French street artist Gregos was spotted back in Shoreditch this weekend in the company of Nemi UHU, the fish tile creator. This first came to our attention with the surprise finding of a fat faced portrait sculpture bursting through a wall on Brick Lane last Friday.

colourful grimace

Gregos first put his work up in London last February when he and a group of 10 other street artists, all friends of C215, came to London to launch “Vitry Ville Street Art: L’aventure continue”, a new book celebrating the art in C215’s home town. He put up 50 self portrait sculptures of varying sizes. There are seven basic portrait castings of Gregos’ own face in a variety of poses, each installation is decorated according to mood, location and whim.

The one we saw most of last year was rudely poking its tongue out at the English, that may have been just a happy accident from the French artist’s point of view as this sculpture was created in 2006 when Nicolas Sarkozy was President of France. Gregos was most definitely not a supporter and the rude tongue portrait was designed as a message and personal insult from Gregos to Sarkozy.

Oi, Sarkozy!

Gregos’ ambition is to put up another 50 sculptures on this visit so there should be plenty of sculpture spotting opportunities around Shoreditch and Camden where he has been know to visit so far.  On Sunday, Gregos installed and painted a new sculpture in Shoreditch providing passersby with a grand spectator sport. Even a cruise-by from the police didn’t stop him.

‘scuze me, has anyone seen Gregos?