Tag Archives: Roa

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Private Street Art Tour For the Price of Public Tour!

This weekend (Sunday 7th June) at last we threw off the lockdown shackles and showed off Shoreditch’s street art to some actual real guests!!

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Roa, Martin Ron, MD and guests

Here’s awesome street art expert and Co-Guide MD discussing on of our favourite artists ALO

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MD talks about Alo

Single household  COVID guideline compliant tours basically give you a 2 hour private tour for the cost of a public group tour, £20 per person – though a minimum charge of £60 applies.  Full details:

  • Up to 5 guests from 1 household
  • Duration 2 hours
  • Tours at 10am and 1pm
  • 10am Tours can be booked on the schedule.  1pm tours are by enquiry.

You can choose when you book whether to start from the goat statue at Spitalfields Market which is where our public tours have always started; or from Old Street where most of our private tours start.

There is a lot of exciting new art to see, here is a tiny selection of new art found in Shoreditch today.

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Subdude NHS

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“I Can’t Breathe”- David Speed

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New Eine

Take a tour – its not like there is much else to do!

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Diggin In The Archives Part 9

In the week we discovered new ways to test your eyesight the photo archive continued to exhibit 20/20 hindsight with visual crackerjacks from the past.

Mr Cenz has a spraypainting pedigree that stretches back over 30 years so it is not surprising that his style has evolved considerably.  He is famous these days for intensely colourful portraits with shafts of light and starbursts, those elements are clearly emerging in this 2013 portrait yet at the same time, it is quite different.

Mr Cenz, Ravey St, 2013

The two seemingly abstract paste ups above on the Grant and Taylor sign represented folded garments by Specter from NY who dropped some art works reflecting on visual aspects of the homeless community when over in 2010 for an exhibition in the Pure Evil Gallery.

Next a pair of east end classics, Sweet Toof and Paul Insect on a paste-up mission around #BrickLane.  That pair of beautiful decaying paste-ups has long gone but this 2013 photo also shows Jonesy’s “Sand Tar Nightmare” from 2012 complete with the original Native American headdress feathers which is still up today.

Sweet Toof, Paul Insect, Jonesy, Fournier St, 2012

Graff snapping mate for many years Joe Epstein aka LDNGraffiti, author of street art book “London Graffiti and Street Art” has teamed up with 9 street artists to raise funds for Great Ormond St Hospital.  Each artist has created a special version of the book by hand painting the cover, so that’s 9 unique versions of the book..

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9 Art Blitzed Books – Unique Covers

Italian artist Giacomo aka RUN paints stunning murals around Shoreditch and North London.  Flat faced characters express surprisingly intense emotion and always at large scale.  This pair of characters competing for the passer-by’s attention dates from 2009.  Needless to say that spot on Hackney Road has no sense of that urban dereliction now.

Run, Hackney Road, 2009

Click HERE for a blogpost with more images, details and link to how to support the fund raiser and maybe win one of these fantastic prizes in the #LDNGOSHLottery, keep an eye out as well for further announcements of more prizes.

This D7606 & C3 collaboration from 2013 found a perfect home on the haphazard accumulation of red and white marks on this Blackall St door.  The featured image at the top of this post is a beautiful piece of pop street art by D7606 from 2013.

D7606 C3 collaboration, Blackall St 2013

Dan Witz is full on old school street artist from New York who has blessed London with impressive street art on several occasions.   Each passion project has been cause driven.  It was Guantanamo in 2013 (1st photo) and his “Empty The Cages” anti animal cruelty project in 2014.   The joined up element between the two visits was the theme of incarceration and cruelty in both.

Dan Witz, Rathbone Place, 2013

I recently cycled through Kings Cross and can report with  pleasure and amazement that the PETA (People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals) installation below  is still in place.  See Graffoto.co.uk Feb 2014 for an appreciation of Dan Witz’s street art contribution to that campaign.

Dan Witz, Kings Cross, 2014

The magical power of art to turn humble domestic artefact into art icon has an honourable lineage that ultimately culminates in Toasters!  Toasters already came up in Week 2 of #DigginInTheArchives but embedded in this bit of #flashback fun is a cruel selection process as a limit of one image only per artist was imposed following the principals of #rulesforbenefitofall #rulesapplytoall (according to government deputy Chief Medical Officer Prof JVT when he broke ranks at the briefing podium to condemn lockdown breaches by unelected shameless creep Cummings).

Thanks again to Joe Epstein’s fundraiser for Great Ormond St Hospital, the Toasters corner of the archive gets forked over a second time.   This stunning appliance from 2010 faced a Roa hare, famously spared the council buff thanks to a public petition.   That green board next to the Toaster was the same property that the Run characters were on in 2009, see above.

Toasters, Roa, Hackney Road, 2010

Every week now it feels like it is time to draw DITA to a close, to get out, do fresh but socially distanced street art spotting.   We are however feeling inclined to err towards the side of the scientific advice and, again in the words of JVT, “not tear the pants out if it”.   DITA daily uploads will continue on the Dave Stuart instagram

Check out the previous Diggin’ In The Archives weekly compendiums starting with week 1 and then hopefully navigating the index to find the rest: DITA 1

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A Decade of Genius Street Art

As we start a new decade a review of a tiny amount of the amazing street art witnessed in the past decade seemed appropriate.

A Bun In Their Hair, ALO, Shoreditch 2014

Here is a slide show of a number of the images that made the final review of the “wild Wonderous and Inventive” art, which is a rather vague way of saying “stuff that wasn’t mentioned in our mural, sculptural or political street art reviews.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The only way to bring to a close this dredging up of our favourite specimens of wild outdoor art is to look back at what Banksy has been up to. Although Banksy produced far less street art in the past decade than in the noughties, on almost all respects other than quantity he continues to be the most important, brilliant and relevant artist in whatever field he chooses.

Banksy Dismaland, 2015

Banksy’s Better In Than Out in New York saw a month long treasure hunt – “hide and seek” combo which cast Banksy as Bonnie And Clyde against the NY mayor, police and press and the world watched with glee but we already knew Banksy would never be caught.

Better Out Than IN, Banksy, New York, photo LunaPark

He also had a major art triumph staging a group shop with a conscience at Dismaland though we already knew Banksy did extraordinary exhibition/experience fusion.

Dismaland, Banksy, Weston Super Mare, 2015

He created a huge mural in Dover in 2017 but we already knew Brexit was a stupid idea.

Banksy, Dover 2017

My favourite Banksy of the decade however was his Les Miserables in Knightsbridge, London’s embassy land.

Tear gassed Cosette, Banksy, Knightsbridge London, 2016

It has the Banksy signature elements, it had the cleverness in repurposing the iconic image of Cosette, it had the impact in terms of global exposure, right opposite the French embassy it combined perfect placement with the “wow, how did he get away with that.” factor.

We did not however know about the French police tear gassing migrant families in the camps in Calais and this was Banksy’s crowning achievement, bringing that shameful episode to wider international attention.

Cosette v French embassy, Banksy, Knightsbridge London, 2016

This selection of photos a part of the selection reviewed and discussed on the Graffoto blog post 2010 – 2019 Wild Wonderous Inventive Street Art

All photos Dave Stuart except LunaPark where noted

It has been a huge pleasure to write 5 reviews of the street art of the past decade which we personally enjoyed.  The Links to those reviews are at the bottom of the Graffoto review.  A specific review of the street art of 2019 might appear shortly.

 

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New Street Art In Shoreditch At The Weekend

We have just had another exciting weekend of fresh new street art created by local and international street artists around Shoreditch this weekend and all of the pieces in this selection were seen as “work in progress” by guests of the Shoreditch Street Art Walk.

Belgian artist ROA is in London for his tremendous new show at Stolen Space Gallery and on Saturday not even a mid afternoon downpour put off painting the stunning scary looking flea.

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ROA work In Progress, also feat. Tizer ID

Nearby, British artist Pure Evil continued his 1-a-day-for-365-days project with this stunning rampant flock of evil bunnies.

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Pure Evil Bunnies

The artist Sell Out played to the “3 Lions on the shirt” theme prior to England’s shock defeat to Italy with this little flotilla of butterflies on a Rolls Royce on Brick Lane (you read that correct!). We have seen street art on cars before but not quite like this before!

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Sell Out v. Spirit Of Ecstasy

Pedro Saci from Brazil got busy with a quick one on new hoardings, the structure of his work, particularly the way the mouth is done reminds me a lot of Mymo from Berlin who was here back in 2009.

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Pedro Saci, Sao Paulo, Brazil

In the background you can see parts of the art by Cept (UK), Run (It), Faith47 (S. Afr), Mysterious Al (UK) and Rone (Aus).

This busy weekend caused much excitement for the guests of the Shoreditch Street Art Tour!

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Street Artist Roa – New Show In London

Roa’s new installation based show opened at Stolen Space Gallery last night and is just as dark and rough and briliant as you’d hope for from this star.

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Virtually all of the images here look like ROA could just as easily have painted these on the streets as indoors in a gallery and it has been a while since there was a show that managed that trick.

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For a full appreciation and lots more pictures head over to my personal blog here

Banksy v Roa – the World Cup’s got nothing on this!

Who would win in a fight between a Roa hedgehog and a Banksy rat?  We might find out as there’s a fascinating week in prospect in the world of London galleries who show artists who are more at home on outdoor walls.

 BANKSY: The Unauthorised Retrospective, Curated by Steve Lazarides

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Banksy canvas: Avon and Somerset Constabulary; image courtesy Sothebys website

Steve Lazarides in conjunction with, or thanks to, or despite Sotheby’s is staging a “selling show” of Banksy print and canvas artwork. Steve Lazarides is famously known as the svengali who co-piloted spaceship Banksy to enormous heights until the relationship ended a few years ago. “He’d hate it. It’s about as far removed from something he would contemplate as you could get” says Lazardis though it’s probably not as far off the Banksy Christmas card list as a show exhibiting Banksy’s street works in a boutique hotel basement.

What you will get are about 70 prints and canvasses by Banksy, supposedly the largest exhibition of his work ever but it will be asurprise if it matches the scale of the epic 2009 Bristol Museum and Art Gallery show (which of course was “authorised” Banksy).

Chances of getting to see the private view are virtually zilch, especially if you are reading this the day after tomorrow. “Go and see it when it’s quiet” said my friend on the inside. The last time anything “quiet” happened with Banksy was back in ‘05 when our whole family trotted along to the Crude Oils show with the live rats and just walked in off the street over the weekend. It may be a little different this time.

11 June 2014 – 25 July 2014

Monday – Friday 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Saturday 28 & Sunday 29 June 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Sotheby’s S|2 space

31 St. George Street, London W1S 2FJ

ROA: ‘PROJECTUM 06’

Roa has to be one of the few street art talents who can rank up alongside Banksy and he has an original show opening head to head in London in the same week as the Banksy retrospective!

ROA first exhibited in London at Pure Evil’s gallery in 2008, a show that propelled him to stardom as we fell in love with these dishevelled, skinned and disembowelled creatures painted on anything but conventional canvas. Stolen Space’s first show in what has now become their home was the cracking 2012 Hynagogia staged before the gallery became the cleaner, whiter two roomed permanent gallery home it is now. This return to Stolen Space sees the Belgian painter create another installation based show which is sure to have us gasping at its unconventional surfaces and grubby dirty creatures. Can’t wait.

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“Deer”; image courtesy Stolen Space

MAX RIPPON: “Pentimento”

Also opening at the same time in the other Stolen Space room is “Pentimento” by Max Rippon aka NY street artist/graffiti writer RIPO. Expect top quality graphic art with a graffiti twist.

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max Rippon aka “RIPO”; image courtesy Stolen Space

A huge heap of talent there in those two rooms. Both shows:

13 June – 6 July (private view 12th, 6pm)

STOLEN SPACE GALLERY
17 Osborn Street
London E1 6TD

 

TRUST.ICON: “Tears of a Clown”

Meanwhile, on the far side of town, Trust.Icon opens Tears Of A Clown, RSVP required. Some of Trust.Icon’s street artsuch as this recent location specific single layer stencil image is top notch. Some not so!

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Trust.Icon (photo: nolionsinengland)

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Tears Of A Clown

12 – 26 June (private view 6.30 pm, 12th)

Graffik Gallery,

284 Portobello Road,

London, W10 5TE.