Tag Archives: Fanakapan

a spider weaves a psychedelic street art web on a car park rooftop in Penge

Street Art in Penge Rooftop Gallery

We have been aware of a proliferation of street art in Penge for some time but didn’t get the chance to visit until this weekend just gone.  This just happened to be the weekend of major Halloween festivities so a lot of the Halloween themed street art was being exhibited to the public for the first time.

scary boy in skeleton costume in front of street art by Skeleton Cardboard in a car park in Penge

Skeleton & Skeleton Cardboard

There is a full appreciation and some lovely photos on sister blog Graffoto,  check out the full story now.  The excursion from Shoreditch was well worth while.

Street art bats hang from the ceiling in a car park in Penge

Bat crazy by Irony

a bird head painted across two pillars  in a car park in Penge

This One in two minds

Links:

Penge rooftop gallery website

all photos Dave Stuart


Among the street art highlights are advert defaced by street artist D*Face

Street Art Highlights For November

Shoreditch walls sure got a lot of attention in November, we have a lot to choose from in selecting some of the highlights.

At the beginning of the month a long standing discrepancy was addressed, the significance of paste-ups was recognised by the first (assuming there may be more) London International Street Art Festival.  At six Shoreditch locations paper art submitted by artists from all over the world was pasted for a weekend jamboree of pasteup art.  Here are just a few photos that capture the tone of the event, to check out a full write up including a lot more detail photos and to see the result of my effort to reproduce a Dr Cream street art animation, click HERE.

Street artist Wrdsmth describes street art to the London International Paste-up tour in Shoreditch

Wrdsmth on London International Paste-up tour

The London International Paste-up tour in Shoreditch with the special tour by Shoreditch Street art tour guide Dave

London International Paste-up Festival site and tour group

a London International Paste-up Festival site in Shoreditch

London International Paste-up Festival

a London International Paste-up Festival site in Shoreditch

London International Paste-up Festival

As street art proclaimed itself in its formative years to be anti advertising and as D*Face is a hugely significant figure in street art we are actually going to step outside the parish for a brilliant D*Face billboard subversion south of the river.

advert defaced by street artist D*Face

D*Face vs a building society advert

For fairly obvious reasons night time street art photography in the Summer doesn’t really happen but November saw a lovely few nights of clear weather and great art to photograph.   Fanakapan’s balloon was looking quite ghostly and translucent in the night illumination.

stunning chrome balloon painting by Fanakapan photographed with light painting by photographer and street art tour guide Dave Stuart

Fanakapan at night

We also photographed the latest Mr Cenz portrait on Fashion Street, a spot Mr Cenz has held down for years.

beautiful futurist female portrait painted by street artist Mr Cenz, photographed with light painting by photographer and street art tour guide Dave Stuart

Mr Cenz at night

Both those artworks are actually from earlier in the year but if you would like to take photographs like these of street art at night, come and join one of our Night Street Art Photography tours, for more details click HERE.

Enigma was prolific and on awesome form in November, this playful reversal of the shadow hands phenomenon is delightful.

Street Art mural in Shoreditch by Japanese street artist Enigma shows rabbit in spotlight making shadow hands

Enigma

That photo can only be followed by another version of a shadow hand, this time by Perspicere whose new string produces real eye catchers.

string art by street artist Perspicere just off Brick Lane in Shoreditch

Perspicere

In November we finally discovered that those single line smiley faces and the “I Farted In Yoga” characters were by Why Reuben and yes, she is carrying a yoga mat in the photo.

simple single line street art character saying "I farted in Yoga" WITH A WOMAN CARRYING A YOGA MAT

I farted in yoga

My favourite piece of graffiti this month is probably this piece by Wiet who pulls off the combination of turquoise, green and purple like it was always meant to happen.  I hope you can pick out the letters!

beautiful graffiti in London by Wiet

Wiet

To close this month’s look back we have Combo CK from France who put up a pair of stunning large scale paste ups images without permission, this Berber Horse is a nice continuation with the fascination with Moroccan colours that we have been seeing in Combo’s street art over the past few months.

Massive paste-up street art in Shoreditch by street artist Combo CK from France

Combo CK

I hope you all enjoy a good December and have a wonderful Christmas, see you on the other side.


Street Art, Shoreditch, London, Graffiti, Tours, Meeting Of Styles UK 2018, Nomadic Community Gardens, Jim Vision, Xenz, Fanakapan, Voyder, Kaes, Core, Irony, Samer, Aches, Woskerski, Carleen De Sozer, Candie Bandita, Minto, Tom Blackford

Meeting Of Styles 2018

At the end of May there is a Bank Holiday in the UK and a couple of weekends ago this provided a marvellous opportunity for a huge array of spraypainting talent to gather in Shoreditch for a frenzy of graffiti and art at the Meeting Of Styles Festival.  Since that date a load of the artists who participated in the meeting Of Styles have been mentioned on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour.

Street Art, Shoreditch, London, Graffiti, Tours, Meeting Of Styles UK 2018, Nomadic Community Gardens, Jim Vision, Xenz, Fanakapan, Voyder, Kaes, Core, Irony, Samer, Aches, Woskerski, Carleen De Sozer, Candie Bandita, Minto, Tom Blackford

Dan Kitchener Meeting Of Styles UK 2018

Meeting Of Styles is an international series of festivals which takes place in multiple locations around the world each year, this year 11 events are scheduled spread across the far east, South Africa and 6 cities in Europe.  Since 2014 the London edition of MoS has found a home in the extraordinary Nomadic Community Gardens in Shoreditch.

Street Art, Shoreditch, London, Graffiti, Tours, Meeting Of Styles UK 2018, Nomadic Community Gardens, Jim Vision, Xenz, Fanakapan, Voyder, Kaes, Core, Irony, Samer, Aches, Woskerski, Carleen De Sozer, Candie Bandita, Minto, Tom Blackford

Nomadic Community Gardens

Here are a few of the highlights of this amazing festival of art and music.

Street Art, Shoreditch, London, Graffiti, Tours, Meeting Of Styles UK 2018, Nomadic Community Gardens, Jim Vision, Xenz, Fanakapan, Voyder, Kaes, Core, Irony, Samer, Aches, Woskerski, Carleen De Sozer, Candie Bandita, Minto, Tom Blackford

Nomad Clan Meeting Of Styles UK 2018

Street Art, Shoreditch, London, Graffiti, Tours, Meeting Of Styles UK 2018, Nomadic Community Gardens, Jim Vision, Xenz, Fanakapan, Voyder, Kaes, Core, Irony, Samer, Aches, Woskerski, Carleen De Sozer, Candie Bandita, Minto, Tom Blackford

Xenz Meeting Of Styles UK 2018

On the Graffoto blog we have done a longer set of highlights which includes some of the history of the London meeting of Styles festival and a look at the development of the Nomadic Community gardens which has become a thriving vital community space in Shoreditch.

Graffoto Blog Post

All photos: Dave Stuart

 


Half Term – No Half Measures

Spring half term holiday has just finished in the UK and Shoreditch Street Art tours was busy.  On Monday as a group admired the work in the car park behind the old Seven Stars Pub a car screeched into the yard and, like some kind of artist tardis, a dark door opened and out came a street artist and a load of working materials, Fanakapan spent the week progressing a massive dual aspect mural outside Magna on Brick Lane.

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On Saturday, our tour guest Alicia managed to get a wonderful souvenir, a Fan tag on her shoulder bag.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Fan of Fanakapan!

Among other artists busy creating new artworks that we had the pleasure of encountering were Mr Cenz and ThisOne.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Artist in The Crowd – Mr Cenz

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Mr Cenz work in progress

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

ThisOne – freshly finished and signed

Several pieces of Free Art were found, firstly this lovely framed art drop by Sean Worral was discovered in a wall in Shoreditch.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

#365ArtDrop 18, Free Art from Sean Worrall 16/365

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

#365ArtDrop 18 found!

Then at the end of the week, two Free Art Friday art pieces by Ninja Grl were discovered at basically the same location.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Free Art Friday – Ninja Grl

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Free Art Friday – Ninja Grl

At the start of the week Adrian Boswell, the Broccoli Man, put up a new four piece broccoli rainbow installation.  As the week started chilly and as the broccoli aged, the florets started to wilt and open.  Then some strange interventions took place as the broccoli moved around like some strange game of chess was underway before being chopped into smaller pieces.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Maturing Broccoli – Adrian Boswell

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Broccoli Man Adrian Boswell

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Adrian Boswell’s Broccoli

More about the broccoli street art on this recent blog post.

Life Is Beautiful’s Dark Wings photo opportunity, covered earlier in the week HERE, gradually decayed over the week as more and more tags accumulated but guests persevered, making the best of the opportunity to photograph some nice interactions with the work.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Then on Sunday morning, boom! Still smelling of fresh paint we found that the dark wings had been restored, as Life Is Beautiful noted they had nine lives.

Dark Wings, Nine Lives

Half term flew past with lots of fun and a load of great street art in Shoreditch as usual, thanks to all the guests and all the artists who make it such a wonderful week.

Links:

Fanakapan: Instagram

Mr Cenz: Website

ThisOne: Instagram

Sean Worrall: Website

Ninja Grl: Website

Adrian Boswell: Website

Life Is Beautiful: Instagram

All photos: Dave Stuart


London, Shoreditch, Street Art, artist, Preem Restaurant, 2017, Fanakapan, Mein Trumpf,

One Shoreditch Wall’s 2017

It’s that time of year when we look back over the constant evolution of the art hanging on the walls of the world’s premier street art location, Shoreditch.  It has been a phenomenally active year with an absolute kaleidoscope of exterior decoration rendered with new stencils, paste ups and murals appearing every day .  It is an impossible task to try to summarise everything that has happened so just for fun let’s have a look at how the appearance of one  specific wall has changed throughout the year.

Brick Lane’s Preem Restaurant has hosted a phenomenal collections of fantastic street artists for quite a few years now on its side wall on Hanbury Street. At the start of 2017 a curious hybrid piece existed.  Its life started in October 2016 when Bault from France painted brilliant colourful spiky spidery set of creatures.  In November 2016 Lora Zombie took over part of the wall, splitting Bault’s masterpiece into two disconnected panels.  ThisOne painted a mural over one of the residual Bault portions.

The Bault original:

 

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, artist, Preem Restaurant, 2016,Bault

Bault (Fr), October 2016

Lora Zombie, Nov 2016:

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, artist, Preem Restaurant, 2016,Lora Zombie, Bault

The one by ThisOne, added Dec 2016:

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, artist, Preem Restaurant, 2016, ThisOne

It stayed that way until March when Dale Grimshaw painted an awesome Papua New Guinea tribesman.

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, artist, Preem Restaurant, 2017, Dale Grimshaw work in progress

Dale Grimshaw work in progress

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, artist, Preem Restaurant, 2017, Dale Grimshaw

Dale Grimshaw, finished artwork

That also lasted a long time until the Dutch duo Telmo Miel executed a technically brilliant surreal cartoon during London’s art week in October.

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, artist, Preem Restaurant, 2017,Telmo Miel

Telmo Miel (Netherlands)

A month later we were shocked and stunned to see an advert appear over a significant portion of Tielmo Miel’s work.  The wall owner was not happy and it was definitely not a favourite of ours.

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, artist, Preem Restaurant, 2017,

Advert. artist unknown

After that experience, the wall deserved something really special and got it in very early December when David De La Mano from Spain created his powerful piece called “The Wave”, one of our favourite murals of 2017.

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, artist, Preem Restaurant, 2017, David De La Mano

David De La Mano, The Wave (night time)

Very very few artists could have replaced David de la Mano’s piece with something at least equal in stature but right at the very end of the year, in fact over a period of about 4 days which spanned Christmas Day, Fanakapan painted “Follow The Leader”, a painstakingly brilliant political piece aimed at Donald Trump on that very same spot.  Fanakapan is one of those artists who stunning creations could possibly follow David De La Mano.

Genius at work: Fanakapan 23 Dec

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, artist, Preem Restaurant, 2017,Fanakapan, work in progress

24 December:

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, artist, Preem Restaurant, 2017,Fanakapan, work in progress

Fanakapan still going 26th Dec (a very cold day, best viewed indoors!):

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, artist, Preem Restaurant, 2017,Fanakapan, work in progress

The final painting is the gorgeous mural chosen to feature at the top of the page and that is the way the wall looks as we tick over from 2017 to 2018.

So there you have it, a year  in the life of one wall.   Thanks to the owner of Preem Resstuarant for allowing use of his wall, thank to the artists too who bestow the street with their creative endeavours and thanks too to the unseen hands who organise and coordinate the art activity on that wall.

We will doubtless see many more great creations on this wall and in many other spots in Shoreditch in 2018, remember you can follow the day to day street art that we enjoy through our instagram account.   Shoreditch Street Art Tours wishes everyone a healthy, productive and  creative new year for everyone.

All photos: Dave Stuart


London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Tour, Jonesy, environmental art, awareness, CO2, methane, Skeleton Cardboard, 616, Artista, Fanakapan, Voyder, Airborne Mark, Vibes RT

Bank Holiday Street Art

Some may quibble about this but…..wasn’t the cloud cover lovely on Bank Holiday Monday?  Since finishing a tour in snow last Thursday, tours have been run in sunshine and sunshine, frankly, casts a shadow on street art photography, much rather a bright day with a bit of cloud cover.

Temperatures rising (we are forecast to hit 20 by the end of the week) and no rain also help.  Not that that really mattered in the case of this find of a lovely clutch of Jonesy paintings, as they were under cover.

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Tour, Jonesy, environmental art, awareness, CO2, methane

Jonesy – Fossil Fuel Genocide

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Tour, Jonesy, environmental art, awareness, CO2, methane

Jonesy – methane, it’s a pain

We also came across a lovely work-in-progress by Skeleton Cardboard.  Although normally one would be inclined to pass by a set piece “mural on a board for an audience” style  of painting, we love Skeleton Cardboard’s expressionism and bizarre twisted thoughts so paused to dwell on this latest masterpiece.

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Tour,Skeleton Cardboard,

Skeleton Cardboard, Box Park

Being a bank holiday for some reason the Seven Stars Car Park was pretty much devoid of cars which meant better views of 616’s multi-layered buttress bombing.

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Tour, 616

616, feat Vibes RT

And clear shots of this, featuring Artista, artist unknown, Airborne Mark, Voyder/fanakapan collaboration and Vibes

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Tour, Jonesy, environmental art, awareness, CO2, methane, Skeleton Cardboard, 616, Artista, Fanakapan, Voyder, Airborne Mark, Vibes RT


London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Night, Night Street Art Photography Tour, Light, Light painting

Street Art Lights Up

London has gone light crazy so it’s appropriate to show what a little light can do for street art. Here are some photos taken by guests on a recent Night Street Art Photography Tour showing how a little light makes a night photo sizzle.

Airy and Octavia, two guests on the tour captured some fantastic night street art photos where we employed light painting techniques. It is quite illuminating (sorry!) to look at how two different eyes produce quite varied interpretations of the same situation.

The spray painting genius of Shok1 really stands out in daytime with this X-Ray hand, a doctor on the street art tours once commented that the anatomical accuracy was remarkable.

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Night, Night Street Art Photography Tour, Light, Light painting, Shok1

Shok1. photo: Dave Stuart

At night, add a bit of light and the piece is transformed, our featured image above is Shok1’s devil hands transformed by Alex Faulkener’s photography while below is what Octavia Romero Nuñez saw.

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Night, Night Street Art Photography Tour, Light, Light painting

Shok1. Photo: Octavia Romero Nuñez

In my look-back over the street art highlights of 2015 I described Mr Fan’s chrome balloon “STAR” as “One of the most exquisite pieces of spray painting “, throw a little light on the situation and the balloons almost burst off the wall.

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Night, Night Street Art Photography Tour, Light, Light painting

Mr Fan Photo: Octavia Romero Nuñez

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Night, Night Street Art Photography Tour, Light, Light painting

Mr Fan. Photo: Alex Faulkener

And this is what STAR by Mr Fan/Fanakapan looks like in daylight

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Night, Night Street Art Photography Tour, Light, Light painting

STAR by Mr Fan. Photo: Dave Stuart

Austrian artist HNRX put up a luscious pair of lips whose pearly dental perfection soon decayed. Illuminating the border makes the piece look like a neon sign.

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Night, Night Street Art Photography Tour, Light, Light painting

HNRX (modified) Photo: Octavia Romero Nuñez

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Night, Night Street Art Photography Tour, Light, Light painting

HNRX (modified) Photo: Alex Faulkener

HNRX’s lips look like this in daylight – pre and post modification by hand unknown:

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Night, Night Street Art Photography Tour, Light, Light painting. Lips. Teeth, HNRX

HNRX before and after. Photo Dave Stuart

If you are interested in taking fantastic photos such as these by Octavia and Alex, the Night Street Art Photography Tour runs until the evenings get too bright so around about the end of March and resume again when the go back in the Autumn, more details HERE.

Featured image: AlexFaulkener

Many thanks to Octavia and Alex for their permission to use their photographs.

Other photos: Dave Stuart/NoLionsInEngland