Tag Archives: mural

Airborne Mark Origami Street Art Painting

A couple of Sunday’s ago the Shoreditch Street Art Tour group had the pleasure of coming across Airborne Mark in the early stages of a new origami spraypainting. Mark was as charming as ever and showed the origami model he was using as the reference for his painting.

“Can you see what it is yet?” he challenged us, just like he does you the viewer in this awesome making of video. As the lucky group that day will testify, for all its polish and multi angles, Mark improvises and films the video yet manages to paint a masterpiece at the same time. This video is such a pleasure to watch, I do hope you enjoy it.

Our group passed through at the point where he have completed the model outline and was just working on painting the cardboard base, pretty much the point at 2 minutes into the film where Mark explains some the challenges in painting the outline. Yes, we guessed correctly that it was going to be a frog!

The Origami model of the frog painted by street artist Airborne Mark in Shoreditch

Airborne Mark shows Shoreditch Street Art Tours his model

We have had the pleasure of bumping into Airborne Mark painting a few times down the years, we wrote a nice feature about Mark with a lot of history HERE

Just to demonstrate our lack of planning and foresight, the featured image at the top of this post is…the same as featured at the top of our September Highlights blogpost, which I suppose reflects how much we like Airborne Mark’s street art.

All photos: Dave Stuart

Street Art Against Hate

In a weekend when a lot of new street art appeared in Shoreditch one creation particularly stood out, the new “Wall Of Love” from the #NoHate family of street artists. This consists signature art from 355 artists rendered in a circular format under the slogans #StreetartAgainstHate #ToLiveAndLetLive

Streetart Against Hate; Live And Let Live

This London installation was put together by 8ArmsToHug from Cologne assisted by street art friends in the area, so perhaps it would be more appropriate to use the German versions of the slogans #StreetArtJajeHass #LevveUnLevveLoss

Featuring Homo Riot (LA)

The impact of seeing this on this wall in real life is immense. I was humbled to share the experience seeing this for the first time in the company of Patricia and Manuel Oliver whose son Joaquin Oliver was a victim of a mass killing earlier this year in the US. Joaquin was one of 14 high school children and 3 school staff killed along with 17 others wounded when a 19 year old male armed with a semi automatic rifle entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with murderous intent and devastating consequences.

Parkland Florida Victims, image courtesy CBS News

Patricia and Manuel have set up a charity Change The Ref “To empower our next generation so they can fight for their values, have their voices heard, and impact change for their future.” Founded in the memory of their son Joaquin who was one of the 17 victims, Manuel and Patricia Oliver are committed to making sure that their son’s life and the lives of the other 16 victims are never forgotten and that real change happens to prevent future tragedies like this from happening ever again.

Manual told me that they aim to change the American gun culture by making powerful graphic statements all around the world and urban art is part of their efforts to send their message in non traditional ways.

WE DEMAND…. Mural by Manuel Oliver, Winwood, Miami. Photo supplied by Manuel Oliver

Notice the electrical box cleverly simulating a lecturn inviting visitors to declare their support.

Gun control and anti hate are not perfect synonyms but they are facets of the same coin. I felt honoured to be able to show Patricia and Manuel a lot of politically engaged art in Shoreditch including Jimmy C’s Trayvon Martin mural, Bambi’s tribute to Michael Brown and of course the epic new NoHate wall.

Live and Let Live: Germany’s legendary 1Up graffiti crew

Live and Let Live

The #StreetArtAgainstHate originated in Cologne just one month ago and has gone viral. Live and Let Live or #LevveUnLevveLosse in its original German is actually the motto of Cologne, described as a s, 8ArmsToHug says there are now over 530 artists from all over the world taking part, see how many you can identify in the photos! The #NoHate derives its power from its volume, each individual artist makes a small contribution but the mass of messages combine to project a message far louder than the sum of the individual artist’s voices.

Street art is a platform which many artists use successfully in transmitting powerful messages to an audience larger and more diverse than their own social circle, and yes, street art supports many campaigns to end advertising, smash capitalism, prevent injustice, stop gentrification, education for all and so on, all brilliant causes passionately cherished by their champions but surely there can’t be a more power purpose that ending hate and ending the insanity of human on human gun violence. My only regret is that I don’t feel capable of capturing the intensity of seeing this wonderful wall in person.

#NoHate

#StreetartAgainstHate feauring Mythos BLN

Many thanks to 8ArmstoHug for her patient help with background, not to mention of course putting up the London Wall Of Love

featuring Smiler, a tour regular

Links:

Live and Let Live/levve Un Levve Losse Instagram

Change the Ref: Website

8ArmsToHug Instagram

All photos Dave Stuart (Instagram) except where noted

This post originally appeared on the Author’s personal street art blog Graffoto

Epic New Mural In Shoreditch

A beautiful mural on the theme of “connectivity” which truly stands alongside the best in the world has been created in Shoreditch and it is stunning. The fun started in Spring this year and went on until August, 8 groups of artists working in pairs have painted a long montage of murals thematically linked on the idea of “connectivity”. The whole piece has been placed with permission on a building owned by a communications company and Graffoto has had the pleasure of discussing many aspects of this brilliant new mural with Lee Bofkin representing Global Street Art which managed the project.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, Busk, Mr Switch, Ed Hicks, Dr Zadok, Best Ever, Ninth Seal

Busk and Oliver Switch, flanked by Ninth Seal and Best Ever to left, Ed Hicks and Dr Zadok to right

The first visible signs of dramatic change appeared in March 2018 when Hunto and Mr Thoms painted the end or perhaps the start of the building. The mural has “connectivity” as its theme. This can be seen in how the network of talkers, listeners and webcams painted by Thoms connects into the kissing cubist couple by Hunto and then the pipes in the network were left hanging on the fringes until Captain Kris and Tizer came along to paint the next section.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, Hunto, Mr Thoms

Then we can see how Captain Kris and Tizer, in their section which depicts a connection between the real and the virtual, took the hanging connections and blended them into their artwork, in particular the yellow conduit at the bottom morphs into a triangular branch like enclosure which closes right at the point where the robot with the VR headset is connecting with the female dancer.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, Captain Kris, Tizer

Captain Kris & Tizer

The dancers are dancing on a woodland floor which then flows seamlessly into the amazing woodland scene by Ed Hicks and Dr Zadok. The connectivity depicted in the Hicks/Zadok woodland is provided by the fungal mycelium network, an organic information superhighway which actually really connects plants, trees and mushrooms across the forest floor.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists,Ed Hicks, Dr Zadok

Ed Hicks, Zadok – The Mycelium network

The corner panel where King John Court meets New Inn Yard supports a vanitas painting by Busk and Mr Switch. The connection aspect here is the ammonite shell at the top which has not changed over millennia and thus provides a connection across the ages.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, Ed HIcks, Dr Zadok, Busk, Mr Switch, Best Ever, Ninth Seal

Busk and Mr Oliver Switch

This then flows into a collection of hands in a lattice structure, the hands depict meetings, greetings, introductions, friendships, Ninth Seal and Best Ever have captured a very human form of connectivity.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, Best Ever, Ninth Seal

Mobile connectivity

Next to this is a beautiful tribute to old school modes of connection and communication by Nomad Clan, a pair of artists from Manchester. The lost art of letter writing sits alongside the pigeon post, now superseded by email.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, Nomad Clan,

Nomad Clan Rewind

Those curious double headed arrow symbols in Nomad Clan’s art will be instantly familiar as “fast forward” and “rewind” to anyone who ever played or recorded on C60 and C90 cassettes. The fast forward arrow draws your eye to a collaboration between Mr Cenz whose multicoloured portraits are a familiar sight across London and Lovepusher, known for his amazing 3D letter writing. On the left Nomad Clan pay homage to retro connectivity, the female character to the right has the future of connectivity in the palm of her hand.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, Nomad Clan, Lovepusher, Mr Cenz

Connectivity past, present and future

The whole project in its current form (not to suggest that this is anything other than the final manifestation) was brought to a conclusion by an abstract multi layered network created by AutOne and Neist whose complex handstyle we have loved for years.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, AutOne, Neist

AutOne, Neist

The organisation and logistics behind such a colossal mural is also hugely impressive and generally is something that Global Street Art is tremendously qualified to undertake. Just a few stats making the rounds: the mural is about 115m along its base and 13m tall making a surface area of almost 1500square metres; 250 litres of black emulsion (who buys black?) were applied as background and over 500 cans of spraypaint went into the painting.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, Lovepusher, Mr Cenz, night photography, light painting

Future Connectivity – Lovepusher, Mr Cenz

The end result of all these dynamics and the organisation and dare I say the connections is just about the most impressive, fresh, single piece themed collaborative mural Shoreditch has seen. All the artists involved deserve a magnificent pat on their respective backs and Lee and the Global Street Art team have every reason to feel very proud of this incredible achievement.

This post is an extract from a post on sister blog Graffoto in which Lee Bofkin of Global Street Art explains in an interview the genesis for this project, how the artists were selected and the mechanics and process of actually creating the mural, hopefully you might think it worth popping over to Graffoto to read a little more and see more photos.

Links:

Global Street Art website

Hunto instagram

Mr Thoms instagram

Captain Kris instagram

Tizer instagram

Ed Hick instagram

Dr Zadok instagram

Busk One instagram

Mr Oliver Switch instagram

Best Ever instagram

Ninth Seal TBA

Nomad Clan instagram

Mr Cenz instagram

Lovepusher instagram

AutOne instagram

Neist instagram

All photos: Dave Stuart

New Banksy Appears In Dover

Another year, another Banksy, at last! The port of Dover, a major port with the shortest distance between UK and the European mainland, found itself the proud home of the latest outdoor street art masterpiece by Banksy. A huge version of the EU flag with a worker chipping away at one of the 12 stars greets inland arrivals coming into the port on the main road from London.

Banksy

When it reveals itself to you from about ¾ mile away on the hill descending into Dover, its audacious scale and visibility is quite breath taking. This isn’t tucked away on a back street facing somewhere anonymous, you simply can’t miss it. By the end of this year this could be one of the most viewed single works of art in the country, perhaps even the World.

Close up the attention to detail is awesome. Check the drop shadows on the chipped off pieces of the stars, look also at the cracks, they are stunningly painted and close up you can see each crack represented by two contrasting lines very precisely drawn alongside each other.

Banksy

The subject of the work is clear, it’s about Britain leaving the EU but is the piece perhaps a bit ambiguous? Is the worker “Leave” supporter taking great delight in symbolically destroying the EU or are his actions showing us how devastating the course the UK is seemingly irretrievably embarked upon is, in other words pro-Remain. Context is everything with Banksy and his views are pretty clear if you think back to art he put up in Calais in 2015, Steve Jobs as an immigrant; a child gazing through a telescope across the channel to England but a vulture (death) perches on the telescope; and his “We’re not all in the same boat”, a raft borrowed from “The Raft Of The Medusa” by Théodore Géricault. The issue was the refugee crisis but the clear message was more compassion was needed meaning open boarders, Banksy is pretty clearly a Remainer.

Banksy

Timing is a bit of an issue since the decisive vote which lead to our latest Prime Minister changing her mind completely from “remain” to “a red, white and blue Brexit” was 10 months ago. The issue is central to our current general election process but only to the extent that the PM seeks a mandate to do as much damage as she can without subsequent recourse to the population. Banksy’s mural seems to be more timely if considered in the context of the French presidential election which reaches its climax this weekend as the eminently sensible French electorate chose a centrist pro EU president rather than a far right candidate hell bent on wreaking further disunity and harm to the EU.

Dover – Gateway to Europe

The placement of this piece is magical. Dover is defined in its present and its history by this country’s relationship with the continent, whether that means trade, migration, vacation or war. Almost no one passes through Dover without registering that this is a point of departure, arrival and communication and it is all about the short cross sea link to France. It is hard to imagine a place in the UK where a Brexit piece could resonate more with its surroundings.

This post is an abridged version of a post I wrote for Graffoto blog, head over there for more views on the way Banksy may have created this masterpiece and similarities to older Banksy street art.

Stik’s New Shoreditch Mural

Shoreditch based street art Stik was beavering away on a new mural in Old Street for 4 days up until last Sunday. At times the elements were not in his favour but he gritted his teeth and ploughed on. Several of our tour groups last week and over the weekend had the pleasure of chatting with Stik as he took short breaks from his painting to come and check on how his characters looked from street level.

Just a few days after finishing his landmark painting, a short film has come out following Stik in the build up to this mural in which he seeks to establish a community context for his painting. It is a fascinating painting with a fascinating story.

Plus ça Change

Here is a blog post which captures the exciting fizz and change of Shoreditch’s street art but for a variety of reasons mainly related to having too much other exciting street art stuff to write about, it is only being sprung onto the unsuspecting world today.

Shoreditch Street Art Tours recently had the pleasure of guiding several groups of students from Collège M. J. Chombart de Lauwe school in Brittany around the delights of East London’s street art. One of the pieces that really caught the eye of the first group was this beautiful impressionist rainy neon night scene painted by Dan Kitchener, also known as Dank. London, Shoreditch, mural, street art, building site hoarding, Great Eastern St, Dan Kitchener, Dank

photo: Dan Kitchener

Just two hours later, a second group from the school passed the same spot and found Columbian street artist Stinkfish had painted a fresh background over Dank’s piece and was still at that time working on a new piece of art. Stinkfish Work In Progress 1

Stinkfish Work In Progress 1

At the end of that tour, our group walked back past Stinkfish on their way to the coach, and Stinkfish had made considerable progress. London, Shoreditch, mural, street art, building site hoarding, Great Eastern St, Stinkfish, Columbia, Work in progress,

Stinkfish: work in progress

That evening as I cycled home I stopped off to see the finished Stinkfish piece and what a beauty it is.

London, Shoreditch, mural, street art, building site hoarding, Great Eastern St, Stinkfish

Stinkfish – a banger

I noticed that Stinkfish wasn’t the only artist who had been busy that day, French artist David Selor had breezed past during the afternoon and created a brand new piece of work next to Stinkfish’s. Selor was in London for a few weeks last Summer and made a habit of creating charming animal characters with witty slogans, now his fox character is pulling drippy abstract compositions off the hoarding to reveal a black nothingness. London, Shoreditch, mural, street art, building site hoarding, Great Eastern St, David Selor, France, Fox, T shirt, tee shirt

David Selor (Fr)

The next morning, a further group of students from Collège M. J. Chombart de Lauwe came to see the new Stinkfish and David Selor pieces and found yet another artist, London’s The Real Dill starting on a new composition over David Selor. London, Shoreditch, mural, street art, building site hoarding, Great Eastern St, The Real Dill, work in progress

The Real Dill – early doors

The final group later that morning then saw the Stinkfish composition standing next to a freshly completed cartoon fantasy piece by The Real Dill, David Selor’s piece having lasted just over 12 hours!

London, Shoreditch, mural, street art, building site hoarding, Great Eastern St, The Real Dill, work in progress

The Real Dill – Job Done

When French philosopher Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr coined the phrase “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”, roughly translated as “The more things change, the more they say the same”, little did he anticipate that a mural permission broker would arrange to take that so literally!

The changes of course didn’t stop there, just a week later Artista painted one of her signature cartoon toast pieces over The real Dill’s piece and week after that, Stinkfish’s glorious piece was painted over by Irish street artist James Earley.

Artista

James Earley

Photo credits: Dan Kitchener – thanks for kind permission

all other photos: NoLionsInEngland

Bodies on Shoreditch Streets

Nothing quite beats the excitement of coming across unexpected new street art on the back streets of Shoreditch. On my bicycle this afternoon I was delighted to find what appears to be work by Mila K from Sheffield. Now, I have never seen Mila K’s art in Shoreditch before and only became familiar with this artist’s work on my first ever visit to Sheffield last Summer.

street art,installation,painting,mural,Shoreditch, London, artist, Mila K

Mila K

Dotmasters got back to basics hitting Shoreditch and other London areas hard with his Rude Kids stencils last week. I have been finding new examples nearly every day this week and today was no exception, we discovered this little beauty during the morning tour.

street art,installation,painting,mural,Shoreditch, London, artist, Dotmasters, stencil, stencillist, pochoir,

Dotmasters Rude Kids

On the Shoreditch Night Street Art Photography Tour tonight I went into a back yard which I had been in only earlier in the day and found a painting so new in fact the emulsion was still wet. This macabre portraiture is by Corpse, Corpse’s work was first seen in Shoreditch last year and it bore quite a resemblance to Antony Lister’s clown faced super heroes but this looks much more menacing.

street art,installation,painting,mural,Shoreditch, London, artist, Corpse, painting, night, "Night Street Art Photography"

A number of paired paste ups found during the morning tour was an early warning that Corpse is walking the streets of Shoreditch again.

street art,installation,painting,mural,Shoreditch, London, artist, Corpse, paste up,

Corpse paste ups

Multi layer stencillist is exploring political similarities with this juxtaposition of Obama and Kim Jung-On which must be evident to himself if no one else.

street art,installation,painting,mural,Shoreditch, London, artist, Endless, stencil, stencillist, pochoir, multi layer

Obama and Kim Jung On by Endless

This LIchtenstein-esque superhero is tagged Solo, the image itself has been seen on the streets previously by other artists.

street art,installation,painting,mural,Shoreditch, London, artist, Solo

Exciting exciting exciting, keep ’em coming!

La Pandilla – Elepus or Octophant?

This stunning new work by La Pandilla, aka Alexis Diaz from Puerto Rico was looking glorious in the afternoon sun today. Is it an octophant or is it an elepus? Either way this superbly detailed ink beast looks like it’s about to come crashing through the wall!