and chill even more than on our “Shoreditch Street Art Tour” days has a great review of the best of the illegal and non permissioned work in London in 2013, click HERE.

London,East End,Shoreditch,Street Art,2013, Review,ALO, D*Face

RYCA

There is also a part 2 to the review, published shortly before midnight on New Years Eve, which looks at the bigger and more spectacular mural side of street art, check that out HERE.

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D*Face

Virtually all the street art, even the pieces out in Hackney (!) photographed in those two reviews was seen on Shoreditch Street Art Tours in 2013!

 

London,East End,Shoreditch,Street Art,2013, Review,ALO, D*Face

Three

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Unknown

All Photos: NoLionsInEngland

Shoreditch,London,Street Art, Street artist,DFace, D*Face,Book,photos,review

D*Face “One Man And His Dog” Book Review

D*Face has an almost peerless right to be regarded as father to London’s street art scene and guests of Shoreditch Street Art Tours will know that I position him as globally significant.  This great new self penned book lays out clearly the evidence to justify those garlands.

D*Face “One Man And His Dog” Book

  • Hardback
  • 500 colour illustrations
  • 344 pages
  • 290 x 240 mm
  • ISBN 9781780672779
  • Published November 2013
  • Laurence King Publishing Ltd.
  • Weight 1 tonne 😉

There are plenty of stories lifting the curtain on D*Face escapades which make fascinating reading, such as the driver turning up to deposit six 1 tonne poured cement spraycan sculptures around central London tourist spots wearing a German army officer’s hat with plastic doll’s legs sticking out the sides.

Shoreditch,London,Street Art, Street artist,DFace, D*Face,Book,photos,review

Limited Edition boxed version, photo: Laurence King Publishing

The 2010 installation of the Zombie Oscars in Hollywood struck me at the time as one of the ballsiest illegal street piece installations and I am not sure there has been much to challenge that status since.

Shoreditch,London,Street Art, Street artist,DFace, D*Face,Book,photos,review

Zombie Oscar, Mels Dinner

Few of the revelations are quite as astonishing as what D*Face’s wife carved in ice on a 2006 trip to the Arctic circle but you’ll have to read the book to get that little nugget!

Banksy is eventually mentioned as a friend, partner and collaborator though one gets the impression that D*Face remains a little sore at Banksy’s sudden universal withdrawal from social contact in 2007.

There is a revealing anecdote regarding a war dividend painting he did on a building site hoarding which featured a collage of corporate logos of companies profiteering by securing privileged post war access into Iraq.   An advertising agency who claimed to like D*Face’s work were a bit put out at their client’s logos being corrupted in this way, so their course of action options were Plan A follow a due process, engage lawyers, issue cease and desist letters, follow up with compliance and enforcement notices etc, or plan B, send down a young girl on an internship with a roller and a bucket of paint and have her paint  it out.   D*Face’s self confessed anger overwhelms any admiration of the ironic “do it yourself” punk approach the agency adopted!

“I thrive on the visual, ephemeral feast that surrounds us City dwellers, from the overlaid and torn flyposters to the tagged doorways, the jammed rotating billboards displaying parts of two adverts at the same time and the chopping of sounds I hear while cycling through traffic.  I am naturally drawn to my visual environment.”

At several points we get a sense of the inherent conflicts of being a street artist, a gallery artist and a gallery owner, particularly where it comes to relationships with the law!  In 2008 I was intrigued by D*Face’s switch to showing with Black Rat press and in the book we now learn that showing with an outside gallery frees D*Face to concentrate on producing the art and secondly, Black rat offered a step enhancement in screen printing refinement above and beyond what had become the Pictures on Walls standard in-house product.  The resulting “aPOPcalypse Now” was a stunning show that I found simultaneously mesmerising and disorientating (pics here).

Shoreditch,London,Street Art, Street artist,DFace, D*Face,Book,photos,review

Having said the book reveals all, there are perhaps a few things curiously overlooked.  Apart from a note in the shouts at the back I didn’t find any mention of the 2003 Finders Keepers exploits.  I’m going to extrapolate, infer and guess a bit here but Finders Keepers was about the punk do-it-yourself approach, some of the key Finders keepers members have recently shown with Stolen Space and appear to be still in touch with D*Face, others plough a far more independent, righteous and outside-the-system furrow quite distant from the path D*Face has followed, so perhaps there is some breakdown of the old intente cordial there.

There is even a full page sticker kit, I wonder if anyone will ever be mad enough to remove the stickers..just keep the book out of the hands of 5 year olds.

Shoreditch,London,Street Art, Street artist,DFace, D*Face,Book,photos,review

In among all the material which revives memories for me of stuff I lived and experienced as a fan looking in from the outside, I was surprised to find strands to D*Face’s work which I have no recollection of, such as the butterflies and insects which are clearly influenced by Damien Hirst.

“Trying to explain to US border police why you have an industrial drill with you for a holiday is no easy task,”

If you like the work of d*Face or have found this review interesting, you might like to do a little time travel and see a bit of previous stuff written by NoLionsInEngland (ok…yes, that’s me too!) on the door closing 2013 solo show at the old Stolen Space premises a,d, as noted before a small number of my flicks from the 2008 aPOPcalypse show are here.

This is a large and heavy book, there are hundreds and hundreds of fascinating photos in there of both outdoor and indoor work.  Clear some shelf space and pick up a great read.

Book text copyright: Dean Stockton

Book photos copyright: as stated in the book

Publisher link: http://www.laurenceking.com/en/the-art-of-d-face-one-man-and-his-dog

Photos NoLionsinengland except where noted

PS – stickers photographer’s own 😉

Whats On: Street Art gallery shows Nov 14th and 15th

Quite an exciting end of week for gallery related street art work.  Or is it street related gallery work.  Or perhaps Urban Art.  Who cares, good art, friendly faces and possibly some free liquid refreshments thrown in.

 

Pure Evil Department Store

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Pure Evil has long been a corner stone of Shoreditch’s street art scene.  From the murky leafs of his address book all kinds of radical international street art talent have had their first London break through the Pure Evil Gallery.  Names like Roa, Pablo Delgado, Artiste Ouvrier, Spectre and Robbo had legendary solo shows in the Pure Evil dungeon.   Always seeking the novel and bizarre, Pure Evil has decided to open what he calls a department store just a couple of doors down from his own gallery.  Expect carpets, sports equipment, cookery and a perfume counter just inside the front door …hang on a minute….no, sorry, that’s a normal department store.  Actually, the only thing to expect from Mr Evil is the un-expected.

Pure Evil Department Store

96-98 Leonard St

London EC2A 4RH

 

 

D Face One Man And His Dog,

Stolen Space Gallery

20131115 dface_1man_special_edition

Banksy hasn’t returned the calls from his publisher for quite a while so perhaps the most significant street art literary disclosure for many years will be DFace’s book.  They call it a monograph but I don’t know what one of those is so on account of the covers, pages, words and pictures I am sticking with “Book”.   Certainly there should be no lack of material regarding the man, his art and his contribution to the London street art scene to make this a fascinating read and we look forward to doing just that.  Hang on…isn’t Banksy’s publisher…Banksy?  So what’s his excuse then?

While there punters can also take in the work of Gregory Euclide’s “Whose Land We Laid Down & Wiped Away” show, which continues.

STOLENSPACE GALLERY
17 Osborn Street
London E1 6TD

 

 

Space Invader – Art4Space

 

On Friday Lazardes hosts the London Premiere of Space Invader’s film Art4Space.  Shoreditch Street Art Tours guests will be familiar with the work of Space Invader .   All we know thus far about the film is that the mosaic meister does somehow genuinely invade space.   It will be interesting to see if Space Invader avoids the arrest episode which accompanied his time in New York recently for a screening there.

Lazerides hosts but the film is being screened offsite at Soho House.  There are two fully screenings which we understand are likely to have been fully booked and there is rumour that a third 9pm screening has been added.   RSVP definitely required (info@lazinc.com)

20131115 art4space-invite