Tag Archives: Street

Best Of Shoreditch Street Art Tours Kiss Of Death

Should this Shoreditch Street Art Tours post start with an apology to the spraycan virtuoso Jim Vision? Perhaps.

Last night we held a short notice online virtual ramble through some of the art that provided great food for thought on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour in 2021. With the benefit of being able to show slides from the past, we were able to look at the waxing and waning of Jim Vision’s Jerome St mural which concluded with the photograph shown at the top of this post mural taken 2 days earlier on 29^th December. This is the story of that mural and it ends with the dramatic update based on what we found today!

The history starts in 2020 with a curved wall pretty heavily battered with graffiti of varying styles and levels of accomplishment. The artistic highlight on the wall was probably back in 2014 with a beautiful paste-up from the French street artist Ludo.

Street Art in Shoreditch by French street artist Ludo

Ludo, 2014

Street Art in Shoreditch by Spraycan artist Jim Vision

Wild! Featuring Noze, Lap406 Oct 2019

Forward to 2020 and Jim Vision secures consent to paint the wall with permission and has claimed the spot as his since, painting a couple of portraits as part of his admirable “Colourful Women” series. In the artist’s words this was “celebrating all women of colour with their vibrancy and strength, at the same time addressing an imbalance in the representation of women of colour on walls. This first dates from early Summer 2020.

Jim Vision, June 2020

The next portrait on this wall came complimented by a pod of killer whales. In this next early December 2020 photo we see the mural in great condition with 8 killer whales swimming through, to the right is a cluster of illuminations and the background is an abstract veil of almost luminous vertical streaks.

Jim Vision, 2nd Dec 2020

Just a few days later the negative spaces in the margins have been targeted with graffiti, including sundry tags and a nice piece by Lap in the background:

Jim Vision, lap406 , 22nd Dec 2020

Things are relatively unchanged by July 2021, a throw has gone over the cluster of lights to the right, a couple of tags and Lap in the background appears to have been painted out. Still the augmentations are occurring away from the main subject:

Jim Vision July 2021

By October there is fascinating development in the artistic interactions taking place on this wall, Jim Vision covers up new tags with the creative and playful expedient of adding Orcas where the tags were. Now the pod has grown to 20 killer whales and something a bit albino, or perhaps a 21st whale with only its white parts turned to us:

Jim Vision Oct 2021

Halfway through December heavy tagging appears in quite aggressive spots at the centre of the portrait and a green tag close to the front of the face where the white whale was. Ours is not to cast judgement!

Jim Vision, tags, 19th Dec 2021

Then, on 29th Dec, a new killer whale appears to be likely to see in the New Year, its placaement jumping through the earring brings to mind the cruelty involved in keeping these beautiful beasts in captivity in sea life parks. This was the state of play at the conclusion of the timeseries presented in the “The Best Of Shoreditch Street Art Tours 2021” virtual tour last night (New Years Eve):

Jim Vision, 29th Dec 2021

New Years Day, this morning, look what we found:

New Years Day 2021 Jim Vision with Slak & Cuso

Gonna take a lot more whales!

Jim Vision instagram

all photos: Dave Stuart

Street Artist’s “yes to no” on Scotland leaving Shoreditch

Bang on time, Shoreditch’s street art now incorporates a political piece referring to today’s crucial “Thanks for all the help but we can make our own mess” Yes or No referendum in Scotland. At least, the caption, a pun based on the “och aye tha noo” Scottish cliché seems to be saying “yes to the no”.

T.Wat

Channelling New York native Mel Gibson, street artist T.Wat casts Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish Nationalists Party as Braveheart. Scotland has until 10pm tonight to cast its vote!

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T.Wat

In doing so, there seems to have been a little street art politics coming into play. Exactly a week ago, Syd cleaned up the mess of stencils and fly posters and layers of tags and torn paper when he created this musician:

Shoreditch, London, Street art, street,art,T.Wat, Syd, Scotland, referendum, graffiti,walk,walks,tour,tours, Dr Cream, Fezwitch

Syd

Syd maybe Shoreditch’s Pied Piper but “I didn’t paint this wall for you” suggests a little discord playing out under the public gaze but both artists showed respect for the sculptural tile by Dr Cream and floppy discs by Fezwitch.

Street Art: Shoreditch, London, The World!

Caitlin Kiernan and those nice people at Yahoo have done a guide to the World’s top street art locations. It’s not actually a “ranking” as such but naturally, Shoreditch comes first 😉

London!

As the article points out, among the guys who have a lot to do with the emergence of modern street art in London are Banksy and D*Face

Banksy – Shop Till You Drop, 2011

D*Face

So for a great summary of the vibe in London, Paris, Buenos Aires, New York, Berlin, Miami, Navajo Nation Arizona (new to me too), Sao Paulo, Melbourne,Bethlehem, check out Caitlin’s Yahoo feature here.

Remember these aren’t the only places you find super street art but its a great start.

New Nathan Bowen Shutter In Shoreditch

Street Artist Nathan Bowen was on the streets of Shoreditch this afternoon painting in a location which has seen a few high profile murals from him in the past. This time, his trademark builders and soldiers are off on a fishing trip.

Starting with a whitewash background, Nathan set to work with marker pens in a fast and furious style which echoes in the terse appearance of his figures .

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Work In Progress 2014

The fish is a change for Nathan, it has lovely colours in its scales and fins but it looks like the fishermen are going to get a surprise when they land this monster.

Nathan kindly allowed the Shoreditch Street Art Tour to watch him in action and take some picies. It was a particular meaningful moment for one of our Californian guests (not pictured!) who had been to the fortnightly Sclater Street Stalls last Saturday and bought a small piece of art by Nathan Bowen, that piece now will certainly become a bit more special.

Work In Progress 2014

Nathan is no stranger to this spot, we found him painting there back in 2012.

work in progress 2012

Nathan often allows his figures to interact in a dialogue with existing art, in 2012 he amused us when Australian artist Lush painted a split unicorn over a Bowen composition on this spot, Nathan responded by adding some furious characters riding the unicorn.

Nathan Bowen v. Lush

So, yesterday we wrote about the Spanish artist Pez who painted his “happy fish”, today we have Nathan Bowen’s characters out for a day of fishing, what’s next, is Columbian street artist Stinkfish in town?

all photos: NoLionsInEngland

links:

Nathan Bowen website

Nathan Bowen Twitter

Does the Street Art Change Much?

Back in harness after a week away, it was great to find so much fresh new street art appearing on Shoreditch’s walls, here are just a few of the many highlights.

After encouraging the guests on my first tour back to look high and low into the nooks and crannies, one of the guests with a keenly tuned eye spotted this delightful tiger piggy by German artist Love Piepenbrinck.

Love Piepenbrinck

Sketch is a street artist name I don’t recall having come across before but this new painting that appeared while I was away is quite special.

Shoreditch,London,street,street art,graffiti,walk,tour,walking,Sketch

Sketch

From someone new to someone incredibly long established, Mysterious Al who was right there at the very start of Shoreditch Street Art in the early 2000s alongside DFace and others has just this weekend done a stunning high impact mural as part of the Global Walls Project. The last time we saw Mysterious Al painting on London’s walls was back in October 2012 and after a long period of time abroad it is great to see him back up on the walls of Shoreditch, this guy is part of street art’s fabric.

Shoreditch,London,street,street art,graffiti,walk,tour,walking,Mysterious Al, Rone,Pure Evil

Mysterious Al plus others

Rone hails from Melboune and has done some seriously beautiful street art on London’s walls in the past, we also found a Rone sticker in Reykjavik of all places a few years ago (though obviously we can’t be certain whether he placed it there himself or perhaps a fan did it). He is back in town working on another stunning female face portrait, in fact in the Mysterious Al photo above you can see another Rone painting from late last year. This new one is on the wall where the intricate and stunning Octophant by Alexis Diaz had sat in pristine condition for nearly 10 months , the wall was ripe for change!

Shoreditch,London,street,street art,graffiti,walk,tour,walking, Rone,artist

Rone in action

Italian artist Nemo spent a couple of days preparing this large mural in Sclater St Car park, there is a very interesting surprise hidden in this piece which with luck will reveal itself over the next few days, weeks or months! More information on that as the surprise is revealed (and I don’t mean just when the cars aren’t in the way!). .

Shoreditch,London,street,street art,graffiti,walk,tour,walking,Nemo

Nemo

Finally an all star mural, described as a “tutti fruiti” by one of the participants features graffiti legend DRAX WD with contributions from DScreet, BRK, Malarky, Lucas and more.

Drax, DScreet, BRK, Malarky, Lucas

Yes, there is new exciting street art appearing in Shoreditch every day!

photos: NoLionsInEngland

Street art gallery private view openings, 6 March 2014

Where are we going to get our fix of new art this week, apart from on the outdoor walls in Shoreditch of course. I’ll be kicking off Thursday with a social event at The Photographers Gallery in the West End then picking up the pace with this little set of beauties:

Alexis Dias & Jaz “La Linea

Alexis Dias aka “La Pandilla”, whose Octophant mural in Shoreditch continues to amaze passersby some 8 months after its completion, joins forces with Jaz the Argentinian graffiti legend in “La Linea”.

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image: ALexis Dias, Jaz, Rex Romae

132 Commercial St
London E1 6NQ

Pro176 “Liquid Mecanism”

Pure Evil gallery takes credit for introducing us to many street art talents we have never seen before so we look forward eagerly to the work of Pro176. Look in the Pure Evil Department Store a few doors down from the usual gallery location. And yes, that’s how they have spelt the title on their email so that’s what it must be.

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image: Pro176, Pure Evil Gallery

Pure Evil Department Store

96-98 Leonard St,

London EC2A 4XS

Brett Amory “Twenty Four In London”

At Art 14 fair last week there was a Brett Amory canvas which was breath taking portraiture. In this new show London is treated to the Brett Amory project where he spends 24 hours visiting 24 locations in one city and using the visual experience to inform a series of paintings. He has already executed this project in New York and San Francisco and we look forward to seeing his impressionist urban take on some London locations.

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image: Brett Amory, Lazarides Rathbone

RSVP required , register lazinc.com

Lazarides Rathbone,

11 Rathbone Place,

London W1T 1HR

Cyrcle “Overthrone! Pooring Reign”

LA guys Cyrcle visited London a couple of years ago to decorate our streets with some impressive pasted collages and they return for this show at StolenSpace. They have been braving the reign, sorry – the rain on a hoist painting a very large mural in a car park as part of their London fun. Here are a couple of pieces from their 2012 visit.

London,street,art,street art, gallery, show,artist,Shoreditch,tour,walk,graffiti,Cyrcle

image: NoLionsInEngland

image: Cyrcle, StolenSpace

STOLENSPACE GALLERY
17 Osborn Street
London E1 6TD

Blair Zaye “Bespoken”

Ahead of all that Thursday night excitement, Blair Zaye (remember the drainpipes dripping paint down the Shoreditch walls last year?) has a solo show in the heart of the City of London.

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Blair Zaye drainpipe image: NoLionsInEngland

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image: Blair Zaye

Façade,

59 London Wall

London EC2M 5TR

100th Tripadvisor Review Milestone

Woo hooooo – 100 Tripadvisor reviews for Shoreditch Street Art Tours!!!! Thank you very much to all our guests who have shared their love for Shoreditch Street Art Tours on Tripadvisor.

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100 UP!

99 reviewers rated us 5 star “Excellent” and a solitary 4 star “Very Good” rounds up the century. We love to read words like passionate, knowledgeble, personable, expert, empathetic, friendly, and enjoyable in our guests opinions. These are your independent opinions, they matter to other members of the community and they really matter to us.

Once again, thanks to all of our guests for enjoying the world’s best outdoor gallery with Shoreditch Street Art Tours and special thanks to those who shared their positive opinions with the rest of the Tripadviser community, thanks to you guys Shoreditch Street Art Tours is currently ranked 14^th best out of 528 activities in London.

Update (27 Jan) – now ranking 13th (and rising?)

ACE Start to 2014? Exciting Street Art Competition

Take a tour with Shoreditch Street Art Tours anytime from 1 Dec 2013 to 5 Jan 2014 and be in with a chance to win A.CE artwork!

A.CE is one of London’s finest street artists. He has been active on the streets of London for over 10 years and was first pick when our principal guide Dave NoLionsInEngland was asked to put together an article on Shoreditch’s top street artists. A.CE’s colourful collaged paste ups have always featured prominently on Shoreditch Street Art Tours and if you want to get an idea of the excitement that lies behind the clandestine dark art of illegal pasting, you could not do better than watch the short film on his website of A.CE in action in London.

We are excited to announce that A.CE has generously given us a street quality original artwork for Shoreditch Street Art Tours to offer as a prize to its wonderful guests. All tour guests who take a tour in the month of December (and that tiny bit of January which is basically still holiday) will be entered automatically into a prize draw to be made on Monday 6^th of January 2014. That’s one entry per person not per booking!. This wonderful prize will be mailed in a nice tube to the winner.

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An A.CE a way to start 2014!

French Street Artist Zabou does less cleaning in Shoreditch

Here’s a lovely crisp and colourful stencil image that recently appeared in Shoreditch and which we found on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour walk today. The artist is Zabou, a French girl currently living in London. Nice work carrying the flag for female street artists who are just getting on with it.