Tag Archives: Street Art Tour

London International Pasteup Festival 2023

The 3^rd edition of the London International Pasteup Festival was a magnificent, colourful, creative and chaotic success. Following an open call art came from all over the world including Australia, New Zealand, Italy, France, Germany, Norway, USA, Jordan, Greece, Uruguay and Preston to name just a few places that aren’t London.

The art included every imaginable format capable of being pasted up with the LIPF special blend of wallpaper paste and PVA.

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Pasteup Street art on wall on Brick Lane for the London International Pasteup Festival 2023

Soandso PDX, with Vegan Flava (Swe) and others

ACAC All Cops Are Clowns stencil street art pasted up as paste of London International Pasteup Festival 2023

All Cops Are Clowns says Yo Pecador, spraypaint, single layer stencil on party tablecloth paper

In several spots the pasteup crew met with “Concern” from property owners, which kind of adds to the fun. At Fashion Street occupants praised the art, saying they were always delighted when the art on their walls changed.

Fashion Street London before the London International Pasteup Festival updated the street art

Fashion Street Before LIPF3 – including survivors Mowcka, Toastoro, RX Skulls, Quint, Neon Savage

Fashion Street London after the London International Pasteup Festival refreshed the street art

Fashion Street After LIPF3. So and So PDX, Zelda Bomba, Doodlher, Wrdsmth, UltramarineDream, Emzo, Sincanvas, Planet Selfie, Catscult, Paddywaggon, Oddo, Jola, Jace, D7606, Coloquix, Diva Dog LA, Number Six Prints, Amore, Art Tits

Check out a short clip of the pasteup team in action on a few of the walls here on the Shoreditch Street Art Tours Instagram

Eight locations benefitted from comprehensive LIPF3 makeovers and several of the LIPF2 locations received minor tarting up.

Fashion St London pasteup street art for the 3rd London International Pasteup Festival

Fashion St, the big picture

Blackall Street London pasteup street art for the 3rd London International Pasteup Festival

One part of Blackall Street: Yo Pecador, RX Skulls (2022), Vegan Flava, Easyone, Orrible (pre festival), The Ass Cream, Did by Rua, Slow Shrug, My Pen Leaks, Jane and Rik, Pixelpunk, Mnky, Doodlher, Paddywaggon, Blackligma

Puma Court detail: Katrine Beth Reigstad, Koko Bayer, Toastoro, Apparan, Goldloxe, Nudehead, PInk Boneyard, Neftnik, RX Skulls. Voxx Romana

Buxton St London pasteup street art for the 3rd London International Pasteup Festival

Buxton St: feat. Yo Pecador, Pmntowl, Jola, My Pen Leaks, Sincanvas, d7606, Visionox, Mort art, Subdude, Wrdsmth, tweet_streetart, tanzt_die_orange, Lidia Lidia, number six prints

Pasteup Street art on wall on Seven Stars yard, Brick Lane for the London International Pasteup Festival 2023

Seven Stars Yard fragment (see top image for full wall): Tweet_street art, TV Head ATX, Toastoro, Scrapyard Specs, Mkny, Jace, Did by Rua, D7606, Banga Street Art, Perishable Rush, blackligma; also David Guest, Brocolli Man, Raddington Falls

Grimsby St London pasteup street art for the 3rd London International Pasteup Festival

Grimsby St, the big picture

Small portion of Grimsby St walls: Apparan, Creative-Electric, Subdude, Raf Urban, Diva Dog LA, Bento Ghoul, Streetvulven, Visionox, Jace, Wrdsmth, Tripsandpieces, Jace, Briliant_gr, Jola, Lidia Lidia, Homo Riot

Calvin St London pasteup street art for the 3rd London International Pasteup Festival

Calvin St: City Kitty, Greatboxers, Green Taxonomy, Nasty, Briliant_Gr, D7606, The Artful Fro, Mowcka, Lidia Lidia, Eduard Dinic, Toastoro, Fra Quendo, Pre LIPF: Darkevil Arts,Neon Savage, Boxitrixi, Donk, Corrosive8

It took a revolving gang of paste flingers led by the artists and principal organisers Apparan and Subdude 4 long days of action to paste up the art prior to the festival.

several Street artists adding art to a wall on Brick Lane for the London International Pasteup Festival 2023

sunny days pasting art at Grimsby Street

The festival included fundraising, a paste up workshop run by the legend Mowcka and a pop up art shop at the notorious and popular Monty’s on Brick Lane.

People making art for the London International Pasteup Festival Pasteup Workshop

LIPF3 Pasteup Workshop . Photo: Apparan

LIPF3 marked a further development in the organiser’s approach to arranging the walls. In 2021 LIPF1 (review here) involved placing the art on walls with permission and in several locations the art was pasted onto vinyl tarpaulins which were tied to permission walls. LIPF2 (review here) in 2022 saw the team focus on pasteup halls of fame with tacit approval or tolerance, except one location where an occupant took extreme umbrage with the pasters and a cake slice to the walls. The absence of permission and the placement on existing pasteups gave the display a more authentic feel, something closer to the true spirit of pasteup street art.

This time, LIPF3, the team extended the number of walls decorated and worked around and with existing pasteup art, retaining large amounts of art already on the wall so that a spectrum of paper art from different stages of the street art life span could be seen. This meant that rather than a uniform brand new appearance of art all the same age, there was rips, textures and elements of the natural aging process present.

Seven Stars Yard

The pasteup team take great pains to try to avoid the walls looking like formal gallery hang arrangements, Uberfubs contributed significantly to the overall aesthetic adding her colourful circles to break up the depressing tyranny of the long straight edge.

Colourful circles by Uberfubs connect and break up art by many street artists at The London International Pasteup Festival

Uberfubs between Doodhler, ODDO, Fra Quendo, Jola, D7606, Toastoro, Nasty, Tweet_streetart, Katsukai Collective, Subdude, DaddyStreetFox

The paste up crew didn’t just retain existing art, they even repaired some beautiful pieces that were on the verge of giving up the ghost. No charge 😉

The next video is a homage to the London International Pasteup festival featuring close to 70 shots of the art displayed on a number of the walls around Shoreditch.

London International Pasteup Festival was held on the weekend of 16th and 17th of September. The display survives but diminishes over time as new art goes over old.

The London International Pasteup Festival are congratulated on doing such a fabulous job at keeping this often overlooked and dismissed element of street art culture alive and relevant, as well as producing a wonderful update to a large number of walls around Shoreditch (and beyond through related projects)

As is the case with all street art except murals, participants in LIPF3 were not required to identify as artists, anyone could send in paper art and that could be you next time! Follow the London International Pasteup Festival for future news of further opportunities to join in the fun.

Click for LIPF3 Locations Map

London International Pasteup Festival Instagram

All Photos: Dave Stuart except workshop photos courtesy Apparan

London International Pasteup Festival

Street Art has many forms, different techniques have evolved to suit different artistic strategies and different environments. Stencilism is most closely associated with street art’s emergence in the early to mid 2000s thanks mainly to Banksy and the many artists he influenced and inspired. Muralism, on surfaces ranging from building site hoardings to massive end gable walls has come to dominate the public’s awareness of street art over the past ten years. Street art is most profound as an outlet for the unsung, the outsider, the radical and the romantic and the most convenient format for unauthorised street art is the paste up – images on paper glued to external surfaces.

Uncurated pasteup street art on a vintage wooden door near Brick Lane London

Uncurated pasteup street art, 2021

On the heels of London’s first Mural Festival last year, 2021 brings The London International Paste Up Festival. 100s of pasteup street art pieces over 6 locations featuring many artists seen in London for the first time and many old favourites.

pasteup fag packets street art by kGuy in Shoreditch in 2007

KGuy, LIPF participant, pasteups from 2007

The formal opening night takes place this Thursday 4^th November at The Hoxton Gallery and the festival runs until Sunday the 7^th. On Sunday I will be leading a free tour of the paste up locations and the art will remain visible for viewing for varying lengths of time depending on the location.

paste up street art work in progress featuring DaddyStreetFox getting high

LIPF participant DaddyStreetFox gets up high earlier this year

The full schedule can be seen below and you can check their Instagram for any updates including information about the concluding tour.

All photos Dave Stuart (except the LIPF program)

Shoreditch September Street Art Highlights

September turned out to be a perfect goldilocks month for street art in Shoreditch, not to hot and not too cold, not too wet and not too dry, just perfect! Here is a selection of some favourites from the past month, some of which are already no more, have ceased to be, expired (etc).

Last weekend our Sunday tour had the pleasure of bumping into Airborne Mark doing one of his characteristic Origami paintings. Here is a look at the origami model he was using as the reference, the final masterpiece can be seen in the featured image at the top.

Airborne Mark

Another artist we bumped into last weekend was the ever friendly D7606 who reclaimed a long running spot with this glorious Princess Grace Kelly in a London phone box “two Margeritas, one four cheeses, an Americano and 3 garlic breads please.”

Princess Grace Kelly spotted in a phone box in Shoreditch by street artist D7606

“so, two Margeritas, one four cheeses, an Americano and 3 garlic breads please.”

There is a tendency for photos to bubble to the surface on my computer in reverse chronological order, most recent first so perhaps it is appropriate that another graffiti writer we at the weekend was writing their name backwards using a very long handled roller brush.

HELCH, ONLY, DIET and TOKS

Yet another artist we bumped into sprang a real surprise on us, reveal a new form of his art. Ben Wilson is better known as the Chewing Gum Man. I told him that the group I was with hadn’t seen any of his chewing gum pictures to which he replied “ah ha, have you seen my new mosaics and he spent 10 minutes giving us a personal guided tour of new paintings done in single mosaic pieces.

Ben Wilson

These are even trickier to spot than his chewing gum pictures (other than on the Millennium Bridge where it is hard to stop stepping on them).

Ben Wilson

An artist we met in action earlier in the month was Daniel K Swann. Passing by the following day I found that the positive message David wished to convey had been painted all across the road.

Fierce Lion on a wall painted byh Daniel K Swan with additional positive love messages written on the road

Fierce Lion by Daniel K Swan

One artist we met twice was the recently relocated Wrdsmth from LA.

mixed media stencil and paste up street art byh artist Wrdsmith in Shoreditch

We will forever know who we love – Wrdsmth

Lest you think my time is spent beating street artists off with a stick, one street artist who was around who we didn’t see was Shepard Fairey. He was present at the opening night of his show of collaborations with D*Face and Kai and Sunny at StolenSpace Gallery but the queue to meet the legend outside the gallery was daunting. I visited the show a couple of days later when it was much quieter, you can read the review HERE. Shepard Fairey left his mark with a significant collection of new stickers many of which we hadn’t seen previously in London.

Sticker in Shoreditch by street artist Shepard Fairey

Wake UP says Shepard Fairey

Gun firing a flower by Shepard Fairey

ED Hicks popped up with several new works in September, leaving aside the – cough – adverts, my favourite was this stunning John Martin meets Dali fragmenting landscape with portal and apocalyptical skyline everything but the kitchen sink piece.

Ed Hicks

Now for a couple which have already featured on my or less daily street art updates, I loved these bunny hands by Enigma.

Bunny Hands street art by enigma in Shoreditch

Bunny Hands by Enigma

Placement is often a significant contribution to great street art so this moth by Marie Alice was really spot on.

paste up street art of a moth perfectly positioned by a gas lamp in brick Lane Shoreditch by street artist Marie Alice

Moth by Marie Alice

All photos: Dave Stuart in month of September 2021

“Light Of Life” David Speed Gallery Exhibition

Break out street artists are rare beasts. These are street artists whose appeal grows way beyond the natural base of street art fans leading to popularity and commercial success. Commercial success doesn’t preclude artistic success of course.

Pink neon street art spraypainted portrait of woman by David Speed

Soundwave, Shoreditch 2021

David Speed started his neon illuminated portraits and animal painting around Shoreditch a few years ago and has achieved such ubiquity that he is one of the few artists, other than Banksy and Helch, whose art is recognised by Shoreditch Street Art Tour guests exploring street art for the first time.

David Speed Neon face, Shoreditch 2018

David certainly wasn’t new to spraypainting at the beginning of this neon pink phase, his double life has him as Director of Shoreditch based spraypainting outfit Graffiti Life. Lockdown bestowed gifts on David in two ways –the reduced demand for commercial spraypainting services seems to have allowed him more time to focus on personal and artistic development and if you check out his Creative Rebels podcast that certainly comes across strong. There was also a significant increase in available street canvasses as business fearing a breakdown in law and order went for full plywood cladding as we went into lockdown in 2020.

Pink neon ponies on pandemic lockdown protective plywood by David Speed

Hoxton Ponies, Shoreditch 2021

David’s art exploded across Shoreditch property and caught a lot of attention.

Pink neon "Creation of Adam" homage in Shoreditch painted by street artist David Speed

David Speed neon “Creation” homage, Shoreditch 2019

Pink SKull framed in a bus stop window in Shoreditch painted by street artist David Speed

A long wait, Shoreditch 2021

Pink neon snarling tiger in Shoreditch painted by street artist David Speed

Neon Tiger! Shoreditch 2021

In the street art world, London at least, David is synonymous with this pink neon street art style so it was an amusing irony earlier this year that a mural advert was painted in David’s signature colour combination by a rival spraypainted advert company. Many people erroneously identified David as the artist so he felt compelled to put up a deliciously executed take out.

Pink neon spraypainted advert in Shoreditch NOT painted by David Speed

Biting Style, Village Underground 2021

Pink Neon spraypainted advert subverted by street artist David Speed

DS Style, Village Underground 2021

He currently has a self-organised solo show running in Shoreditch, it turns out the neon illumination theme suits canvas and paper as well as it does brick walls.

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A recent project that must have taken a long time to prepare was David’s “drop” of 1000 hand finished prints around the streets of London, to those with long enough memories this was a homage to Adam Neate’s 1000 print drop in 2008. We came across one of David’s murals on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour that day at which point a guest pulled a pair of prints out of his bag with a flourish and declared “I found these on the street as I was walking to the tour!” Lucky guy.

Various North, East, South, West

The show is located just a couple of minutes walk from where our morning Shoreditch Street Art Tour ends, so perhaps book a tour this coming Friday, Saturday or Sunday and complement it with a visit to the show. Admission to the show is free.

“Light Of Life” show runs until Sunday September 12^th.

The Depot | 33 Boundary Street | Shoreditch | E2 7JQ

All photos: Dave Stuart

With all that pink and blue no attempt was made at colour correction in processing the exhibition photos!

Street Art Highlights in August

August has been a month of surprises – it stayed dry – and as Banksy trumps everything in the street art world, this month’s review starts with a flashback to an exciting daytrip to East Anglia to witness Banksy’s Spraycation street art fest. Banksy put up 10 new street art pieces, two were never found by members of the public as they were swiftly removed by council workers but the 8 we did find were thankfully on the whole in superb condition. Sorry to spoil the photo of the Banksy piece at the top of this article.

Banksy stencil of a rat at a Lowestoft beach who is sipping a cocktail made from a pipe discharge

Banksy rat chills out at Lowestoft, August 2021

Seeing one new Banksy street art piece is a “Hold the front page” moment, EIGHT new Banksys put that spin to the coast spin right up among the most exciting art days I have ever enjoyed, that Banksy goodness is reviewed HERE.

Banksy street art on a model home installed without permission at Merrivale Model Village

Banksy mini fire extinguisher graff on model village stable, Aug 2021

We also produced a guide to the locations which earned great feedback.

“Thanks for the directions on your website, they were the first proper ones we found and with 2 kids in tow we always appreciate not having to cart round for hours trying to find somewhere!”

News of the first ever private daytrip to space prompted street artist ODDO to speculate that Jeff Besos was boldy going forth in search of new tax avoidance strategies.

Cartoon street art showing Jezz Besos as an astronaut by street artist Oddo in Shoreditch

Jezz Bezos cartoon by Oddo

Vez, leading light of the “spoonerists” movement really got the full flower power thing going, dig that groovy dress daddio.

paste up street art in Shoreditch by Vez street artist

Spoons by Vez

We believe you can’t beat a decent street art collaboration so it a great to see two of our faves Face The Strange and Smiler getting something truly surreal up.

paste up street art collaboration in Shoreditch featuring street artists Face The Strange and Smiler

Face The Strange and Smiler collaboration

Butterflyman, the artist formerly known as Sell Out, had a prolific month with paper butterflies and oil pastels. He provided a police escort for The Postman’s Debbie Harry and we also loved the paper butterflies escaping the maw of Orrible’s shark. Sell Out provides top quality street art “augmentations”, torn between the two and unable to choose we thought ok, let’s include both pics! There is a crazy amount of great art in the photo of Debbie Harry’s police protection squad, you should be able to pick out 4 expressionist policemen (the 5th face isn’t a policeman) and 1 police dog!

layers of paste up street art in Shoreditch with Sell Out adding to Debbie Harry by The Postman's Art

Debbie Harry by The Postman rescued by Butterflyman’s policemen

Shark paste up by street artist Orrible augmented by Sell Out's paper butterflies stuck on with blutack

Orrible, augmented by Butterflyman752, also featuring Subdude

Jace has been out putting some of his great faces in more small places, he clearly loves the spot next to Stik’s Brick Lane couple which is where you will find Lola.

Street Art sculpture of a face in relief depicting Lola from german Film Run Lola Run

Lola by Jace

Tom from Tom and Jerry featured in Fat Cap Spray‘s art output this month, this shone neon bright but ever so brief, lasting less than a week!

Tom from Tom and Jerry painted in neon purple by street artist Fat Cap Sprays on Shoreditch streets

Tom by Fat Cap Sprays

Perspicere had a show at BSMT Space which to our huge regret we failed to check out, thankfully we did find this gorgeous example of his novel string art on a doorway of an empty and heavily graffitied office block in Shoreditch.

String street art face portrait by Perspicere

String Art by Perspicere

Just sneaking in at the end of the month is this beautiful painting in a very soft palette by Enigma.

Attractive blonde walks past street art shadow bunny by street artist Enigma in Shoreditch

Shadow hands by Enigma

Among the large amount of brilliant graffiti spotted this month a real jaw dropper was the piece by legend Vibes RT, check out the glitchy cloud detail.

Brilliant graffiti in Shoreditch by Vibes RT

Vibes RT graff

Detail of brilliant graffiti in Shoreditch by Vibes RT

Vibes RT graff detail

Allen Gardens is a location frequently explored as there is always fresh art and graffiti there, just this weekend this pair of pieces by Reves One and Sidok both featuring “split screen” letter design took my breath away.

Reves One and Sidok

Bonzai’s liquid mercury lettering is truly an eyeopener for guests whenever we come across it on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour.

Graffiti writing that looks like liquid mercury by artist Bonzai

Quicksilver Bonzai

As travel becomes more and more a reality we are looking forward to seeing an increased number of international artists beautifying Shoreditch’s walls and more tour guests from overseas would be nice as well! Book HERE for the best street art tour and perhaps you will get to admire the candidates for September highlights in the flesh.

Links to all artists are incorporated in the text.

All photos: Shoreditch Street Art Tour guide Dave Stuart

July 2021 Street Art Top Marks

July! That’s Summer supposedly, the start of Summer holidays and based on this year’s experience the time when every street art fan must consider carrying sun tan cream, an anorak and an umbrella! The weather was a bit bonkers but the art was sensational.

The feature image above is Frida Kahlo by Lost Hills looking like she is creating all that art on the streets of Brick Lane

It is always a great pleasure to chance upon a new street sculpture by 3x3x3 and it seems that on this year’s visit to London he may have left at least 6 new sculptures on the streets. At the time of writing I have 2 more to find.

July was ushered in with Benjamin Irritant ruffling a few feathers with the placement of his rabbits, by the time I arrived to take a photo of the wall below within 24 hours another artist had already gone over Benjamin! The ripples continue to spread out with tactical placements by other artists over Benjamin’s art still occurring just this past weekend.

street art pasteups by Benjamin Irritant and Sanctum Cyborgia

Benjmin Irritant and Sanctum Cyborgia and many more

On one tour in the middle of July the group had the pleasure of street artists Neon Savage and MeandBlue turning up and after a friendly chat they proceeded to put some fresh street art right in front of us.

multiple monoprint flowers in Shoreditch by street artist Meandblue

Multiple Flowers by Meandblue

Bruno The Dog by street artist Neon Savage

London’s wild parakeet population increased by one more during the month with this wooden character looking overhead thanks to Trips And Pieces, Voxx Romana and Arrex Skulls study from above.

wooden street art parakeet by Trips and Pieces near Brick Lane

Ring Necked Parakeet by Trips and Pieces

Some DaddyStreetFox art was spotted in a major artwork by Gilbert and George exhibited in their most recent exhibition at the White Cube Gallery. After a bit of sanitising of the bins in that area, a new fox has appeared to lay waste to the bin bags there.

DaddyStreetFox

It has been a few years since we saw art by New York street artist Stefani McDade on the streets of Shoreditch but she was spotted on the streets of Shoreditch pasting up in the company of DaddyStreetFox. This particular piece suggests Stefani has had a successful conclusion to her unicorn hunt, or is unicorn homicide what has led to them being so elusive? Apparan and Bruno, Neon Savage’s dayglo dog look on.

paste up unicorn murder by New York street artist Stefani McDade

Unicorn homicide by Stefani Mcdade

Currently riding high on my list of break through street artists is Fat Cap Sprays who has a busy month. This absolute quacker is currently running close to Village Underground, it was spotted for the first time by a guest on our recent novelty Old Street public street art tour.

Spraypainted Neon Daffy Duck street art by Fat Cap Sprays in Shoreditch

Spraypainted Neon Duck by Fat Cap Sprays

Street Art is temporary, it is short lived, the always sensational painter Ed Hicks painted this masterful void which survived in pristine condition for only a very short time. I chance upon another Ed Hicks painting in July so I took a snap on my phone, the next morning I returned to find it had been completely taken out, which as it was on a legal graff wall is standard.

Street Artist Ed Hicks spraypaints a void in Shoreditch

The Void by Ed Hicks

Graffiti writer Only has created a succession of astonishing graffiti pieces with medieval crusades themed painted in the letter fill. The latest one appeared just off Brick Lane incorporates a Roman theme, is it just me or is there a hint of MF DOOM about the gladiator?

Spraypainted graffiti on Brick Lane by Only HMZ with Roman scenes and gladiator

Rome things by Only HMZ

Dan Kitchener’s night-time street scenes are appreciated for their Blade Runneresque perpetual rain. The rainy window effect of this gorgeous piece on Brick Lane is superb. Obviously the best way to photograph this is when it is wet but the rain recently has been so biblical that the last thing on our mind was iphone snaps of street art!

spraypainted photorealistic raindrops on a window on Brick Lane by Dan Kitchener

Rainy Brick Lane Views by Dan Kitchener

Black Dove from Dublin was in London at the end of the month for a blink and you missed it solo show, we have seen Black Dove’s art in Shoreditch in the past though at the time of this visit I only found two new pieces, including this rather lovely sticker.

A paste up bird by Irish street artist Black Dove hovers over Brick Lane Couple by Stik in Shoreditch

Black Dove hovers over Stik’s iconic Brick Lane Couple

I hope you like this eclectic selection of street artists active on the streets of London in July, some practicing legally, some without permission, some freehand spraypainters, some paste up artists, all committed to taking advantage of the wonderful gallery out there on the streets.

Artists links in the post. All photos: Dave Stuart

EINE Street Art Scary Monsters

It’s back! The Eine street art mural SCARY on Rivington Street, familiar to many many Shoreditch Street Art Tour guests as the penultimate piece of art on the tour has been restored to its original colour scheme, check the featured image above.

Painted in 2007, back in the days when if a street artist wanted a wall they had to damn well sort it out themselves, SCARY is London’s oldest street art mural (terms and conditions apply).

Historic 2007 Scary street art mural by street artist Eine seen at night in 2012

EINE SCARY Nights 2012

This SCARY was a partner to the VANDALISM mural on the corresponding wall on the next street, making the ironic statement “SCARY VANDALISM” in the year when EINE really came of age as a sought after street artist with his first solo show. Notice in 2007, no Citizen M, no elevated East London Line and no boutique next door to Village Underground!

Historic 2007 Vandalism street art mural by street artist Eine

EINE VANDALISM 2007

In 2019, Eine updated the mural as a charity art piece dedicated to Movember to raise funds in support of men’s mental health. The background was painted yellow and 60 stylised handlebar moustaches were added. 60 because the message on the wall was “Globally, 60 men die by suicide every hour” and moustaches because men raise sponsorship money for Movember by stopping shaving throughout November. Eine back up the awareness raising by releasing 100 copies of a signed limited edition screenprint sold for £100 each, proceeds going to Movember.

Scary street art mural by street artist Eine in colour scheme dedicated to charity Movember

EINE SCARY 2019 Movember colour scheme

The plan always was that it would eventually be returned to the original background and this week, Eine finally got around to restoring SCARY’s classic screaming redness.

All photos Dave Stuart

More photos of Eine street art in the gallery

One Off Street Art Tour By Popular Demand – More Art, Different Streets!

We have had several requests recently from guests who have done our public street art tour to be guided around the street art over on the Old Street side of Shoreditch High Street rather than the Brick Lane side.

Street Art on the Old Street Area of Shoreditch

Permissioned Graffiti colours from Eighties Conspiracy on Old Street

We have been running our private tours around the Old Street area for years, they are different to our public tours mainly because typically private guests such as office parties and school groups want a shorter tour.

Boris Johnson Borissor Coldheart Care Bare Artistic graffiti on the Old Street Area of Shoreditch by graffiti artist Tizer

Borissor Coldheart Care Bears by Tizer, Old Street 2020

Always eager to please, we are delighted to announce a public tour on Sunday 1^st August which will start from Old Street Roundabout rather than Spitalfields Market. The only overlap with our “traditional” public tour will be the very last part where we look at Eine and Banksy.

Paste ups close to Old Street

Book quick by clicking HERE, spaces are likely to run out.

Mesa work in Progress and Urocki, Holywell Lane 2020

This may become an occasional thing so if you can’t make 1st August 2021 just drop us an email and we can let you know when we arrange future dates.

Feature image: Stik and others on site of former Foundry arts space

All photos: Dave Stuart

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.