Tag Archives: Gallery

JR: Chronicles Saatchi Gallery Exhibition

One question I always flounder with is “Who do you think the up and coming future stars in street art are?”, like I have any idea about art picking! The easier question is “Who has emerged?” and if there is one person who can’t be left out of that answer it is French artist JR. JR: Chronicles at the Saatchi Gallery is a comprehensive examination of JR’s very impressive back catalogue of art on the streets. Through a succession of rooms a large number of JR’s street projects are reprised, dissected and explained, the best part of a couple of hours is recommended.

JR: Chronicles Gallery Art by Street Artist JR showing photos of JR's street art and installations

Portrait Of A Generation inside demolished building

JR’s artistic origins were as a not terribly stylish tagger in Paris who chances on a camera, takes some pretty cracking photos in fairly lairy sink estates dotted around Paris, print them out super cheap and pastes them up on the streets. Among the images is one of a young video maker surrounded by local “yoots”, that cameraman is now better known as the award winning director Ladj Ly and just to digress for a moment, watch Ladj Ly’s 2019 “Les Miserables”, it makes a superb companion to this exhibition as a semi fictional and unaffectionate look back to the environment that shaped JR’s early adult life.

JR: Chronicles Gallery Art by Street Artist JR shows photos of JR's street art

JR: Ladj Ly at Les Bosquets

If you haven’t spotted the jarring “trick of the eye” in the Les Bosquets photo, if you find it inexcusably intimidating well you’re not alone, JR tells us that when that photo was pasted on the side of the Tate Modern in 2008, the Director initially refused the image as he thought it was a gun as well. That was the point, JR was challenging your inclination to jump to racist conclusions.

JR photo of Ladj Li holding camera like a gun at Tate Modern Street Art Exhibition 2008

JR: Tate Modern, 2008

Banksy’s first London exhibition was an un-authorised street take-over in 2001, JR adopted the same tactic in the same year. His “Expo 2 Rue”, translated as “Sidewalk Gallery”, involved guerrilla pasting his photos on building site hoardings and to add emphasis to his paste ups he sprayed picture frames around the paste ups linked together by straight lines. JR: Chronicles has a little humorous play with the form of JR’s Expo 2 Rue concept, a blown up photo of an Expo 2 Rue installation incorporates a video screen framed where the paste up was. “Tres droll” he probably wouldn’t say.

JR – Expo 2 Rue

The scale of JR’s achievements transcend the boundary between street art and fine art, appealing as readily to art world snobs as to people who would never normally contemplate attending an art exhibition. This can perhaps be appreciated by splitting his endeavours into three component parts, vaguely and inadequately summarised (my inadequacy, not the exhibition’s) as Idea, Execution and Documentation.

JR au Louvre et le Secret de la Grande Pyramid

The ideas and concepts are the things that earn JR a place among the giants of contemporary art in the “proper” art world and galleries like Saatchi. JR has completed a very impressive number of major projects in what is still a comparatively young career. The hallmark of them all is quality and originality, from his Expo 2 Rue at age 17 to Women Are Heroes and Gun Chronicles by way of Wrinkles Of the City, Portrait of A Generation and more, a mere 7 huge rooms at Saatchi’s Kings Road art palace is barely sufficient.

Gallery Art by Street Artist JR shows photos of JR's street art

JR: Projects

If JR has a secret cellar to which failures are condemned, surely there must be some, it is well hidden. The execution of them is undoubtedly thoroughly thought through, one of his charming trademarks is corralling local volunteer’s enthusiastic assistance in putting up his large paste up projects. For those who may have no idea how printed street art can be created on such magnificent scale various display cases, models and prop do great job of lifting the veil on those production secrets.

Work In Progress JR photo of Ladj Li holding camera like a gun at Tate Modern Street Art Exhibition 2008

JR Work In Progress, Tate Modern 2008

How do you print out the images? They are made from continuous sheets of paper 36 inches wide and in one of the films you see an architect’s printer spewing paper like a long string of spaghetti. How many sheets? In one of the vitrines are JR’s working images with the construction lines drawn by hand which divides the image into the stripes for printing and ultimately for putting the strips in the right order, a laden trolley laden demonstrates how many rolls of paper might go into one of those epic paste ups.

JR: work in progress

There’s nothing quite so unpredictable as the public which coupled with JR’s “suck it and see” approach to putting up installations in locations where authorities are hostile (Israel, USA border) has given him a wealth of anecdotes which are well with tuning into, you can access his spoken word stories online away from the gallery. Treat it like a podcast, you can for example access it using the QR code further down this page or it is currently available on youtube.

You might not find the “process” insights interesting, poor you, but scrutiny of those aspects can reveal secrets hidden in plain sight. The image of a tea party JR arranged to take place through the USA Mexico border fence is well known, JR explains in one of the videos that on the Mexican side they sit at a table; on the USA side the party was “guerrilla style” as the artist was denied permission so the party on the American side takes place not on a table but a printed canvas unfurled and passed through from the Mexican side. My chin dropped.

JR: Migrants, Mayra, Picnic across the Border, Quadrichromie, Tecate, Mexico – USA, 2017

JR’s contact sheets from earlier analogue photography projects are displayed in several vitrines in various rooms. In the contact sheet of the images of Ladj Ly holding his camera like a gun the famous image is the very first one on the sheet, it captures the ominous energy of the kids surrounding Ladj just at that moment as they clamoured to be in the photo, in the other photos the kids were basically posturing and with the absence of spontaneity the menace becomes cartoonised.

JR: Portrait Of A Generation Contact Sheet

The third pillar of JR’s enterprise is the element that allows JR to produce stunning books and exhibitions. It’s the documentation, JR takes brilliant photographs of JR’s photography projects!

JR: Portrait Of A Generation

JR attributes his trademark hat and glasses to the early need to avoid being identified by a local mayor who wanted to sue him. He does however explain his art to camera in a comprehensive and articulate way but always in hat and glasses. For someone so preoccupied with anonymity shyness is not an issue!

street artist JR in front of the Inside Out Travelling Photo Booth

JR and Inside Out photo booth at Somerset House, 2013

JR does not sign his paste ups though sometimes the artist is unavoidably present at a microscopic scale, check the reflection in the subject’s eyes in, for example, the Nairobi train!

JR: Women Are Heroes, Kibera, Kenya

JR’s projects are concerned with humanity, often illustrating the unnecessary impact that boundaries, borders and schisms in society have on humanity, or should that be the impact the unnecessary borders have? In essence he probes and highlights people’s impact on people.

Child peeps over US Mexico Border by Street Artist JR

GIANTS, Kikito and the Border Patrol, Tecate, Mexico – USA

The humanity becomes a teeming multitude in the Chronicles project, JR photographs up to a 1,000 people in basically the way they would like to be photographed then collages the individuals into a huge mural. There is a tendency for the impact to resemble a hyper realistic nightmare or disaster movie. JR toys with your own interpretations of the evidence of your own eyes, is what you see really a violent disorder, or is it actually a community out playing and dancing?

JR: Chronicles de Clichy-Montfermeil (detail)

Another thing that the show achieves which you can’t really replicate on a book or in a tiny screen is to impress with the scale and the level of detail in the augmented reality Chronicles. Download the JR – net app then point your phone at the relevant Chronicles mural causes a pointer to skip from person to person in the mural and through the magic of multi media you can hear that persons’ story as recorded by JR. Gun Chronicles occupies the whole of a large wall and incorporates 245 different viewpoints on the gun issue. JR avoids casting judgement, pro and anti Right To Carry folk are included and your reaction to the arguments tells you all you need to know about yourself rather than the issue. Good luck on completing the dive into the stories of all 1,128 citizens in The Chronicles Of New York City!

JR: Chronicles Of New York

The opening of JR: Chronicles in June was accompanied by another iteration in several London locations of JR’s Inside Out project. This manifests as a travelling photo booth in a van modified to look like a polaroid camera where, after a long queue, your photo is taken and printed out on a large sheet and pasted on the ground like a massive outdoor version of a school yearbook if you went to that kind of school, not me!

Street Art Tour Guide Dave Stuart from Shoreditch Street Art Tours participates in JR's Inside Out photography project at Somerset House London 2013

JR Inside Out Project, Somerset House 2013

The same van stars in JR’s film “Faces Places” made with the acclaimed French director the acclaimed late Agnes Varda (click HERE for trailer).

Tour Guide Dave Stuart collects photo from JR's Inside Out photo booth at Somerset House, 2013

The Inside Out photo booth at Somerset House, 2013

That segues us nicely into an appreciation of how JR’s story is really like a street art fairytale. The promise of street art is that anyone can present their art to a public audience, you don’t need an art degree, critical approval or gallery acceptance, you create your own art world by placing your art on the streets. Direct from you the artist to the consumer, no middleman necessary. JR has basically parlayed this circumventing the art system system from untutored photography to hijacking wall space and from there to projects in Israel and Palestine meeting with military disapproval, to exhibitions in posh London galleries and films with the luminati of the film world. No formal art education or art world blessing required. Know anyone else who did that?

JR: Face To Face Contact Sheet

JR: Face To Face, Separation Wall

One more thing in a show where so much effort has gone into making the artist look effortlessly cool, the QR codes are functioning pieces of art. No doubt if I ask a young person I will find yet again I am ages, like months behind the times dude.

QR Code Art (go on, test it)

The show dissects it’s subject into 7 themed zones, in each an idea and to a greater or lesser extent the process is revealed. The whole show is the manifestation of the third dimension of JR’s activity, the documentation, it really earns that title “Chronicles”.

JR: Chronicles

Saatchi Gallery 4 June – 3 October 2021

Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Road, London, SW3 4RY

Booking essential: tickets

Links:

JR’s website

Graffoto review of JR’s 2015 exhibition “Crossing” at Lazarides Gallery

Photos of JR’s photos of JR’s Photos by Dave Stuart

Adam Neate Short Film

Adam Neate’s early days of dropping free art on bits of cardboard around Shoreditch and Clerkenwell maybe in the distant past but his gallery art is always one of my favourites. Set aside 11 minutes to enjoy this just released film put together in 2013, it captures the flow, colours and sensuous energy of Adam’s art beautifully.

On Graffoto we were pretty ecstatic about the 2011 “Dimensional Paintings” show, reviewed here: http://bit.ly/2Lb7Oxx

Adam Neate, street art, urban art, Shoreditch street art tours, tour guide, Elms Lester, gallery, London

Adam Neate – Dimensional Paintings, 2011

Then 2014’s “Dimensionalism” had us raving, reviewed here: http://bit.ly/1BO1SOe

Adam Neate Dimensionalism, 2014

Adam Neate signing at Elms Lester, September 2014

All photos: Dave Stuart

Film as per end credits

My Dog Sighs Street Art and Gallery Show

CRYLONG

Nelly Duff, 156 Columbia Rd, London E2 7RG

8TH – 14TH Nov 2019

My Dog Sighs has a London solo show at Nelly Duff, well overdue after a long gap since his last London solo show.

This photorealistic extraordinaire has steadily built up a broad array of impressive street art styles, most famous of which are his Free Art Friday cans. The cans feature a crushed and folded cylinder with cute snub hosed faces painted onto the shiny base which were left outdoors for people to discover and keep, they are hugely admired by many, found by few. The concept and discipline of painting photorealistic faces on circular can bases fed into other street art styles, notably in many enchanting paste ups created in collaboration with fellow south coast artist Midge.

My Dog Sighs & Midge, London 2013

My Dog Sighs/Midge collaboration, London, 2014

My Dog Sighs has also a massive reputation for his incredible murals, his eyeball paste ups, his stickers, his waterdrops and his completely different non-circular non photorealistic stick character.

Upfest mural, Bristol 2015

Upfest mural, Bristol 2017

Eyeball, London 2017

Stick Man, London 2017

Water drop, over Subdude, London 2019

Sticker, London 2015

The humble tool of the graffiti writer, street artist and amateur bodywork repairer is the spraycan and My Dog Sighs art has brought the can right into the art as a canvas as well as a source of paint. This show is all about the cans.

My Dog Sighs- Beige

Crylong, the title of the show plays with the phonetics of the name of a major spraypaint supplier Krylon. Back in the early days of graffiti spray paint manufacturers were focussed on industrial applications, particularly car paint and a major source of paint for graffiti writers was the cans of paint sold in car repair shops, not all of it finding its way through the checkout before ending up in the graffiti writer’s hidden pockets. Crylong also speaks to the sad doleful appearance of My Dog Sighs’ characters.

As well as the cans, it’s all about the eyes. Watching My Dog Sighs in action on a public mural is to watch someone painstakingly paint microscopic detail in flecks of colour in the iris and in the reflection on the eyeball. In his exhibition you ascend the rickety wooden stairs of the Nelly Duff Gallery and enter into the Room of Stares.

Rickety Stairs

Room Of Stares

Engage in a staring match with each of the square eyeball images and in the reflections in each of the eyeballs you will spot different characters inspired by legendary photos from the 1980s era of subway graffiti. One lining up his spray cans is unmistakably Dondi photographed by Martha Cooper and published in graffiti’s Book of Genesis Subway Art. Look right into the detail of the eyeball and you can see that My Dog Sighs has even replaced the Rustoleum logo on the can Dondi holds with the characteristic triple spot of Krylon’s logo.

Pink canvas (detail)

Pink screenprint (detail)

Dondi by Martha Cooper, Subway Art, published by Thames and Hudson

MyDogSighs, Streetart, Urbanart, Gallery, Shoreditch, NellyDuff, photorealism, spraycans, Krylon, Rustoleum, waterdrops, eyeballs, walkingtours, streetarttours

Red screenprint on paper (detail)

Flick through your copy of Subway art and you will find spraycans littered, almost literally, throughout Martha Cooper’s photos which embraced the broader context of graffiti culture rather than just the trains themselves.

Blue screeprint(detail)

Blue canvas (detail)

Crazylegs by Martha Cooper, from Hip Hop Files, published From Here To Fame Publishing, 2004

Yellow canvas detail

Green canvas detail

The wall of stares houses a mix of eyes on canvas, eyes screen printed on paper and in one case screen printed onto metal, each in 5 colourways, though not all on display. This allows us a very unusual opportunity to compare a screen print with the original, and only a publishing house with the quality of Nelly Duff’s in house printer would have the confidence to pull this off. Under close up scrutiny the effect of the varnish layer on the aluminium print is bewitching although really only apparent when viewed in real life, photos don’t do it justice.

Blue – Canvas original painting

Blue – archival flatbed print with silkscreen varnishes on brushed aluminium

Blue – archival flatbed print with silkscreen varnishes on paper

The other half of Crylong is a collection of framed faces on cans, the cans are Krylon and Rustoleum and in each one the painted character reflects the colour of that paint can and indeed something of the emotion suggested in the faintly surreal names the colours are given by the manufacturer.

MyDogSighs, Streetart, Urbanart, Gallery, Shoreditch, NellyDuff, photorealism, spraycans, Krylon, Rustoleum, waterdrops, eyeballs, walkingtours, streetarttours

Owl is obviously a quite extraordinary name to give a paint colour so just as well Owl has an extraordinary face.

Owl (detail)

Owl

Nice to see a vintage can of Rustoleum making an appearance, seems that aluminium is a colour now, interpreted by My Dog Sighs as a Silver lady up to some devilment at a masque ball.

Silver

The rim of the base has been sanded back to bright metal to make it silver rather than the rust finish seen in all the other vintage cans.

Silver detail

The frame fillet, that colour strip inside the frame that gives depth to the frame is also matched to the colour of the can and at the bottom of each frame is a used spraycan cap, also colour matched.

Bright

My Dog Sighs has, in the blink of an eye, doffed his cap to the origins of street art in his homage to the classic Martha Cooper photos and the old school industrial painting spraycans in a nod to the significance of the can as a canvas for his art. He also demonstrates that photorealism can be beautiful art as opposed to the exercise in tedious virtuosity it can appear at times in the hands of others.

Fire

Bright (detail)

Regal

Pink canvas

LINKS:

My Dog Sighs website

My Dog Sighs instagram

Martha Cooper instagram

all photos: Dave Stuart except where stated

Skeleton Cardboard: Not In Use

It’s all about the art on the street, that’s Shoreditch Street Art Tours. However, last Saturday the tour chanced upon an un-publicised pop-up one day exhibition by someone who has featured often on the tours and on the Shoreditch Street Art Tours blog – Skeleton Cardboard. So we popped in!

Photo: 71RCS

Inside was a collection of Skeleton Cardboard’s increasingly crazy skeleton characters with their appropriation and mockery of health and safety warnings.

Photo: 71RCS

The thing that was really special was that this to view the exhibition you walked off the street directly into someone’s front room, a private dwelling. One of those gallery experiences where you don’t feel in the least bit intimidated or over-awed at being in front of a display of art. Rather like viewing street art on the street actually.

London, Shoreditch,street art,street artist, gallery, pop up, exhibition, skeleton, skeleton cardboard, canvas, paint, spraypaint, marker

Photo: 71RCS

There are a few photos from Skeleton Cardboard’s show here, with thanks to his and our hosts from 71 Redchurch Street to whom credit is due for these photographs (except featured image at top: NoLionsInEngland). A more detailed review can be seen on the Graffoto blog here.

ALO – “Hail To The Loser” solo show

We have been a supporter of ALO’s street art since he first appeared in London 3 years ago and are delighted to see his increasing acclaim and rapid progress in the “proper” art world.

(all photos: NoLionsInEngland)

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Following appearances over the past 12 months in Group Shows in the Fun Factory pop up gallery in Shoreditch last Summer, via an appearanace in Stolen Space’s Winter Group show alongside luminaries such as D~Face, Shephard Fairey and Rone, ALO has suddenly stepped up a level with a solo show at the Saatchi Gallery on Kings Rd, London.

London, Shoreditch, street art, street artist, Saatchi, gallery, fine art, solo, show, German, expressionism, Jean Michel Basquiat, Basquiat

Horn

For a full appreciation and a selection of images from the show, head over to the review on Graffoto.

Portrait Of A Man

ALO “Hail To The Loser”

29 July – 18 August 2014

Saatchi Gallery
Kings Rd,
London, SW3 4RY

Original Works

Gaetano Bresci

Street art gallery private view openings, 6 March 2014

Where are we going to get our fix of new art this week, apart from on the outdoor walls in Shoreditch of course. I’ll be kicking off Thursday with a social event at The Photographers Gallery in the West End then picking up the pace with this little set of beauties:

Alexis Dias & Jaz “La Linea

Alexis Dias aka “La Pandilla”, whose Octophant mural in Shoreditch continues to amaze passersby some 8 months after its completion, joins forces with Jaz the Argentinian graffiti legend in “La Linea”.

London,street,art,street art, gallery, show,artist,Shoreditch,tour,walk,graffiti,alexis dias,jaz

image: ALexis Dias, Jaz, Rex Romae

132 Commercial St
London E1 6NQ

Pro176 “Liquid Mecanism”

Pure Evil gallery takes credit for introducing us to many street art talents we have never seen before so we look forward eagerly to the work of Pro176. Look in the Pure Evil Department Store a few doors down from the usual gallery location. And yes, that’s how they have spelt the title on their email so that’s what it must be.

London,street,art,street art, gallery, show,artist,Shoreditch,tour,walk,graffiti,Por 176, Pro176

image: Pro176, Pure Evil Gallery

Pure Evil Department Store

96-98 Leonard St,

London EC2A 4XS

Brett Amory “Twenty Four In London”

At Art 14 fair last week there was a Brett Amory canvas which was breath taking portraiture. In this new show London is treated to the Brett Amory project where he spends 24 hours visiting 24 locations in one city and using the visual experience to inform a series of paintings. He has already executed this project in New York and San Francisco and we look forward to seeing his impressionist urban take on some London locations.

London,street,art,street art, gallery, show,artist,Shoreditch,tour,walk,graffiti,Brett Amory

image: Brett Amory, Lazarides Rathbone

RSVP required , register lazinc.com

Lazarides Rathbone,

11 Rathbone Place,

London W1T 1HR

Cyrcle “Overthrone! Pooring Reign”

LA guys Cyrcle visited London a couple of years ago to decorate our streets with some impressive pasted collages and they return for this show at StolenSpace. They have been braving the reign, sorry – the rain on a hoist painting a very large mural in a car park as part of their London fun. Here are a couple of pieces from their 2012 visit.

London,street,art,street art, gallery, show,artist,Shoreditch,tour,walk,graffiti,Cyrcle

image: NoLionsInEngland

image: Cyrcle, StolenSpace

STOLENSPACE GALLERY
17 Osborn Street
London E1 6TD

Blair Zaye “Bespoken”

Ahead of all that Thursday night excitement, Blair Zaye (remember the drainpipes dripping paint down the Shoreditch walls last year?) has a solo show in the heart of the City of London.

Shoreditch,London,Street Art,Tour,Mau Mau,Alex Face,Bon,Blair Zaye,Street artists,

Blair Zaye drainpipe image: NoLionsInEngland

London,street,art,street art, gallery, show,artist,Shoreditch,tour,walk,graffiti,blair zaye

image: Blair Zaye

Façade,

59 London Wall

London EC2M 5TR

Shoreditch Street Art Gallery Openings 6 Feb 2014

“Back To Black”

C215

StolenSpace

One big deal in the social diary for this week:

C215 Back To Black

and that’s the opening of a new solo show by French stencil maestro C215. I believe this is his 4^th solo show in London and that’s not including the project installation at Moniker Art Fair 2012.

London, street artist,street art,gallery,show,private view,Shoreditch,C215,

C215 2008

C215 was a revelation when he first brought his complex stencils to London’s streets in early 2008. He became a huge star of Banksy’s Cans Festival that year and has been a frequent visitor since. He is an energetic traveller and some of his best work appears in remote developing countries where he has an uncanny knack of getting up stencil images which reflect the community he is visiting.

C215 2009 (5 yrs ago this week)

We anticipate unusual non-canvas painting surfaces being given the C215 multi layer stencil treatment.

C215 2010

Show runs 7 Feb to 2^nd March 2014, don’t miss!

C215 2011

Check out Graffoto reviews of previous C215 shows in London from 2009 and 2010

C215 2012

STOLENSPACE GALLERY
17 Osborn Street
London E1 6TD

C215 2013

All photos: NoLionsInEngland

Art Previews Thursday 05 Dec

Two East London street art and graffiti shows in the Shoreditch Street Art Tours diary for this Thursday and conveniently they aren’t too far from eachother. Also an interesting show in the West End, making that before 9pm could be a bit of a stretch!

Shok-1: X-Rainbow Show

Shok-1

Shok-1 will be familiar to guests of Shoreditch Streer Art Tours as the virtuoso spraycan artist who pops up at two or three locations en route with amazing spray painted X-Ray bones artwork. This will be the first show in quite a while at the Pictures On Walls premises which has been closed as a “walk in gallery” for quite some time.

Pictures On Walls,

46 – 48 Commercial St,

London E1 6LT

Stolen Space Winter 2013 Group Show

Shepard Fairey

The blurb says the show includes work by Alo – Allison Hueman Torneros – Andrew McAttee – Arth Daniels – Beau Stanton Charlie Anderson – C215 – Cope2 – David Bray – Evan Hecox – Joram Roukes Josie Morway – Kai and Sunny – Kelly Allen – Kelly McAllum – Max Rippon Meggs – Miss Van – Mysterious Al – Paul Stephenson – Ramon Maiden – Reka Rone – Ronzo – Ryan Callanan – Sail (uselessarm) – Shepard Fairey – Simon WG Butler – Twoone – Vinnie Nylon – Will Barras – Wordtomother – Zio Ziegler. A number of those names are not familiar so discovering those could be interesting, great to see Shoreditch Street Art Tours favourite ALO beginning to get the recognition he deserves,

STOLENSPACE GALLERY
17 Osborn Street
London E1 6TD

#CuppaPINS

Pinspired

Street artist Pins aka Pinspired, not to be confused with Paul Insect also know as PINS, launches a tea infused solo show at a west end gallery. If you’ve seen Lipweed erupting over Shoreditch shutters and walls, that’s Pinspired. No sugar thanks.

Clarendon Fine Art

46 Dover St,

London

All photos courtesy of respective gallery/artist hype machines

Cyclops, Borf, Giles Walker and Candice Tripp – Thursday 28th Nov 2013

Three intriguing shows open this Thursday (28th), none of them in Shoreditch. RSVPs required for all these events.

Giles Walker and Candice Tripp:

I’m Never Shopping Here Again

Anyone who saw Giles Walker’s “Last Supper” gothic bacchanalian animatronics extravaganza at Black Rat Press back in 2012 will be praying for more of the same, though how his more potty mouthed creations might interact with the waif-child terror of Candice Tripp will be fascinating to see. This is just on Lower Marsh at the far exit from the Leake St tunnels and the gallery is saying that all private view slots are fully booked and your best bet if you aren’t booked is to catch the public opening from Saturday.

John Tsombikos – The Borf Show

Although this was very much a Washington/East Coast thing, quite a few here in the UK will recall observing the mist of confusion and controversy among American fans as to whether Borf was a collective, a concept or a tagger. The spirit of whimsical slogans and tagging captured on canvas, or abstract colour scribbles?

Lazarides Rathbone

11 Rathbone Place, London, W1T 1HR

Cyclops: The Way Of All Flesh

We’ve been big fans of the work of Cyclops for many years, a fine art education has moved him on a long way from the Basquiatesque images of the middle of the last decade. What is curious is the reversion to his street artist pseudonym rather than the real name that has appeared over the door in more recent shows.

The Outsiders

8 Greek Street, Soho, London W1D 4DG

All photos: stolen from galleries’ blurb