Tag Archives: paste ups

June Busting Out Street Art All Over

June is Summer’s portal, ushering in hazy sunshine, drinks with friends and a bump in street art action. That’s the theory; June in London this year was on the whole rather grey and overcast, here are some of the artworks that leavened the damp squib the month became.

paste up street art of rock star Debbie Harry from Blondie by Postmans Art

Debbie Harry – The Postman’s Art

Nathan Bowen has been on a recent flurry of art activity, one particular piece I wanted to include falls foul of the very strict rigid inflexible “June and June only” qualifying period set for this post but thankfully there are other equally lovely ones.

permissioned mural street by Nathan Bowen and Harry Blackmore

Nathan Bowen & Harry Blackmore

In this artwork created in Pedley St, the latest graffiti hotspot, Pablo Fiasco fuses the first African American character to appear in the Peanuts cartoon strip with imagery inspired by the Jimmy Cliff film “The Harder They Come”, a combination every bit as brilliant as Fiasco’s masterful stencil technique.

stencil street art by Pablo Fiasco featuring Peanuts character Franklin and scenes from The Harder They Fall Jimmy Cliff

Peanuts character Franklin by Pablo Fiasco

Pablo Fiasco Jimmy Cliff detail

Grace Kelly popping into a British phone box would be an iconic moment if it ever happened, D7606 is quite happy to do the imagining for us. Let’s hope “indigo the art dog” from New York knows how to behave.

pop art style paste up street art with Grace Kelly in a phone box by street artist D7606

Phone box multiples with Grace Kelly – D7606

Seeing Coloquix art in London is relatively unusual but it always reminds me of the wonderful time I had in Sheffield exploring art in derelict buildings after travelling up there for a gallery show by Aida, which was the first time I encountered Coloquix’s art.

paste up street art female figure bouncing on space hopper by street artist Coloquix

female with space hopper – Coloquix

Woskerski and David Speed have alternated in the use of this particular spot in the past month, this fried egg by Woskerski was sensational.

Photorealistic fried egg painted on a building site hoarding in Shoreditch by street artist Woskerski

Fried Egg – Woskerski

At a nearby location this skull by David Speed was beautifully framed in the structure of the bus shelter.

David Speed

At a more formal level and not normally the kind of art that Shoreditch Street Art Tours covers, Art Night has been significantly redesigned for 2021. It used to be a one night event in London involving a crazy evening pounding around one off art events in galleries in institutions and it was terribly easy to actually spend the whole evening stuck in a queue for the most popular elements. For 2021 the event is strung out over a month and has been decentralised with much activity outside London. Supporting a theme small acts of personal and collective defiance and self determination we had this biting feminist advert from the Guerrilla Girls.

Art Night 2021 billboard art by Guerrilla Girls

Guerrilla Girls -Female Artists

As an aside, whenever I am under extreme pressure to name a favourite piece of street art I often fall back to a piece by James Cauty in 2008 which mirrored the street but with the devastating ego blow in which my personal significance was accurately measured out by my invisibility, it was at the same spot.

Favourtie piece of street art ever, billboard art in Shoreditch

TRA TON SI SIHT – Jimmy Cauty, 2008

This building site hoarding is at the site of the former art hang out known as the Foundry, the Shoreditch location where a new 27 story hotel is being constructed where once was one of the largest Banksy’s in London. It mainly hosts graffiti, this sublime abstract artwork seems to have the hand, meaning can control, of a graffiti writer but looks to be abstract to the point of no letterform at all.

artist not known

That building site is now emerging above ground level, it is quite scary to reflect on the fact that it will be a 27 story building when complete.

Art Otel new building under construction in Shoreditch with graffiti on hoardings Awards, Fugs, Mase, Krops et al

Legal graffiti on building site hoardings – Awards, Fugs, Mase, Krops et al

all photos: Dave Stuart

Shoreditch Paste Up Frenzy!

Shoreditch is full of little corners where street art survives and accumulates in layers, like a busy kitchen pinboard. Last week one such canvas near Columbia road was transformed by, in no particular order, Donk, Skeleton Cardboard, Rider and Tommy Fiendish into the beautiful paste up collage you see in the feature image above.

Streetart, Shoreditch, ShoreditchStreetArtTours, LondonStreetArt, LondonArtTours, LondonStreetArtTours, , Streetartist, paste up, Paste ups, portraits, canvas, Donk, Rider, zombiesquegee, Tommy Fiendish, Skeleton Cardboard

L-R Rider, Donk

Skeleton Cardboard

L-R Rider, Tommy Fiendish, Skeleton Cardboard

Whether neglect or tolerance is the reason why the property owner has allowed street art to accumulate, mutate and flourish on this canvas is a matter for another day but it is interesting to look at just a few examples of how the patina of this door’s surface has evolved down the years.

A year Ago in November 2019 the door looked like this:

Feat Anne-laure Maison, Donk, Arrex Skulls, Subdude, Fosh, Citty Kitty, Shuby, Noriaki, Silvio Alino, D7606

Just a week ago a fair portion of the art present in 2019 was showing a steely determination to cling on in spite of tempest and subsequent creatives.

Nov 2020: Feat DaddyStreetFox vs Anne-laure Maison, Donk, Subdude, Fosh, Citty Kitty, Shuby, Noriaki, Silvio Alino, Bento Ghoul, Voxx Romana, Pyramid Oracle, D7606

The Pyramid Oracle paste up still visible in parts in 2019 and 2020 has already lasted since 2015, thanks mainly to its height.

2015: Pyramid Oracle, also feat Sweet Toof, Donk, Voxx Romana, Noriaki, Anna Laurini, Ema, D7606

HIN was busy around Shoreditch 2012 – 2014 and if you looked at the bottom of the door in 2013 you would see a HIN character with an Aida face created from her infamous “East End Still Sucks” response to the Hackney Olympics. That originally started out as a “go vegan” augmentation by HIN of Aida’s screen printed tiger paste up as shown in the following shot, the HIN body was still visible last week!

2013: Sweet Toof, Aida, Kid Acne, Ema, Donk, Angry Face, HIN

Finally, back in 2012 this canvas was one of many to host the Sweet Toof/Paul Insect street group show. This photo also features a framed print by New York street artist Gaia in a walk on part!

2012: Sweet Toof, Paul Insect, Aida, Hin & Aida collab, Kid Acne, Ema; print by Gaia

As always the beauty of the art process here is the absence of the selective and restrictive eye of a curator, an organiser.

A few years ago a permissioned wall on Hanbury Street triggered a similar “longitudinal” review of the changes time wrought on that particular canvas, click here.

Finally, if you have enjoyed this look back through a street art time machine why not put an end to that lockdown stir crazy feeling by joining the author on a tour of Shoreditch’s street art, click here

All photos: Dave Stuart

24 Hours – Street Art Changes

Almost every day Shoreditch Street Art Tours comes across new art on the streets and it is a privilege to be able to reveal constantly changing art through the tours and through our social media channels like Instagram and Facebook. Last weekend a huge quantity of new art was found on Sunday which we believe was created since the previous visit 24 hours earlier, this is a little insight into the extent to which the street art can change in just one day.

Paste up by Brighton based artists The Postman Art proved very popular when they first appeared in Shoreditch in November last year so it was lovely to find a number of new works from them on Sunday morning, The framing and the brickwork make the Ewan McGregor particularly photogenic.

Shoreditch, London, Streetart, paste ups, change, ephemeral, street art tour, tour guide, The Postman's Art

Trainspotting era Ewan McGregor – The Postman Art

Robert Smith – legend! The Postman Art

Amy Winehouse (small!) – The Postman Art

Jean Michel Basquiat -The Postman Art

It became apparent on Saturday that there was going to be a new body of work from The Postman Art in Shoreditch when we disturbed a bit of daytime action by this duo the day. Photo used with The Postman Art’s blessing – many thanks.

The Postman Art in action

Also new on the walls was work by Winniemmay, as a group we did spot the artist installing a few of these on Saturday, so it was nice to see the finished articles.

Shoreditch, London, Streetart, paste ups, change, ephemeral, street art tour, tour guide, WinnieMmay

I roll and fall – Winniemmay

Winniemmay put one of her paste ups over a large freehand painted portrait she did late last year but had accumulated a number of tags and stencils, she told us “everyone else has gone over me, why can’t I?”

Let’s get messy you & me – Winniemmay

We love Uberfub’s sequined skulls and there evidently have been more than one dance macabre over the past week. A couple of skulls born early last week (instagram) had disappeared by Saturday, been laid to rest perhaps. On Sunday the largest sequinned skull I have seen loomed over Brick Lane reminding us to “Scrap Brexit”.

Shoreditch, London, Streetart, paste ups, change, ephemeral, street art tour, tour guide, Uberfubs,

Scrap Brexit – Uberfubs

On Saturday morning we came across a new sculpture by the Italian duo UrbanSolid. It was as single brain emitting a wifi hotspot signal, very clever. It was also, as you can see below “signed”. Overnight that single brain hotspot had grown to a multi coloured quartet.

Shoreditch, London, Streetart, paste ups, change, ephemeral, street art tour, tour guide, UrbanSolid

UrbanSolid Saturday 1piece

UrbanSolid 4UP on Sunday

Benjamin Irritant highlighted his loathing of the “want it all, want it now” society we live in with this message in screaming capital letters nicely framed on a distressed door panel, again on Brick Lane. Several other new paste ups by Benjamin were spotted.

Shoreditch, London, Streetart, paste ups, change, ephemeral, street art tour, tour guide, Benjamin Irritant

CONSUME DESTROY TOMORROW TODAY – Benjamin Irritant

Finally, a few dental additions appeared in Shoreditch on Sunday.

Sweet Toof

On Sunday I spotted 28 new pieces of street art that I had not seen before despite having had a good look at all those walls just the day before. This was just a small sample of Shoreditch’s street art hinterland, there was almost certainly much more art put up on other walls in the area. This daily evolution and transformation of the street art is typical of Shoreditch, now it’s your turn to go out and enjoy it!

Links:

The Postman Art Instagram

Winniemmay Instagram

Uberfubs Instagram

UrbanSolid instagram

Benjamin Irritant Instagram

Sweet Toof Instagram

All photos Dave Stuart (Instagram)

Ludo In London

A few weeks ago French street artist Ludo visited London and put up three large paste ups in his signature style. There are a little north of Shoreditch but were well worth making the journey to find.

One of the pieces found a very interesting connection with the owner of the business whose wall Ludo’s floral grenade adorns. Len Maloney, proprietor of JC Motors LNM faces a battle to save his business in the face of massive inflation busting rent and rate rises on his premises and felt that the grenade in the flower captured exactly how he feels. In a quote for Graffoto Len said “I was puzzled at first by this huge flower but I stepped back and realised the flower was growing a grenade. TfL have put up my rent and Hackney Council under pressure from central Government are jacking up the business rates, I have a real fight to keep this business that I have worked so hard for over the years going. My staff would be unemployed, apprentices might not finish their apprenticeships, opportunities for future apprenticeships and employment will disappear. I feel I could explode and the artist’s grenade flower seems to capture how I feel. TfL are about to pull the pin!”

Ludo, London, Street art, East London Trades Guild, Paste ups, flowers, weapons, connections,

Left to right: Jay, Peter, Singh, Hakeem and Len outside JC Motors, Stean St, Haggerston

When asked why he chose this spot for this piece of art, Ludo told Graffoto “the spot just felt great for me visually…from the barbed wire, the bricks, textures…that’s how I find my spots as I don’t really know what’s going on inside. The only thing that motivates me is to tell a story and the background is as important as the artwork”. So, that Len saw such a specific relevance in the artwork to him and his team is pure serendipity; “good thing about art is you take it as it touches you” says Ludo.

There is more about the background to that story and flashbacks to brilliant art Ludo has put up on London’s streets in the past decade on Graffoto (link).

Links:

Ludo website

East London Trades Guild

All photos: Dave Stuart

Manyoly At Large

Last weekend I found some lovely new street art in Shoreditch, that is always an exciting thing and of course I want to share it with you. This isn’t about a couple of Banksys appearing nearby in the City Of London, this is about the beautiful colourful portraiture of French street artist Manyoly.

Street art, Shoreditch, London, Manyoly, paste ups, portrait, colours

Manyoly Sep 2017

Manyoly’s paste ups first appeared in London just before Christmas last year and charmed all who came across them.

Manyoly Dec 2016

Such was the positive reception Manyoly has already been back several times and on her most recent trip Manyoly beautified Shoreditch with several more very large pieces.

Manyoly Sep 2017

Manyoly told Shoreditch Street Art Tours that she has been passionate about Women’s issues since her early teens and her bright colourful female portraits are a way of capturing a woman’s energy.

Manyoly Dec 2016

Manyoly eschews famous people, “we have enough people on earth to never need to paint them” she said and her paintings are fusions of various women she has seen on the street, often mixing features from different races and ethnic backgrounds in the one portrait.

Manyoly stickers can be seen on surfaces in Shoreditch if you look hard enough.

Manyoly April 2017

Guests on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour hear about the challenge Manyoly faces pasting up irregular shaped paste ups with fronds of paper protruding around the edges, certainly its a bit tricker than pasting up A4 rectangles of paper. This high speed timelapse from Manyoly showing her pasting up a very large portrait on Great Eastern Street is a fascinating insight into how a street artist breaks the task down into a sequence of steps.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Manyoly (@manyoly)

For more about Manyoly’s art on the streets and hanging indoors check out her website

All photos Dave Stuart except the timelapse via Manyoly’s instagram page

DR CREAM PROCLAIMS SPRING

We love signs of Spring! Today London bathes in well above seasonal average temperatures and blue skies, the cherry blossom has been out for several weeks and street art feels warmth in its bones.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, tours, Dr Cream, springbot, Spring, linoprint, linocut, animation, stopframe, timelapse, Shoreditch street art tours, paste ups,

Springbot by Dr Cream

Last Sunday Dr Cream heralded Spring literally when he introduced his Springbots to the streets of Shoreditch. These jagged looking characters, linocuts on hand torn paper appeared in several locations around Brick Lane.

Springbot by Dr Cream

As usual for Dr Cream the final “art” in his project comes in the stop frame animation seen online not on the walls, here is his Springbot in animated action created by photographing the Springbots he pasted up on the streets.

Spring is here for sure – hip hip hurray!

Springbot by Dr Cream also feat The Rolling Fool, The Cat Rider and Robot Shark Army

All photos Dave Stuart

Artist Link: Dr Cream

Mexican Street Artists In Shoreditch

A clutch of Mexican artists have just passed through London and created some beautiful art on Shoreditch’s walls.

Mazatl has placed some classic wood cut and linocut prints on the streets, classic in the sense that this is very much from the template provided by Swoon and Elbow Toe in the late 2000s.

Maxatl – El Hogar

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, paste ups, Linocut, Maxatl, Said Dokins, Acuro, Fusca, Mexico,

Mazatl – Shoreditch

Mazatl had a busy evening or two out with British screen print paste up artist Donk and Columbian artist Stinkfish, placing their work in many locations together, probably none more spectacular than this:

Donk, Stinkfish, Maxatl

Said Dokins is an artist who like Mazatl features campaigns for social justice at the heart of his art. Alive refers to a situation in Mexico regarding the “disappearance” of a group of students, wanted back alive. The calligraphy is stunning.

Said Dokins – Alive

Maxatl and Said Dokins were in town to participate with Mexican compatriots Acuro and Fusca in a four person group show at Hoxton gallery. The show opened last week and after this moring’s tour I was able to pop in to catch this excellent show for the first time. The woodcut and lino cut prints by maxatl are stunning and the fact that he issues work through justseeds.org in the States tells me his work places social conscience in the foreground. Here is a selection of photographs of art in the show:

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There is also a set of three night photographs of Said Dokins doing some light painting, we have seen light graffiti before but I have never seen light calligraphy like this, it’s well worth popping by Hoxton Gallery at its new location for that.

Said Dokins

Show details:

Graphictti

Said Dokins, Maxatl, Acaro, Fusca

Hoxton gallery

59 Old Street (same block as “Look Mum No Hands”, the City Road end of Old St)

Ends: TBC

Street Artist Skeleton Cardboard Brings Day Of The Dead Early

A burst of activity by English street artist Skeleton Cardboard resulted in the discovery of a number of new nuggets by several Shoreditch Street Art Tours over the weekend.

We found the above painted doors yesterday morning on a route which we hadn’t explored since Saturday morning. A pair of skeletons exhort us to abandon various false media, perhaps we have to learn from their example, look where too much TV, too much responding to the junk mail, living on the never never got them!
Skeleton cardboard is not one of those globe trotting street art mega stars who gets high profile permissioned murals where ever he goes round the world, he has been doing small and generally witty pieces on Shoreditch walls and we can see a clear trajectory of improving street art over the past two years or so.

Just a couple of weeks ago Skeleton Cardboard had a solo show in Monty’s Bar on Brick Lane. The walls were peppered with dark, day-of-the-dead skeletal characters who mocked those stern proclamations prohibitions issued by various authority figures or found on product packaging which we are expected to read and heed. “Nothing of value stored in here” or “invalid if opened” takes on a darker meaning when juxtaposed with a grinning skull on a dancing skeleton.

A couple of tour groups over the weekend also found new paste ups of skeletons painted on found vintage magazine paper. The magazine in question was a supplement to Amateur Gardening, a respectable gardening periodical it seems and the content was Percy Thrower’s picture guide, to what isn’t stated but we guess gardens. There is no date on the paper but Percy Thrower passed away in 1988, he bestrode the worlds of TV and horticulture like a garden centre goliath but those were days when a man mimicking various bird calls was prime time TV.

Good street art pops off its background and Skeleton Cardboard has certainly found a couple of gorgeous locations for placing these paste ups.

We have previously found free art by Skeleton Cardboard on the streets, see here

ACE Start to 2014? Exciting Street Art Competition

Take a tour with Shoreditch Street Art Tours anytime from 1 Dec 2013 to 5 Jan 2014 and be in with a chance to win A.CE artwork!

A.CE is one of London’s finest street artists. He has been active on the streets of London for over 10 years and was first pick when our principal guide Dave NoLionsInEngland was asked to put together an article on Shoreditch’s top street artists. A.CE’s colourful collaged paste ups have always featured prominently on Shoreditch Street Art Tours and if you want to get an idea of the excitement that lies behind the clandestine dark art of illegal pasting, you could not do better than watch the short film on his website of A.CE in action in London.

We are excited to announce that A.CE has generously given us a street quality original artwork for Shoreditch Street Art Tours to offer as a prize to its wonderful guests. All tour guests who take a tour in the month of December (and that tiny bit of January which is basically still holiday) will be entered automatically into a prize draw to be made on Monday 6^th of January 2014. That’s one entry per person not per booking!. This wonderful prize will be mailed in a nice tube to the winner.

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An A.CE a way to start 2014!

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