Tag Archives: Stencil

Banksy, street art, stencil, Les Miserables, Knightsbridge, London, French Embassy, Calais, Refugees, Calais Jungle

Banksy vs French Embassy In London

After a long long wait (since mid 2012 actually) Banksy has sent us scrambling with a new piece of street art in London.

Banksy, street art, stencil, Les Miserables, Knightsbridge, London, French Embassy, Calais, Refugees, Calais Jungle

It is a stunning piece, combining political content, perfect placement and the big “wow – how did he pull that off?” factor.

Banksy, street art, stencil, Les Miserables, Knightsbridge, London, French Embassy, Calais, Refugees, Calais Jungle

The piece references the gassing of refugees in the Calais Jungle by French Police earlier this month.  It is placed right opposite the French Embassy, under the watchful gaze of their armed security guards and CCTV cameras.

Banksy, street art, stencil, Les Miserables, Knightsbridge, London, French Embassy, Calais, Refugees, Calais Jungle

Sadly this morning developers refurbishing the premises the art is place on were implementing a plan to preserve the work and solve health and safety issues arising from its placement, i.e., they were going to have it.  The removal attempt was temporarily aborted and they have resorted to covering it up with plywood.  so relieved to have got there in time.

Banksy, street art, stencil, Les Miserables, Knightsbridge, London, French Embassy, Calais, Refugees, Calais Jungle

There is a more detailed assessment I have written on Graffoto

all photos: Dave Stuart aka NoLionsinEngland


Otto Schade: Busy In Shoreditch

London dwelling Chilean street artist Otto Schade was busy yesterday replacing older Otto Schade works with new.  Continuing his theme of kids and weaponry, we get the chilling sight of a mother with her two children caught in the cross hairs of a rifle’s telescopic sight.

London, Shoreditch,street art, street artist, Otto Schade, stencil, Chile, tour, tours, walk,walks

This replaced a piece with young kids firing catapults in a one sided battle with military attack helicopters.  About a week ago this one was defaced with the tag “Fashion Is Fake”, Otto was quick to replace tagged with new.

London, Shoreditch,street art, street artist, Otto Schade, stencil, Chile, tour, tours, walk,walks

2014

The other piece painted yesterday has armed children taking on a court jester.

London, Shoreditch,street art, street artist, Otto Schade, stencil, Chile, tour, tours, walk,walks

 

This replaced an unfinished and rather half baked image from the same theme series.

London, Shoreditch,street art, street artist, Otto Schade, stencil, Chile, tour, tours, walk,walks

2013

Nice to see Otto busy in Shoreditch creating a quality of stencilled artwork which owes little to the rush of stencil bombing and a lot to accomplished stencilled street art.


Shoreditch, London, Street art, stencil, Bambi, Michael Brown, Ferguson, Missouri, “Don’t do it”, “Just Do it”, “Don’t Shoot”

Bambi Hits Shoreditch Against Ferguson Missouri Cops

London street artist Bambi has created a powerful new stencilled piece of street art on a ”virgin” (bare brick, un-painted) wall in a high profile location in Shoreditch.

The subject is Michael Brown, though the image looks more like Obama (the ears?) repeated 5 times in a manner which ironically is a bit reminiscent of Warhol’s multiple gun toting Elvis image . The wall is right opposite Cargo night club and sits facing a couple of famous Bansky images, which also reminds us that Bambi has been often acclaimed (without foundation) as the female Banksy.

Shoreditch, London, Street art, stencil, Bambi, Michael Brown, Ferguson, Missouri, “Don’t do it”, “Just Do it”, “Don’t Shoot”

Bambi is an interesting artist in so far as she collects column inches by the gazzillion (have a few more on us) yet shuns the normal street art capitol of Shoreditch in favour of North London locations such as Islington and Camden. Her repertoire is dominated by popular contemporary female icons and a dry sense of hmour and this has been sufficient to win her a loyal fanbase stretching way beyond the normal “scene” collectors”.

Shoreditch, London, Street art, stencil, Bambi, Michael Brown, Ferguson, Missouri, “Don’t do it”, “Just Do it”, “Don’t Shoot”

“DON’T SHOOT” screams large blood red stencilled lettering repeated across Obama’s portrait and the logo on his clothing reads “Don’t Do it”. 100 yards away at the corresponding location on the next alley, Nikelab’s Shoreditch  premises proclaim “Just Do It” on a railway bridge wall in huge letters.  The raised hand brings some ambiguity to the image, is it “stop”, or is it a greeting?

The text around the images reads

“You abuse your powers again and again

Another innocent unarmed soul is murdered in your name

Filthy blue lies flow and flow

You shot him six times for just jaywalking home

Left in a pool of blood on the street

But you think it’s just another day on the beat

Come on justice must be done or anarchy will bite you on the bum

Bambi”

 

Update: It seems Bambi returned to make her message clearer by repeating the poetic refrain on the black surface of the building next to her stencil artwork. It wasn’t there in the original photographs, indeed it wasn’t there when we passed on Sunday at lunchtime but lo, come Monday lunchtime there was the fresh addition right under a sign warning “You are being filmed, if you graffiti our building you will be prosecuted”.

Shoreditch, London, Street art, stencil, Bambi, Michael Brown, Ferguson, Missouri, “Don’t do it”, “Just Do it”, “Don’t Shoot”

The clearer surface means we can now update the text above where it wasn’t legible before.

Sadly, the cops aren’t learning much as the news comes through today that Graffiti writer Delbert Rodriguez Gutierrez died in Miami yesterday after being mown down by a cop in a car.  The president of the Miami Police union was reported to have said “..for every action there’s a reaction. If he would have not been committing a crime and then running from law enforcement, this could have been avoided.”

The owners of that particular wall aren’t keen to join in the street art fun and by Tuesday evening, the fresh work had been buffed – painted black. They have previous in hiding their sense of humour under a bushel, this retort by Smif 6 years ago didn’t last long either.

Shoreditch, London, Street art, stencil, Bambi, Michael Brown, Ferguson, Missouri, “Don’t do it”, “Just Do it”, “Don’t Shoot”

all images: NoLionsInEngland

 


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

London,Shoreditch,street art,walks,walking,tour,tours,Banksy,Roa,Trust.Icon,stencil,art

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.

London,Shoreditch,street art,walks,walking,tour,tours,Banksy,Roa,Trust.Icon,stencil,art

“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.

London,Shoreditch,street art,walks,walking,tour,tours,Banksy,Roa,Trust.Icon,stencil,art

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!

London,Shoreditch,street art,walks,walking,tour,tours,Banksy,Roa,Trust.Icon,stencil,art

Trust.Icon (photo: nolionsinengland)

London,Shoreditch,street art,walks,walking,tour,tours,Banksy,Roa,Trust.Icon,stencil,art

Tears Of A Clown

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

Graffik Gallery,

284 Portobello Road,

London, W10 5TE.


Jef Aerosol New London Street Art 2014

French stencil legend Jef Aerosol surprised the Shoreditch Street Art Tour when he strolled past in a hurry after creating some fresh street art. By chance we happened to meet right at a spot where in 2008 Jef Aerosol put up a long lasting stencil of John Lennon and Mick Jagger.

Jef Aerosol,London, Shoreditch, street art,graffiti,tour,guide,guided,walk,John Lennon, Mick Jagger

Brimful of excitement, the group was amazed later to find a new piece of Jef Aerosol work on the streets. This pasted image shows two Moroccan Gnawa musicians, Jef visited Morocco last month and it made a deep impression on him and the composition is an interesting addition to the many popular musical legends who have been a mainstay of his work.

 

Jef Aerosol,London, Shoreditch, street art,graffiti,tour,guide,guided,walk,Morocco,musicians,gnawa,stencil, paste up

Jef Aerosol – Moroccan Gnawa musicians

Further East Jef has done an even better piece of art on the dilapidated and boarded up exterior of an old fishmongers. The images are stencilled onto the wall, not pasted and in addition to a couple of his urchin children there are two fishes rising up and escaping their normal aquatic boundaries, and interesting response to the former use of the site.

Jef Aerosol,London, Shoreditch, street art,graffiti,tour,guide,guided,walk,stencil, flying fish

Jef Aerosol,London, Shoreditch, street art,graffiti,tour,guide,guided,walk,stencil, flying fish Jef Aerosol,London, Shoreditch, street art,graffiti,tour,guide,guided,walk,stencil, flying fish Jef Aerosol,London, Shoreditch, street art,graffiti,tour,guide,guided,walk,stencil, flying fish

You can view a photographic survey of Jef’s London street art over the years  here.

Jef has had several significant shows in the UK over the past decade, our favourite was probably Spray It Loud in Islington back in 2008.

all photos: NoLionsInEngland


London,Shoreditch,street art,free art,found art,Alex Trema, French, street artist, stencil, stencilist

French Street Artist Alex Trema Free Art Found!

 

French street artist Alex Trema is in London placing pieces of free art on the streets as part of a project he dubs “Take me”.  Today Shoreditch Street Art Tours’ guests came across a piece of Alex’s art packaged up on the streets and they did exactly that, they took it!

London,Shoreditch,street art,free art,found art,Alex Trema, French, street artist, stencil, stencilist

Alex conceived his project while in New York in late Spring of 2013 and has placed free art in Paris, Marseille, Napoli, Lille, Milan and now London!   The London version consists of an image of the late West London icon Joe Strummer, singer with The Clash.

London,Shoreditch,street art,free art,found art,Alex Trema, French, street artist, stencil, stencilist

Ours now!

Alex likes to see the public becoming a part of his project with their participation in photos of them with the art on the streets, so in his terms our guests are officially a piece of art, but they knew that anyway!

London,Shoreditch,street art,free art,found art,Alex Trema, French, street artist, stencil, stencilist

La Famille Javary

French stencil artists remain a cut above!

Previous “Free Art” found on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour include works by Mr Farenheit and Skeleton Cardboard

Web link: Alex Trema

All photos by NoLionsInEngland using a Nokia Lumia 1020


Clet Abraham, Shoreditch,London,Street Art,artist,stencil,subverted,road signs,no entry, traffic signs

Street Art Subversions In Shoreditch

On the Shoreditch Street Art Tour we come across many artists whose work is guided and inspired by the street canvas they are decorating.

 Clet Abraham, Shoreditch,London,Street Art,artist,stencil,subverted,road signs,no entry, traffic signs

Clet Abraham, 2013

Clet Abraham is a Florence based French artist whose trademark artistic intervention is modification of no entry signs.  Clet’s previous London visits left us very familiar with stop sign’s white bars turned into a heavy load being hefted by a silhouetted figure across the street.   Having found photographic evidence of the range of Clet’s other street sign subversions across Europe, it seemed slightly puzzling that in London he had focussed so heavily on that one image.

Clet Abraham, Shoreditch,London,Street Art,artist,stencil,subverted,road signs,no entry, traffic signs

Clet Abraham, 2013

Thankfully Clet has returned to London and unleashed a huge variety of sign modifications across our junctions.  The London one way labyrinth must be a dream come true for this Italian resident and Clet-spotting has become a great delight for the guests on several street art tours since Friday.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.


And great street art goes…..

Following on from the recent post about great new street art appearing in Shoreditch in which we hailed the return of illegal art to an old stencil hall of fame, at the other end of the cycle we celebrate the life of a top quality illegal piece of street art which passed on a couple of days ago.

Above created this breakdancer back in the Summer, yup – we did have one this year and someone, presumably the building owner, had covered it in Perspex within a couple of days.  This is what it looked like at night when the perfection of its placement was apparent.

Shoredtich,London,Street Art,TOurs,Alternative

Above (NY) – Night TIme Break Dancer

Perspex on a piece of street art suggests either that a piece is being preserved for sale or that it is being “conserved”, protected from the rough and tumble of a normal healthy outdoor life.  Usually we infer the former.  Persons unknown expressed their distaste for this kind of curation, or profit preservation – take your pick – and tore most of the perspex off.  Then someone disfigured the piece by chrome spraying an X across the dancer’s body.  Someone else opposed this action by attempting a vigorous cleaning of the chrome off the bricks, looking like an attempt at restoration.  Still with me?

A few days after the clean up started, yesterday in fact, the morning Shoreditch Street Art Tour found that the artwork have been brushed over with a foamy chemical wash.

Above, Shoreditch,London,Street Art,artist,stencil,New York

Above – Chemical wash
Above, Shoreditch,London,Street Art,artist,stencil,New York

Above – foam paint remover

In the afternoon a vigorous buff had been carried out to the point the art was a feint smudge and today there was just a discoloured damp patch where the Above Breakdancer had been.

Above, Shoreditch,London,Street Art,artist,stencil,New York

Above buffed

So there you have it, an excellent piece of work lived its life to the full and to a natural conclusion.  Thankfully most street artists are pretty resilient types and aren’t deterred by a bit of buffing.  Where one piece is buffed, five new pieces will rise up to take its place and Mobstr’s High Five remains undisturbed!

all photos: NoLionsInEngland


Great New Street Art Created In Shoreditch

Street artists swarmed all over Shoreditch last weekend as Moniker Art Fair took place and the Shoreditch Street Art Tour has been catching up with the results of their productivity this week.

Almost every wall in the Seven Stars Car Park saw a new lick of paint including work by Ser from Greece and  Vinz Feel Free who is based in Spain.

Ser, Vinz, Amanda Marie, Shoreditch,London,Street Art,artists,stencil

Ser (Greece)

Ser, Vinz, Amanda Marie, Shoreditch,London,Street Art,artists,stencil

Vinz Feel Free

Elsewhere, Moniker artists who stamped their mark included Colorado based stencil artist Amanda Marie with this new mural in an off street location.

Ser, Vinz, Amanda Marie, Shoreditch,London,Street Art,artists,stencil

Amanda Marie, off Brick Lane

One of our tours chanced upon Amanda Marie with a pile of paper at her feet and some spraycans in a bag and a mischievous gleam in her eye.

Ser, Vinz, Amanda Marie, Shoreditch,London,Street Art,artists,stencil

Amanda Marie

Within moments the first stencil layer was taped to the wall and sprayed.

Ser, Vinz, Amanda Marie, Shoreditch,London,Street Art,artists,stencil

Amanda Marie, 1st layer

Returning to inspect the result later in the afternoon revealed an impressive bit piece of combined stencil and freehand spraying.

 

Ser, Vinz, Amanda Marie, Shoreditch,London,Street Art,artists,stencil

Amanda Marie

Years ago this wall was one of the best and most frequently painted stencil “halls of fame” in Shoreditch so it is nice to see the return of work being created without a permission slip.