Tag Archives: spraypaint

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Cardiff Street Art and Graffiti

Any excuse to blow the London vapours from the lungs will do so my travels recently took me West to explore Cardiff street art and graffiti thanks to a cheap rail ticket promotion.  Cardiff is the capital of Wales and, as a specimen of street art informs me, the 6th most “at risk” city in the world from rising water levels.

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Cardiff At Risk – artist unknown

I have previous with Cardiff, having been born there, schooled there and fled from there.  It was a shithole until I left, now look at it!   In the mid 00s when I joined Flickr with its global community of artists, writers and photographers I realised early on that Cardiff has some seriously good spraycan artists, so an art visit was well overdue.  This is not a guide to Cardiff’s street art and graffiti scene, I am certain there is more and there are different artists and other locations.  Think of it as me sharing a snapshot of some of the stuff I happened to find and enjoy on one particular day.

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

My Dog Sighs & others

I headed into the area south of the train station, dark streets where we used to drink and play pool in the old Bristol Hotel, drawn in that direction not by an awareness of any art locations, just simple curiosity at a new exit from the train station which I don’t think existed when I was a kid.

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

N3KOcardiff trans rights stickers

South of the station there was barely a single building I recognised but one thing they never change are the railway bridges so it was nice to find to rough and raw pieces on those familiar surfaces.

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Past Jams

Rmer1, as in “Armour”, stood out in my online remote appreciation of Cardiff’s street art scene, my 150% certainty was that if I did find any Rmer artwork it would be one of his photorealistic portrait pieces.  I was dead pleased when one of the first tags I found was Rmer1.

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Hoxe1 Rmer1 Cardiff

That tag was found on Womanby Street, a drag that screams “diehard 18 year old drinkers from the valleys” and most of the art seemed bar related.  There was some good stuff and when you have talent like Dr Zadok combining with Karm and Rmer the result such as this portrait of 2015 Welsh Music Prize 2015 winner Gwenno Saunders is inevitably impressive.

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Zadok Karm Rmer

After a delicious humus and felafal sourdough in the indoor market a hired bike took me west the short distance to Sevenoaks Park in Grangetown where I found this enormous RIP tribute to deceased graffiti writer NERVE.  The fragmented blockbuster letter outlines served as a frame within which writers paid their respects in a coordinated colour scheme.

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Nerve RIP wall Grangetow

I couldn’t believe my luck in coming across this crisp, clean, colour coordinated graff seemingly painted quite recently given its pristine freshness.  It was quite a surprise when a bit of research revealed it dates back to June 2021, there is absolutely zero chance, almost, of anything lasting that long unscathed up here in London.

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Nerve RIP wall detail

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Nerve RIP wall

One writer who’s style caught my eye in that Nerve tribute and a couple of other spots was Elvs.

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

ELVS Grangetown Cardiff

TIP: When exploring art in a new town, never take the same road twice.  A different route back to the centre led to the chance find of a long extent of graffed up hoardings on the embankment of the River Taff leading to an entrance to the Rugby stadium.  Rugby fans have to have something to piss against I suppose.

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Millenium Stadium Taff Embankment Cardiff

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Newer, Cardiff

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

AMOK Cardiff

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Cesto Cardiff

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Sepr Cardiff

Apart from strange spiky posts covered in furious tags, the pieces on the boards were virtually unblemished with little to no dogging or lining out.  Close inspection of one piece did show evidence of some local beef, lining out had been repaired and the same taking out style deployed against the same writer was observed in several spots across the city.

A longer ride took me through Cardiff’s impressive civic centre towards the Roath area where spectacular murals and cobbled alleyway pieces can be found.

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Lowther Keys Dan Green Cardiff

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Helen Bur, Colour Doomed collab Cardiff 2014

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

City Road ish, Cardiff

Familiar artists abound though the art piece that excited me most was a My Dog Sighs painting in support of Ukraine in which the photorealistic eyeball reflection expresses the explosive horror or a Russian missile attack.  My Dog Sigh’s painting went viral on social media in the early weeks of the current conflict.

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

My Dog Sighs Ukraine

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

My Dog Sighs

With spring light holding up well a random loop up the side of Roath Park then back west hemmed in by the Western Avenue revealed individual isolated art works are to be found by the vigilant eye.

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Alex Pawson

This mural by SPK dating from 2015, survives on a wall which has all the hallmarks of a building extension jerry built on top of an existing garden wall, Boris was a pariah among the righteous even before becoming PM (but you knew that).  It’s the legs of the badger down the badger sett painted where once would have been a garden gate is a use of wall topography that amuses and impresses.

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Boris Johnson fox hunt supporter – SPK

It’s the legs of the badger down the badger sett painted where once would have been a garden gate is a use of wall topography that amuses and impresses.

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Boris Johnson fox hunt supporter – SPK

They say one of the first signs of gentrification is street art moving in; I remember this cut-through to the train station opening some 35 or so years ago, seems Cardiff’s street art lags the gentrification :-))

Cardiff street art and graffiti visited by Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Helen Bur / Wasp Elder Collab

This trip to Cardiff was part art, part graffiti and part nostalgia.   Despite no prior research into locations a random exploration of Cardiff yielded a satisfying quantity of art and for that randomness was actually all the more interesting.  We shall return.

 

All photos Dave Stuart


Pink elephant parade street art by street artist Fat Cap Spraysreflected in car windscreen

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

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

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.

neon pink skull street art painted on an abandoned bank in Shoreditch by street artist David Speed

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.

abstract graffiti colourfields in Shoreditch - artist not known

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 street art characters with nature is a whore written next to them by unknown mystery street artist

Nature Is A Whore

“It was 30 years ago today” that Nirvana released Nevermind, with apologies for that inept abuse of the Beatles’ lyrical mastery and the actual facts (release date Sep 24th 1991).  One of the standout tracks on a standout album is “In Bloom”, Kurt Cobain’s lament on the impact of their growing success and within the song is the line “Nature Is A Whore”.  Nature Is A Whore is the tagline anointing some but not all of a collection of naïve and economical artworks appearing around London over the past few months.

Shoreditch street art characters with nature is a whore written next to them by unknown mystery street artist

The smile is often innocent, almost angelic and frequently the curiously four fingered character offers flowers or seems to relish the beauty in a fresh cut flower.  The crossed arms styling is curious as well, is this a dance move or a gangster style vogue?

Shoreditch street art characters with nature is a whore written next to them by unknown mystery street artist

You have got to chuckle when the buff inadvertently facilitates a tinted homage to the original.

Shoreditch street art characters with nature is a whore written next to them by unknown mystery street artist Shoreditch street art characters with nature is a whore written next to them by unknown mystery street artist

Painting large scale on a couple of currently un-utilised advert walls, the artist is proposing that they are not racist as they have a coloured TV, which at face value looks like a joke available in black and white versions but could easily be a very clever indication of a race blind preference for transvestites.  Rather curious that one version of this has the “British English” spelling of the word “coloured”, the other is wrong! (wink)

Shoreditch street art characters with nature is a whore written next to them by unknown mystery street artist

Shoreditch street art characters with nature is a whore written next to them by unknown mystery street artist

Sometimes the artistic impulse springs from an anonymous mind whose satisfaction would appear to derive from beautification rather than ego gratification.  Thus far, I have no firm idea who these short lived minimalist masterpieces should be attributed to.

Shoreditch street art characters with nature is a whore written next to them by unknown mystery street artist

Here is a sample of just a few, guests have report their own sightings of other specimens in other locations.

Shoreditch street art characters with nature is a whore written next to them by unknown mystery street artist

Only Fools And Cars Go backwards

Shoreditch street art characters with nature is a whore written next to them by unknown mystery street artist

Send A Ugly Girl Flowers

Shoreditch street art characters with nature is a whore written next to them by unknown mystery street artist

All photos: Dave Stuart


Streetart, Shoreditch, ShoreditchStreetArtTours, LondonStreetArt, LondonArtTours, LondonStreetArtTours, ALO, Streetartist, Sculptures, faces, spraypaint,canvas

ALO Street Art and Show

In an urban landscape where portrait street painters are overwhelmingly drawn to either the technical proficiency of photorealism or its diametric opposite cartoonery, ALO’s expressionist fisogs stand out!

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Brick Lane 2020

His street art career started with small paste ups in 2011 and bar a brief flirtation with Paris ALO has lived in London and consistently decorated our streets ever since.

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Untitled – Dalston 2020

ALO has just had a solo show titled “Grace”at the BSMT Space gallery and among the brilliant pieces were copies  of some of his recent street pieces.

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ALO: Marrakech

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ALO: Lunia

His art has been dominated by figures and portraiture and the expressionist paintings in his  show were so enchanting that I made this compilation of some of the many faces he painted.

Being a great fan of ALO I have written a broader appreciation of the Grace show which you can see on Graffoto, my other blog.

Links:

ALO website

BSMT Space website

 

All photos: Dave Stuart


Shoreditch, Urbanart, streetart, shows, gelleries, extinction rebellion, End Of THe Line, NomadicCommunityGardens

Graffestival – Spraycan Art At The Community Gardens This Weekend

Graffestival, a huge spraycan art festival at the Nomadic Community Gardens and surroundings areas just off Brick Lane is happening this weekend.  Painting started today with a frantic burst of wall preparations, rollers, hoists, cans, renewing old acquaintances, sharing beers and gossip, chilling in the glorious sunshine, nodding to heavy beats and drinking red stripe.  With thanks to the artists whose consent we obtained for photos and apologies to those that we didn’t get the chance to interrupt, here are walls, shadow, marks and work in progress.  The festival continues tomorrow (Sunday 22nd).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

All photos: Dave Stuart

 

 

 


London, Shoreditch, street art, street artists, street art tour, Shoreditch street art tour, Brazil, Argentina, Memi Martinez, Veracidade, Reveracidade, Mauro, spraypaint, umbrella

Latin Weather – Latin Street Art

England is experiencing a temporary geo-psyche shift; our footballers think they are Brazil and our weather thinks we are Los Angeles and for the time being we have almost no need for weather forecasts.  This past week Memi Martinez and Veracidade, two street artists from far sunnier countries have made London their temporary home bringing a Latin heatwave of their own.

I don’t know if their presence at the same time is coincidence but any excuse will do to post this picture capturing two international artists in action on opposite sides of the same property.

Memi Martinez is from Argentina and over three days painted a colour scorched surreal cartoon of one three legged being pouring tea into an umbrella masquerading as a teacup held by a mirror image plump thighed “thing”.  It’s about Brits initially spurning umbrellas as an effete French fad before eventually adopting them so ubiquitously that they became almost as British as that other great tradition we appropriated from another culture: a cup of tea.

We had the opportunity several times over three days to bump into this charming visitor and all who came across Memi were overwhelmed by her bright spirit and her generosity, here we see a group of international students from the USA over for a semester excitedly showing off some stickers Memi kindly gave them.

Memi’s stickers

Memi made a small video clip of this group and it appeared on her Instagram as a “story”, lovely to see who pleased the character on the passing truck is with the artist interacting with her new fans.

Memi in action:

Memi worked for three days on this single mural and when you look closely at the solidity of the limbs and the beautiful graduation of the shading on the inside and outside of the cup clearly her meticulous approach paid off.

London, Shoreditch, street art, street artists, street art tour, Shoreditch street art tour, Brazil, Argentina, Memi Martinez, Veracidade, Reveracidade, Mauro, spraypaint, umbrella, Panoramic view, Great Eastern St

Meni Martinez detail

Veracidade aka Mauro from Brazil paints portraits and drops images of houses as a tag.  First sighting was last weekend, a “quick thing” down Brick Lane.

Then a couple more paintings all featuring people raising their eyes to the skies appeared.

Veracidade, also featuring Brazilian artist Milo Tchais (detail of)

Both the artworks above feature a stylised house in the image, Mauro totes his painting gear around in these fabulous pvc bags in the style of the houses that he uses as his tag.

 

This piece is opposite the Pure Evil Gallery and features a lovely “hat tip” to Pure Evil’s “nightmare” series with the long tear running down the face

Two Veracidade artworks, a bag and the artist!

Here are a few of those Veracidade tags that have sprung up around Shoreditch:

Veracidade – also featuring Glor Mowcodelico

Now, I must dash, something about the heat and the colours Memi has brought to London has left me with a craving for a Harvey Wallbanger.

LINKS:

Memi Martinez Instagram

Vercidade Instagram

All photos: Dave Stuart


New 616 art in Shoreditch

Yesterday at about lunchtime I bumped into a figure wearing a kagoule with strings drawn tight around the hood and a 7 month “just back from the Arctic me” beard poking out through the face port.  I greeted the street art legend 616 as he tugged a large wheeled box down Brick Lane.  It might have contained paint; 616 was vague about where he might be heading and I am sure would have been even more vague about the box’s contents.  This is the way it should be.

This morning, Seven Stars Car Park sported a new piece of art by 616.

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616, graff by Vibes RT

A gorgeous multi layered piece arranged across successive stub walls guides the eye to a new set of characters on top a wall, beyond which after a couple of intervening properties lies the graveyard around Christ Church Spitalfields.

From a distance the characters appear to be masquerading as tombstones but closer inspection reveals that eyes and mouths are present as usual.  What to me is not usual is the 6 eyed character on the wall, it was only last year that I noticed 616 introduce a four eyed character for the first time.

tn_WP_20160424_11_38_07_Pro-001

I often praise 616 for the inventiveness of his street art and racking my brains I can’t of too many other artists who create single pieces of street art spread over several surfaces (but, see below), This work he created yesterday refines and repeats a similar piece of work he painted over the same walls last year:

tn_WP_20150531_11_42_38_Pro__highres-001

Knowing 616’s perpetual quest for new mediums and the way he often submerges his identity beneath cryptic clues alluding to the moniker 616, it wouldn’t surprise me if he figures out a way to do a mono eyed character in his leaf shape style and then presents a mono eyed character flanked by two six eyed characters.  Ground, gauntlet…….  c’mon 616!

Here is a piece by Zabou that we looked at on the street art tour this morning, another example of an artist using two different surfaces in a single piece of street art; there are also others that have used this corner shutter configuration.

tn_DSC_1559 copy

All photos: Dave Stuart aka Nolionsinengland


London, Shoreditch, street art, graffiti, tagging, Neoh, freehand, spraypaint, impressionism, cubism.

New Street Art By NEOH

A wall which was virgin brick as we passed at 11am yesterday this morning sported a gorgeous new piece of street art. Neoh is an unusual character with roots firmly planted in the coarser end of graffiti, the emphasis is more on being “up” than on elaborate style.

London, Shoreditch, street art, graffiti, tagging, Neoh, freehand, spraypaint, wall, bridge

Neoh dubs

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Neoh escalator tag

However, when Neoh puts his arty hat on, brilliant impressionist characters emerge including this energetic ballerina conjured into existence last night. The repetition of the cubist tinged faces has resulted in the motion of the ballerina being captured in her head as her whole body pirhouettes.   we get simultaneous front and rear views. This is a girl fully committed to the sinuous motion of the ballet. We are willing to speculate that no mural permission broker was involved in this new one!

London, Shoreditch, street art, graffiti, tagging, Neoh, freehand, spraypaint, impressionism, cubism.

Neoh Flamenco dancer

We have been unstinting admirers not only of Neoh’s graff but the awesome movement and economy in his impressionist dancers.

London, Shoreditch, street art, graffiti, tagging, Neoh, freehand, spraypaint, impressionism, cubism, ballerina

Neoh Ballerina

London, Shoreditch, street art,  graffiti, tagging, Neoh, freehand, spraypaint, impressionism, ballerinas, Hackney Wick

Troupe of Ballerinas by Neoh, Hackney Wick, 2013

It is such a delight to unexpectedly find new pieces of art on the street and Neoh’s speed, attitude and single-minded determination to get up in a variety of different media is really what graffiti AND street art is all about.

All photos: Dave Stuart


Free Art Finds Fresh Home – #365ArtDrops Sean Worrall

Found Art, art left on the streets by artists specifically for members of the public to find and keep for free is always incredibly exciting.  “PLEASE TAKE” says the inscription on the rear of this piece, the invitation could not be more precise.

Shoreditch, London,Street Art,Artist,Free Art,Found Art, Sean Worrall,#365ArtDrops,spraypaint,wood

Please take!

London based artist Sean Worrall has embarked on a 365artdrop project which sees him leaving little nuggets painted on found materials around London for people to collect.

Shoreditch, London,Street Art,Artist,Free Art,Found Art, Sean Worrall,#365ArtDrops,spraypaint,wood

Sean Worrall #365ArtDrops

This little gem is going to get a good home with Daniel and Anat in Tel Aviv

Shoreditch, London,Street Art,Artist,Free Art,Found Art, Sean Worrall,#365ArtDrops,spraypaint,wood

Good find!

We previously found number 22 in the #365artdrop series having a crafty cigarette outside a pub, Sean commented that this piece appeared to have gone off for a beer because he hadn’t dropped it at this spot.

Shoreditch, London,Street Art,Artist,Free Art,Found Art, Sean Worrall,#365ArtDrops,spraypaint,wood

#365ArtDrops number 22

Sean has been connected with a very energetic artist run space in East London and has previously supported causes such as the Save The Southbank Undercroft campaign.   You can find details of Sean’s project and it’s progress HERE (perhaps better in chronological order here) and keep your eyes peeled, you may just spot one yourself if you pay enough attention to your urban surroundings in London

previous examples of some of the gorgeous Found Art that guests on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour have taken home with them can be seen HERE.