Tag Archives: Graffiti

VERY NEARLY ALMOST (VNA) Issue 29 – Launches in LA!!!

Coming soon, something that should interest anyone from LA who has been on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour (and indeed anyone interested in culture who ought to come on the SSAT) – the latest issue of Very Nearly Almost magazine. More of the same street arty and graff stuff but this time a little bit different too. Now taking on the world, oh yeah! Issue 29 launches in Los Angeles this Saturday (Valentines Day, 14 Feb).

Cover artist is Cleon Peterson, painter of black and white man beasts pillaging, fucking and slaughtering their way across the pages and onto a special limited edition (150) silk screen printed box-set featuring a custom screen-printed box, die-cut sticker set, postcards and hand screen-printed copy of VNA 29. Compare the silk screen printed cover in the box set contents pic below with the scan of the regular cover further down

Box set contents

There are elements of the traditional photos of street art, photo specials on the murals of Las Vegas and San Juan (and of course London), a great interview with Blek Le Rat (France) and the wonderful “Diggin In The Crates” series continues with corporate iconoclast Ron English dissecting and reminiscing about the conception and execution of a whole bunch of his propaganda subversions.

VNA Blek Le Rat interview. Original photos – Blek, Sybille Prou

Then, as the zine editorial points out, they explore “..the broader culture that surrounds street art and graffiti”. This means profiles of a gif designer (Mattis Dovier), a clothing brand founder (Tony Arcabascio, ALife) and confessions of a New York street photographer and paparazzi (Ricky Powell).

original photo: James Bulloch

An interview with Pursue, a brand director and mural painter, take VNA right over onto classic Juxtapoz turf while closer to home Jessica Albarn, sibling to Damon and Nelly Duff artist discusses her illustrations. There’s plenty more besides and as always (cough, blush) some great photography.

Regular cover

The LA launch is being hosted by Subliminal Projects, 1331 W. Sunset Blvd, LA, CA 90026. 6pm – 9pm. Free alcohol plus a free copy of the mag to the first 100 through the door on the night. Drink sensibly (first two beers only). To be sure to get your free copy, RSVP to rsvp@verynearlyalmost.com and arrive early on the night!

Don’t worry London fans, there is something special promised for a London launch, we believe the 26 of Feb may be a good date to keep the social congestion clear. No news on where but…well, Cleon is a Laz artist ..and VNA has had some very successful launches there in the past…and they have a relatively new space people might like to see….this is most likely not what will happen as it is pure speculation on my part. For the real deal as it gets announced, follow @vnamagazine on the usual anti social media channels

JeSuisCharlie

Shocked by the tragic events in Paris this week, street artists have been quick to respond.

In France: Jef Aerosol

London, Shoreditch,Street art,graffiti,walk,tour,walks, tours,jesuischarlie,artists, Jef Aerosol

photo: Jef Aerosol

In London:

je suis charlie

Pure Evil je suis charlie

London, Shoreditch,Street art,graffiti,walk,tour,walks, tours,jesuischarlie,artists,Graffiti Life

je suis charlie Graffiti Life

More details on Graffoto blog

2014 – A Great Year For London Street Art

This was a super year for street art in Shoreditch. At about this time of year (You lie!!!! Its usually mid January by the time its finished – ed) Graffoto does a look back over the beauty, the excitement, the highlights and occasionally the sadder moments in the past year of London’s street art.

London,street art,Shoreditch,street artist,Adnate,King Robbo,graffiti, walk,tour, guided,Melbourne,tribute

Robbo by Adnate

It won’t be spoiling any surprises if we tell you the one picked out as the favourite is Borondo’s upside down face by the canal in Hackney Wick (not in Shoreditch!). The problem with reviewing such a beautiful burst of creativity is what to leave out. Just for fun, here is short slideshow of some of the great pieces which appeared this year and what they all have in common is that Shoreditch Street Art Tour groups came across the artist(s) creating these.

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Pop over to Graffoto for a broader summary, a different collection of wonderful art and a few thoughts.

all photos: NoLionsInEngland

Top Blog For Street Art and Graffiti in Shoreditch is……..

Judging by the “vote me” messages in my email inbox it must be the time of year when bloggers seek “blogger of the year” titles. Shoreditch Street Art Tours is proud to announce it has been blessed with its first (publishable!) accolade this season, our blog tops ShoreditchInshort’s 5 best blogs they would recommend concerning Shoreditch. Wooo hooooo, we are pleased and honoured, thank you very much Julie, author of that very discerning blog.

Aven, St8ment, Anna Laurini, Street Art,tour,tours,blog,Shoreditch,London,graffiti

Face the facts! Avem, Mr.Farenheit, Anna Laurini

We like to illustrate our blog posts with relevant and beautiful photographs but a screengrab of our own blog on this occasion would be a bit, well, tcky and redundant. So, as we love Shoreditch’s street art AND a new issue of Very Nearly Almost magazine is launching this week, we thought we would celebrate with some of the photos submitted by NoLionsInEngland to VNA which didn’t make the cut. We won’t be betraying any confidences if we say that for each edition, VNA’s content gurus looks through about 20 or so images we select and generally publishes 4 or 5 in the magazine. This leaves us with a number of photos which then generally don’t see the light of day but are too nice to be totally forgotten. Enjoy these photos, more information about the launch of issue 29 of Very Nearly Almost to follow shortly.

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All photos: NoLionsInEngland

Art From Arrex. Stick It.

We love a beautiful sticker and in the past few days have noticed a fresh bunch of stickers by Arrex aka RX from Portland Oregon. His stickers appeared in tandem with a clutch from home grown talent Stickee aka Steek.

Arrex & Steek

The stickers have beautiful colour combinations and are seriously well made, a visit from Arrex always leaves our street furniture that much more colourful and boney.

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A few years ago we had the pleasure of attending a sticker making workshop by Stickee at the High Rollers Society Gallery, check that workshop out here and believe that you can do it too.

all photos: NoLionsInEngland using lumia 1020

Sticker Art In Shoreditch

Sometimes you are just wandering around taking snaps of street art, it’s all bit random when click/click/click- out of nowhere a theme emerges. So it was this weekend when three consecutive lampposts yielded stickers that caught my eye.

I just love this manic cat surfing a pizza based board by the legend that is Bob Motown.

London,Shoreditch,street art,graffiti,stickers,Bob Motown, walk, tour

Bob Motown

Neonita’s painted monsters have been making an impact since I first saw them on the side of The Foundry in early 2010, and just a few days later I bumped into her when we both appeared on a panel discussion on Resonance FM. I don’t recall seeing a sticker from her before but this one looks stunning. I was struck by coincidence of composition in those two stickers.

London,Shoreditch,street art,graffiti,stickers, Neonita, walk, tour

Neonita

All the way from Brazil, Alex Senna who was in town recently and painted the old Foundry Building dropped this sticker.

London,Shoreditch,street art,graffiti,stickers,Alex Senna, walk, tour

Alex Senna

Remember folks, stickers are art and this trio reinforces the message!

PS – just a couple of hours after writing that I don’t recall seeing a sticker by Neonita before, I found a second sticker, this time in a very attractive green hue and on a lovely ripped and torn background.

Neonita

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 😉

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

Banksy – Shop Till You Drop, 2011

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.

New Nathan Bowen Shutter In Shoreditch

Street Artist Nathan Bowen was on the streets of Shoreditch this afternoon painting in a location which has seen a few high profile murals from him in the past. This time, his trademark builders and soldiers are off on a fishing trip.

Starting with a whitewash background, Nathan set to work with marker pens in a fast and furious style which echoes in the terse appearance of his figures .

Shoreditch, London, Street art, street,art,Nathan Bowen,graffiti,walk,walks,tour,tours,fish,soldiers, builders, marker pen

Work In Progress 2014

The fish is a change for Nathan, it has lovely colours in its scales and fins but it looks like the fishermen are going to get a surprise when they land this monster.

Nathan kindly allowed the Shoreditch Street Art Tour to watch him in action and take some picies. It was a particular meaningful moment for one of our Californian guests (not pictured!) who had been to the fortnightly Sclater Street Stalls last Saturday and bought a small piece of art by Nathan Bowen, that piece now will certainly become a bit more special.

Work In Progress 2014

Nathan is no stranger to this spot, we found him painting there back in 2012.

work in progress 2012

Nathan often allows his figures to interact in a dialogue with existing art, in 2012 he amused us when Australian artist Lush painted a split unicorn over a Bowen composition on this spot, Nathan responded by adding some furious characters riding the unicorn.

Nathan Bowen v. Lush

So, yesterday we wrote about the Spanish artist Pez who painted his “happy fish”, today we have Nathan Bowen’s characters out for a day of fishing, what’s next, is Columbian street artist Stinkfish in town?

all photos: NoLionsInEngland

links:

Nathan Bowen website

Nathan Bowen Twitter

Flashback – Banksy v. Bristol Museum and Art Gallery 2009

It was 5 years ago that Banksy took over Bristol Museum and Art Gallery for what was his biggest ever proper exhibition. With pre publicity consisting of an undignified scamble by TV stations to a hastily convened press conference the night before, this show took us first by surprise then by storm with attendance records smashed.

London, street art, Bristol, Banksy, Exhibition, tour, walk, graffiti

Banksy v. Bristol commoners

Banksy’s team worked over a three day period behind closed doors to install 100 pieces of Banksy paintings and sculpture, including a mock up of his studio.

Banksy Studio mock up (detail)

Not only was it the largest Banksy inside exhibition ever, it was also his most recent in the UK as we can safely exclude the Marks and Stencils Christmas 2010 group show in Soho, London. We are overdue another Banksy epic on these shores (we felt that in May 2009 too)!

Where Banksy drew the line

Banksy’s real coup was showing how even stuffy institutions could be transformed into a wildly popular public exhibition with a dash of humour and populism, the show was the biggest tourist attraction in the West Country for years and indeed since.

Enter via the 4 hour queue

Graffoto provided the best coverage at the time with both a review by NoLionsInEngland (moi) and an obsessive’s guide and record of the exhibits by Shellshock, my friend, co-blogger and author of the two famous Banksy Locations and Tours books.

Banksy Fat Tourist Rickshaw

LINKS:

Banksy v. Bristol Art Museum and Gallery Review

Banksy v. Bristol Art Museum and Gallery guide to exhbition

all photos: NoLionsinEngland