Tag Archives: street artists

Brick Lane London pasteup street art for the 3rd London International Pasteup Festival

London International Pasteup Festival 2023

The 3rd 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

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

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

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.

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

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


City Kitty, RX Skulls, Toastoro, Voxx Romana and Wrdsmth visited Shoreditch with a group of street artists from Portland and New York and created original street art

Portland and NY Street Artists visit Shoreditch

This August a group of street artists from Portland, Oregon as well as their friends from other endz visited Shoreditch to bless the public realm with their creativity.   Various combinations of this group have been visiting Europe regularly over the years and the street art they create is never short of impressive.

City Kitty, RX Skulls, Toastoro, Voxx Romana and Wrdsmth

Gang mural (above and feature image) : City Kitty, RX Skulls, Toastoro, Voxx Romana and local friend Wrdsmth

RX Skulls and Voxx Romana have been at the centre of the previous manifestations of this team, on this occasion they were joined by City Kitty from New York, Toastoro from Portland and team photographer Cody Keto.

Toastoro and RX Skulls

Cat Bus Toaster by Toastoro, Chonk by RX Skulls (also feat Boxitrixi, ODDO, DaddyStreertFox)

Each artist has embraced differing themes and influences yet there is commonality in the techniques, placements and energy.   Paste ups, stencil, stickers and various installations are all deployed in the name of public decoration, sometimes in adventurous and novel ways.

Voxx Romana

My name is Voxx Romana, observe my stencil

Toastoro

Toastoro stencilled paste up

RX Skulls is one of the best known art sticker makers around and he came prepared with masses of stickers, as well as paste ups and stencils.

RX Skulls

RX Skulls paste up

RX Skulls

RX Skulls sticker

RX Skulls, Voxx Romana/Vane PDX collab, Toastoro (also feat D7606, Slow Shrug)

Visible in the very corner of the photo above is a small RX Skulls paste up on the corner of the window ledge, a relic from 2018 which can be seen in its early days in the photo below.   Also visible in the following photo is a sculpture by 3x3x3 and a paste up from C3, C3 is one of the UK artists RX skulls has collaborated with and if you look closely above you can see the carbonised remains of that C3 in the layers of historic grime.

RX Skulls vs C3 also feat 3x3x3, 2018

Which leads to the next photo in which another aspect of the art practice of this posse is apparent, their enthusiasm for an art collaboration.  A collection of conjoined skeleton RX Skulls characters called the Chonks are seen in partnership with art from his UK friends D7606 and C3.  The Chonkening reflects RX’s intention to cram in tons of movies this year, don’t we all have an accumulated cinema deficit following the pandemic?  Another conjoined couple are off on a tattoo spree with a tattoo gun.

RX Skulls & C3; RX Skulls & D7606

RX Skulls & C3; RX Skulls & D7606

RX Skulls

RX Skulls wall of fame

In a lovely gesture RX gave a number of stickers which were hugely appreciated by guests of the Shoreditch Street Art Tour.

RX Skulls stickers

By the way, sticker placement at seriously impressive height was achieved using a special applicator I have seen on the net but never seen in action before.

Toastoro

Toastoro sticker

Voxx Romana came similarly prepared and perhaps most striking were his collaborations with Danny Ebru who provided the marbled paper background to Voxx Romana’s stencils, something Voxx brought with him on his previous visit.  The backgrounds are simply delicious.

Voxx Romana & Danny Ebru

Voxx Romana & Danny Ebru collaboration

Voxx Romana & Danny Ebru

Voxx Romana & Danny Ebru collaboration

Voxx Romana & Danny Ebru

Voxx Romana & Danny Ebru collaboration

Voxx Romana & Danny Ebru

Voxx Romana & Danny Ebru collaboration

Voxx got inventive with stencils wrapped around corners, borrowed background colours complement the stencilled definition of the face as if the whole thing was a single original collaborative art piece.

Voxx Romana

Voxx Romana 90 degree stencil

Another returning member was the collaboration machine City Kitty.  City Kitty focusses more on hand painted paste ups rather than print runs and consequently gets up fewer pieces than the other guys.   City Kitty does the street art podcast Scratching The Surface which is so damn good, several recent episodes were interviews recorded on this European foray.   If you are interested in the sticker arm device mentioned above then listen to all of City Kitty’s podcasts, one of them is with the artist whose side hustle is selling those poles.

City Kitty

City Kitty

City Kitty

City Kitty

Toastoro, whose pseudonym is a fusion of the word “toast” and the name of Studio Ghibli animation character “Totoro”, has had art up in Shoreditch in the past courtesy of friends putting him up but this visit really marked his first overseas in-person “campaign”.  Toastoro introduced two art techniques rarely seen in London street art: LED illuminated street art (hold tight Lost Hills) and layered art which Toastoro calls vinyl topography, the textured layered effect is hard to relive or convey through “mere” photographs.

Toastoro

Literally lit Toastoro

Toastoro

Toastoro vinyl topography

Toastoro

Toastoro vinyl topography

The Studio Ghibli reference implicit in the compound name Toastoro influences his subject matter which included sightings of Totoro (obvs) with a body shaped rather like a slice of bread, susawatari dust bunnies and funniest of all, a souped up cat bus (“My Neighbour Totoro”) with added toaster functionality.

Toastoro

susuwatari pavement stencils by Toastoro

Toastoro

Cat Bus Toaster by Toastoro

Toastoro visited Shoreditch with a group of street artists from Portland and New York and created original street art

Toastoro sticker

Voxx, RX and Toastoro all felt pavement stencilling was in order, something Voxx Romana and RX Skulls have done in Shoreditch on previous visits.

RX Skulls & Voxx Romana

RX Skulls & Voxx Romana pavement stencils

RX Skulls

Pavement Stencil by RX Skulls

Toastoro

Toastoro pavement stencil

The boys from Portland also put out some #FreeArt.  RX Skulls became only the second street artist I can recall putting out bronze street art.

RX Skulls

RX Skulls

Accompanying the street artists was the amazing and super cool photographer Cody Keto.  While out one evening the group bumped into Stik, a chance encounter which gave Cody the opportunity to create some amazing light trail photographs at Stik’s famous Hoxton Couple statue.  Cody has kindly given permission for his stunning photos to appear here.

RX Skulls, Voxx Romana, Toastoro and Stik

Portland guys vs Stik with Stik guest appearance. Photo courtesy Cody Keto Photography

Cody Kato and Toastoro

Catching Brick Lane Action – (behind) Cody Keto and (closer)Toastoro

The love extended to this group of visiting artists is really a reflection of the way they reach out to and embrace the wider world.  This is most apparent in their collaborations, these guys are total collaboration engines and it is not surprising to see them collaborating by design, on opportunity and by chance.

City Kitty and Toastoro

City Kitty/Toastoro cats and bamboo shoot collab (also feat Pablo Fiasco, RSH & an older Mowcka)

City Kitty and Toastoro

City Kitty/Toastoro collab detail

City Kitty & RX Skulls

City Kitty & RX Skulls collaboration

City Kitty hooked up with Neon Savage, the pair having collaborated many times down the years since meeting in Croydon in 2017 a fact gleaned from their podcast conversation on the always excellent City Kitty podcast.

City Kitty & Neon Savage

City Kitty & Neon Savage collab

RX Skulls & Polar Bear

RX Skulls & Polar Bear collaboration

One of the group told us that the highlight of the visits had been the welcome they received in Europe, visits were made to Manchester, Hackney Wick, Paris as well as Shoreditch and Southbank.  There were planned hook-ups as well as chance encounters with street artists and many artists and fans travelled to meet the team.

a group of street artists from Portland and New York and created original street art

Hanging at Montys for the “Bring and buy”

Toastoro

Toastoro at Southbank Undercroft

City Kitty

City Kitty at Southbank Undercroft

RX Skulls

RX Skulls at Southbank Undercroft

Mowcka has previously collaborated with City Kitty and travelled to hook up in Shoreditch.

Toastoro, City Kitty and Mowcka

Toastoro, City Kitty and visiting friend Mowcka

The combination of artists in this travelling circus changes on each visit but fear not, art by absent friends appears courtesy of those who do make the trip.

Vane PDX

Vane PDX (Voxx Romana obliged)

Vane PDX

Vane PDX transparent sticker

Vane’s sticker is printed on a transparent background, Voxx’s placement on Vane’s behalf intentionally responds to the red letterpress print by Jean Peut-Etre.  One of those “chance” collaborations perhaps.

DRSC0

DRSC0 – absent friend

visited Shoreditch with a group of street artists from Portland and New York and created original street art

Eye see Pam Goode – present in spirit

Also making appearances were friends from their local scenes that London did not have the pleasure of welcoming in person this time such as Cheer Up, Cuz Chris and Robots Will Kill

Cheer Up

Cheer Up

Notice the writing of Cheer Up’s name in the glitched font in the face – genius!

Cuz Chris

Cuz Chris

City Kitty & Chris RWK

City Kitty & Chris RWK sticker collaboration

RX Skulls, Chris RWK and Knor

Tracy Blackstock by Dreph admires stickers by RX Skulls and a Chris RWK/Knor collab

This visiting group of artists peppered Shoreditch and other parts of Europe with new street art embodying innovative, novel, collaborative, improvised fun wherever they went.  There were so many dimensions to the art and the activities they got up to and we thank them all for their contribution to the street art scene.

Links:

RX Skulls Instagram

“Art From Arrex. Stick It.”  RX Skulls 2014 stickers in Shoreditch

“Secrets Of The Sticker Shed – Sticker Making Workshop” (How to become RX Skulls)

Voxx Romana instagram

City Kitty instagram 

Toastoro instagram

Cody Keto Photography Website 

RX Skulls

RX Skulls stencil

RX Skulls visited Shoreditch with a group of street artists from Portland and New York and created original street art

RX Skulls stencils


Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

D*Face, Kai and Sunny and Shepard Fairey London art show “Unity”

Massive queues, a packed opening night at a gallery – is this 2008 all over again?  Actually no, it’s D*Face collaborating with two of StolenSpace’s long term friends Kai and Sunny, a double act counting as one friend, and Shepard Fairey.

Many may recall that D*Face’s gallery StolenSpace has hosted three major Shep Fairey solo shows in the past (Nineteeneightyfouria 2007; Sound and Vision 2012 and Facing The Giant, 2019).  What may be less well known is that Kai and Sunny, described by the gallery as having a “shared college experience” with D*Face, have been exhibiting at StolenSpace since New Year 2009, pursuing a style which back then was way too “design” for my tastes, not “street” enough.  See also 2011, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2020

View of Shepard Fairey's 2007 exhibition Nineteeneightyfouria at Old Truman brewery

NineteenEightyFouria by Shepard Fairey, London 2007

Kai and Sunny have also exhibited at Subliminal Projects in LA, founder….Shepard Fairey, so connections are tight.

Now that the free beer and artist in-person appearances of the opening night have passed there is time to peruse the art at leisure.  To appreciate who contributes what where, who combines with whom, it may be handy to really overgeneralise three massive careers in just three pairs of images.  D*Face does D*Dog characters with wings and corrupted pop art; Shepard Fairey does Andre The Giant and striking political illustrations, Kai and Sunny come from a gorgeous geometric op art and flower painting direction.

D*Dog sticker by D*Face on a love lock in Shoreditch

D*Face’s D*Dog love lock

Mural in Camden by street artist D*Face with Shepard Fairey sticker in foreground

D*Face mural from 2020 with Obey GIant and D*Dog stickers in foreground

Shepard Fairey Obey Giant sticker in shoreditch

Obey Giant Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey political paste ups on Brick Lane London in 2007 showing the strong propaganda illustration influence

Shepard Fairey, Brick Lane 2007

Kai and Sunny solo exhibition Shifting Times at Stolenspace Gallery in 2018

Kai and Sunny “Shifting Times”, StolenSpace 2018

With artistic collaborations there is usually one artist whose contribution dominates, who drives the idea and the collaborators “fill in”.   Great collaborators appreciate that sometimes they are the chief, other times they are the Indian.  I am indebted to City Kitty, or possibly Lunge Box (can’t tell them apart on their podcast) for this stolen and bastardised insight.   The online catalogue ducks the whole who collaborated on what intrigue by simply attributing one “lead artist” to each image.   Often what makes the art interesting, the “arty” or clever part of the art, is actually what’s added by the others.  With Unity Star No 3 below, the foreground is occupied by a D*Face winged Obey Giant but the piece is electrified by Kai and Sunny in the background

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

Unity Star No 3

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

Unity Star No 3 detail

A stand out feature is how Kai and Sunny absolutely illuminate a piece when their contribution appears to perhaps be the less significant.  I confessed earlier that a decade ago I really didn’t get their work, I am so pleased that recent shows and most notably this current one have opened my eyes to the flow in their art.

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

Ghost D*Moon Flower

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

Unity Obey Flower

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

Unity Obey Flower (detail)

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

Obey Rise Up (above), Ghost D*Moon Wave (below)

The whole notion of the catalogue of a show of collaborations, as in “not a group show”, attributing artworks on the basis of lead artist only does rather confound the concept of collaboration.  The collaborator redux appears to have challenged the compiler of the online catalogue as “Apply Unity” appears in both the D*Face section and the Shepard Fairey section.

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

Apply Unity

More show images:

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

Sure Shot Spray Can

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

D*Dog Icon

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

Hope On The Tide

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

Riot Everywhere

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

The D*Face Treatment

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

Burning Brighter

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

Burning Brighter Detail

The catalogue compiler has a curious concept of “lead artist”, “Magnified Unity” features Shephard Fairey’s Andre The Giant image but the main artistic device is the Lichtensein-esque benday dots and magnifying glass and which is a D*Faceification previously seen in his “Magnified Dog” painting in 2013.

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

Magnified Unity

So, dudes all get on, artistic friendships have been put to the creative test and the artworks are genuinely harmonious interactions between the styles of the collaborators regardless of the lead artist nonsense.  Back to the City Kitty/Lunge Box aphorism, justifiably large egos have been set aside to produce coherent beautiful art which is certainly worth popping in to enjoy.

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

D*Faced OG Sticker

Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London Collaborative art by Street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey and painting duo Kai and Sunny at the "Unity" exhibition at StolenSpace, Whitechapel, London

StolenSpace Gallery
17 Osborn St, London E1 6TD
10 Sep – 3 October 2021

Links:

StolenSpace Gallery website

D*Face website

Shepard Fairey website

Kai and Sunny website

All photos: Dave Stuart


Street Art on the Old Street Area of Shoreditch

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 1st 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.

Street Art on the Old Street Area of Shoreditch

Paste ups close to Old Street

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

Street Art on the Old Street Area of Shoreditch

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


disCONNECT – Street Artists Indoors

DisCONNECT

South London

24 July – 24 August 2020

10 artists, mainly street artists, were invited to make over a house in South London and use any of the relics found in there before the new owners undertook a refurbishment.   Covid-19 threw a spanner in the works though, so several of the artists incorporate a sense of the pandemic in their pieces and 6 of the artists being based overseas had to make and install their work using skype, like scientists cautiously tweaking the location of the reactor rods by remote cctv.

The art world is not providing too much in the way of real life excitement these days and while one should never confuse the art world with the real world, nor the street art world, it was a pleasure to experience disCONNECT for real just before it closes this week.

Herakut (Ger) – Nursery

Legendary trainyard graff snapper Alex Fakso specialises in candid portraiture, his  2012 “Santa in Camo” show in Kensal Rise indicated a quite idiosyncratic approach to subject as did his 2017 Moniker contribution.   Followers of my instagram account may recall that on a tour 2 weeks ago we bumped into Alex Fakso creating a graffiti painting and photo paste up hybrid on a railway bridge.  On this installation crowds in the photos rush towards the viewer in a way that feels horrifyingly alien in these public-gathering avoiding socially distanced coronavirus times.

Alex Fakso (Italy, living UK)

Alex Fakso (Italy, living UK)

Seeing Zoerism’s geometric and intricate graffiti on the streets is a rare pleasure and his anamorphic experience echoed that hugely detailed style.  Anamorphic images are designed to be viewed from one spot and look a bit skew-whiff from any other, this image was installed flat on the floor and up against the wall creating this impressive 3D “trick of the eye”.

Zoer (Italy)

Herakut’s fusion of photorealism and spindly elfin characters in Davy Crockett hats shouldn’t work but looks awesome.  You are invited to sit for a selfie with the monkey in the nursery –  if your chess game is up to scratch.  The kids in the playroom have painted child-like drawings on the nursery walls, credited to a 7 year old Ryker.

Herakut (Ger) – Nursery

A double set of doors and a single door were shipped to Portugal for Vhils to work his magic, a refreshing reminder of his talent for “discovered texture” portraiture.   His mining into layers of adverts to reveal portraits works superbly where it belongs, out on the streets but it’s a bit of a puzzle why having an implausibly deep block of compressed billboard adverts would work indoors.

Vhils (Portugal) in the library

The dark entrance lobby was made over by a collection of Mr Cenz’ cosmic ladies, UV light brought sharpness to the highlights that define the outline of the faces, an effect we love to play with when photographing his portraits out on the streets.  Unfortunately we failed to take any photos in the lobby though the effect can be vaguely appreciated in this mercifully brief video snippet.

In lockdown Aida Wilde railed against the reckless anti social behaviour of people ignoring the social distancing, lockdown stay-the-fuck-away guidance.  Her “Granny alley” installation in the most challenging room in the house distills a lot of that passion and anger into blocks of text and her emoji infused pseudo-flock wallpaper.

Aida Wilde – Granny Alley aka “the smallest room”

Aida Wilde – Granny Alley aka “the smallest room”

After years of vicariously enjoying Icy and Sot’s art finally we saw a piece in real life.   The dining table apparently came from the kitchen, in which case it must have been a relic from the downstairs kitchen many years ago.  The beautifully conceived and executed articulated plates and cutlery apparently represent capitalism with the extension leaves up and a full plate on the table. With the extension down symbolised socialism, in which case this neither-up-nor-down configuration pretty much sums up post-Corbyn Labour.

Icy and Sot (Iran) in the kitchen

Issac Cordal’s morose concrete figures endured this Summer’s monsoon in the garden and just about maintained their social distance in a gloomy basement.

Isaac Cordal (Spain)

Isaac Cordal (Spain)

Isaac Cordal (Spain)

Flock was evidently in vogue when the house was last given a decor update as the pattern recurs in several of the installations.  Adam Neate bid for the window blinds and the colour and texture makes a great skin motif in his ghostly portraiture.

Adam Neate (UK – living Brazil), stairwell

This show exceeded expectation, though that says more about our expectations than the artists involved. The unbalanced capitalisation of the show title exhorts to us to somehow re-connect in these desperate times where isolation is salvation and this show is worth connecting with.  Time is running out though and indeed thanks to covid restrictions tickets are very limited.

All photos & video: Dave Stuart  


Moniker Art Fair 2018

Here are a few of the highlights from the 2018 Moniker Art Fair which has been a must visit urban art adventure for fans of street art.   Three key aspects have been gallery displays of urban art, mainly art by street artists which isn’t on the street; installations and a day of presentations and talks about theory and practice of street art.  Some of stands are gallery presentations, some are specific to individual artists.

 Moniker, Urban Art, Street Artists, Old Truman Brewery, Art Fair, London Art Week, Frieze

Moniker 2018

Last year entry was through a mocked up trackside installation, this year French street artists Lex and Sowat have creative an immersive maze of plastic material, light and sound.

 Moniker, Urban Art, Street Artists, Old Truman Brewery, Art Fair, London Art Week, Frieze, Lex and Sowat, The Maze

Lex and Sowat “The Maze”

Gallery highlight was probably BSMT Space presenting work by Sweet Toof, A.CE and Skeleton Cardboard topped off by stunning video displays of the provocative political stunts of the Rocco Brothers.

 Moniker, Urban Art, Street Artists, Old Truman Brewery, Art Fair, London Art Week, Frieze, BSMT Space, Sweet Toof, ACE, A.ce, Skeleton Cardboard

BSMT Space: Sweet Toof, A.CE, Skeleton Cardboard

Vermibus was one of the stars of the 2012 edition of Moniker, the Vermibus stand this year makes a feature of the feline beauty of Kate Moss.

Vermibus

Skewville is over from New York stamping YO on sheets of paper while displaying duplex prints which look dramatically different when viewed through a red lens or a blue lens.

 Moniker, Urban Art, Street Artists, Old Truman Brewery, Art Fair, London Art Week, Frieze, Skewville

Skewville

 Moniker, Urban Art, Street Artists, Old Truman Brewery, Art Fair, London Art Week, Frieze, Skewville

Skewville – one print, two artworks

Masai has set up studio alongside an installation created with crowd participation with visitorss adding coloured cloths to form a bee sculpture.

 Moniker, Urban Art, Street Artists, Old Truman Brewery, Art Fair, London Art Week, Frieze, Masai, Save The Bees

Masai

 Moniker, Urban Art, Street Artists, Old Truman Brewery, Art Fair, London Art Week, Frieze, Masai, Save The Bees

Louis Masai

 Moniker, Urban Art, Street Artists, Old Truman Brewery, Art Fair, London Art Week, Frieze, Masai, Save The Bees

Louis Masai Bee Sculptures

The installational part of the Moniker Art Fair was superb, getting close to the art quality and production values of the Lazarades curated shows in the Leake Street Tunnels of yesteryear.   A couple of standouts among the installations were the cut metal shadow art of Dan Rawlings and the beautiful work of Hera, one of the Frankfurt Herakut duo.

 Moniker, Urban Art, Street Artists, Old Truman Brewery, Art Fair, London Art Week, Frieze, Dan Rawlings

Dan Rawlings

 Moniker, Urban Art, Street Artists, Old Truman Brewery, Art Fair, London Art Week, Frieze, Dan Rawlings

Dan Rawlings

 Moniker, Urban Art, Street Artists, Old Truman Brewery, Art Fair, London Art Week, Frieze, Hera, Herakut

If You Don’t Teach Them Peace Someone Else Will Teach Them War

Hopefully you get to see this exhibition before it closes as this 10th of Moniker is probably the best yet.  Admission details in the feature image at the top of  the post, use discount code LDNBSMT30 in the checkout for a 30% discount courtesy of BSMT Space and don’t forget to say hi to them on their stand.

Moniker Art Fair Website

All photos: Dave Stuart


Epic New Mural In Shoreditch

A beautiful mural on the theme of “connectivity” which truly stands alongside the best in the world has been created in Shoreditch and it is stunning. The fun started in Spring this year and went on until August, 8 groups of artists working in pairs have painted a long montage of murals thematically linked on the idea of “connectivity”. The whole piece has been placed with permission on a building owned by a communications company and Graffoto has had the pleasure of discussing many aspects of this brilliant new mural with Lee Bofkin representing Global Street Art which managed the project.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, Busk, Mr Switch, Ed Hicks, Dr Zadok, Best Ever, Ninth Seal

Busk and Oliver Switch, flanked by Ninth Seal and Best Ever to left, Ed Hicks and Dr Zadok to right

The first visible signs of dramatic change appeared in March 2018 when Hunto and Mr Thoms painted the end or perhaps the start of the building. The mural has “connectivity” as its theme. This can be seen in how the network of talkers, listeners and webcams painted by Thoms connects into the kissing cubist couple by Hunto and then the pipes in the network were left hanging on the fringes until Captain Kris and Tizer came along to paint the next section.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, Hunto, Mr Thoms

Then we can see how Captain Kris and Tizer, in their section which depicts a connection between the real and the virtual, took the hanging connections and blended them into their artwork, in particular the yellow conduit at the bottom morphs into a triangular branch like enclosure which closes right at the point where the robot with the VR headset is connecting with the female dancer.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, Captain Kris, Tizer

Captain Kris & Tizer

The dancers are dancing on a woodland floor which then flows seamlessly into the amazing woodland scene by Ed Hicks and Dr Zadok.  The connectivity depicted in the Hicks/Zadok woodland is provided by the fungal mycelium network, an organic information superhighway which actually really connects plants, trees and mushrooms across the forest floor.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists,Ed Hicks, Dr Zadok

 

Ed Hicks, Zadok – The Mycelium network

The corner panel where King John Court meets New Inn Yard supports a vanitas painting by Busk and Mr Switch. The connection aspect here is the ammonite shell at the top which has not changed over millennia and thus provides a connection across the ages.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, Ed HIcks, Dr Zadok, Busk, Mr Switch, Best Ever, Ninth Seal

Busk and Mr Oliver Switch

This then flows into a collection of hands in a lattice structure, the hands depict meetings, greetings, introductions, friendships, Ninth Seal and Best Ever have captured a very human form of connectivity.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, Best Ever, Ninth Seal

Mobile connectivity

Next to this is a beautiful tribute to old school modes of connection and communication by Nomad Clan, a pair of artists from Manchester. The lost art of letter writing sits alongside the pigeon post, now superseded by email.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, Nomad Clan,

Nomad Clan Rewind

Those curious double headed arrow symbols in Nomad Clan’s art will be instantly familiar as “fast forward” and “rewind” to anyone who ever played or recorded on C60 and C90 cassettes. The fast forward arrow draws your eye to a collaboration between Mr Cenz whose multicoloured portraits are a familiar sight across London and Lovepusher, known for his amazing 3D letter writing. On the left Nomad Clan pay homage to retro connectivity, the female character to the right has the future of connectivity in the palm of her hand.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, Nomad Clan, Lovepusher, Mr Cenz

Connectivity past, present and future

The whole project in its current form (not to suggest that this is anything other than the final manifestation) was brought to a conclusion by an abstract multi layered network created by AutOne and Neist whose complex handstyle we have loved for years.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, AutOne, Neist

AutOne, Neist

The organisation and logistics behind such a colossal mural is also hugely impressive and generally is something that Global Street Art is tremendously qualified to undertake. Just a few stats making the rounds: the mural is about 115m along its base and 13m tall making a surface area of almost 1500square metres; 250 litres of black emulsion (who buys black?) were applied as background and over 500 cans of spraypaint went into the painting.

Shoreditch, London, Colt, Mural, Connectivity, network, communication, street art, street artists, Lovepusher, Mr Cenz, night photography, light painting

Future Connectivity – Lovepusher, Mr Cenz

The end result of all these dynamics and the organisation and dare I say the connections is just about the most impressive, fresh, single piece themed collaborative mural Shoreditch has seen. All the artists involved deserve a magnificent pat on their respective backs and Lee and the Global Street Art team have every reason to feel very proud of this incredible achievement.

This post is an extract from a post on sister blog Graffoto in which Lee Bofkin of Global Street Art explains in an interview the genesis for this project, how the artists were selected and the mechanics and process of actually creating the mural, hopefully you might think it worth popping over to Graffoto to read a little more and see more photos.

Links:

Global Street Art website 

Hunto instagram

Mr Thoms instagram

Captain Kris instagram

Tizer instagram

Ed Hick instagram

Dr Zadok instagram

Busk One instagram

Mr Oliver Switch instagram

Best Ever instagram

Ninth Seal TBA

Nomad Clan instagram

Mr Cenz instagram

Lovepusher instagram

AutOne instagram

Neist instagram

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


Half Term – No Half Measures

Spring half term holiday has just finished in the UK and Shoreditch Street Art tours was busy.  On Monday as a group admired the work in the car park behind the old Seven Stars Pub a car screeched into the yard and, like some kind of artist tardis, a dark door opened and out came a street artist and a load of working materials, Fanakapan spent the week progressing a massive dual aspect mural outside Magna on Brick Lane.

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On Saturday, our tour guest Alicia managed to get a wonderful souvenir, a Fan tag on her shoulder bag.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Fan of Fanakapan!

Among other artists busy creating new artworks that we had the pleasure of encountering were Mr Cenz and ThisOne.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Artist in The Crowd – Mr Cenz

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Mr Cenz work in progress

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

ThisOne – freshly finished and signed

Several pieces of Free Art were found, firstly this lovely framed art drop by Sean Worral was discovered in a wall in Shoreditch.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

#365ArtDrop 18, Free Art from Sean Worrall 16/365

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

#365ArtDrop 18 found!

Then at the end of the week, two Free Art Friday art pieces by Ninja Grl were discovered at basically the same location.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Free Art Friday – Ninja Grl

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Free Art Friday – Ninja Grl

At the start of the week Adrian Boswell, the Broccoli Man, put up a new four piece broccoli rainbow installation.  As the week started chilly and as the broccoli aged, the florets started to wilt and open.  Then some strange interventions took place as the broccoli moved around like some strange game of chess was underway before being chopped into smaller pieces.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Maturing Broccoli – Adrian Boswell

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Broccoli Man Adrian Boswell

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Adrian Boswell’s Broccoli

More about the broccoli street art on this recent blog post.

Life Is Beautiful’s Dark Wings photo opportunity, covered earlier in the week HERE, gradually decayed over the week as more and more tags accumulated but guests persevered, making the best of the opportunity to photograph some nice interactions with the work.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz London, Shoreditch, Street art, street artists, school break, half term, halfterm, holidays, Broccoli Man, Adrian Boswell, Fanakapan, ThisOne, Mr Cenz

Then on Sunday morning, boom! Still smelling of fresh paint we found that the dark wings had been restored, as Life Is Beautiful noted they had nine lives.

Dark Wings, Nine Lives

Half term flew past with lots of fun and a load of great street art in Shoreditch as usual, thanks to all the guests and all the artists who make it such a wonderful week.

Links:

Fanakapan: Instagram

Mr Cenz: Website

ThisOne: Instagram

Sean Worrall: Website

Ninja Grl: Website

Adrian Boswell: Website

Life Is Beautiful: Instagram

All photos: Dave Stuart