Tag Archives: Tour

VERY NEARLY ALMOST (VNA) Issue 29 – Launches in LA!!!

Coming soon, something that should interest anyone from LA who has been on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour (and indeed anyone interested in culture who ought to come on the SSAT) – the latest issue of Very Nearly Almost magazine. More of the same street arty and graff stuff but this time a little bit different too. Now taking on the world, oh yeah! Issue 29 launches in Los Angeles this Saturday (Valentines Day, 14 Feb).

Cover artist is Cleon Peterson, painter of black and white man beasts pillaging, fucking and slaughtering their way across the pages and onto a special limited edition (150) silk screen printed box-set featuring a custom screen-printed box, die-cut sticker set, postcards and hand screen-printed copy of VNA 29. Compare the silk screen printed cover in the box set contents pic below with the scan of the regular cover further down

Box set contents

There are elements of the traditional photos of street art, photo specials on the murals of Las Vegas and San Juan (and of course London), a great interview with Blek Le Rat (France) and the wonderful “Diggin In The Crates” series continues with corporate iconoclast Ron English dissecting and reminiscing about the conception and execution of a whole bunch of his propaganda subversions.

VNA Blek Le Rat interview. Original photos – Blek, Sybille Prou

Then, as the zine editorial points out, they explore “..the broader culture that surrounds street art and graffiti”. This means profiles of a gif designer (Mattis Dovier), a clothing brand founder (Tony Arcabascio, ALife) and confessions of a New York street photographer and paparazzi (Ricky Powell).

original photo: James Bulloch

An interview with Pursue, a brand director and mural painter, take VNA right over onto classic Juxtapoz turf while closer to home Jessica Albarn, sibling to Damon and Nelly Duff artist discusses her illustrations. There’s plenty more besides and as always (cough, blush) some great photography.

Regular cover

The LA launch is being hosted by Subliminal Projects, 1331 W. Sunset Blvd, LA, CA 90026. 6pm – 9pm. Free alcohol plus a free copy of the mag to the first 100 through the door on the night. Drink sensibly (first two beers only). To be sure to get your free copy, RSVP to rsvp@verynearlyalmost.com and arrive early on the night!

Don’t worry London fans, there is something special promised for a London launch, we believe the 26 of Feb may be a good date to keep the social congestion clear. No news on where but…well, Cleon is a Laz artist ..and VNA has had some very successful launches there in the past…and they have a relatively new space people might like to see….this is most likely not what will happen as it is pure speculation on my part. For the real deal as it gets announced, follow @vnamagazine on the usual anti social media channels

JeSuisCharlie

Shocked by the tragic events in Paris this week, street artists have been quick to respond.

In France: Jef Aerosol

London, Shoreditch,Street art,graffiti,walk,tour,walks, tours,jesuischarlie,artists, Jef Aerosol

photo: Jef Aerosol

In London:

je suis charlie

Pure Evil je suis charlie

London, Shoreditch,Street art,graffiti,walk,tour,walks, tours,jesuischarlie,artists,Graffiti Life

je suis charlie Graffiti Life

More details on Graffoto blog

Top Blog For Street Art and Graffiti in Shoreditch is……..

Judging by the “vote me” messages in my email inbox it must be the time of year when bloggers seek “blogger of the year” titles. Shoreditch Street Art Tours is proud to announce it has been blessed with its first (publishable!) accolade this season, our blog tops ShoreditchInshort’s 5 best blogs they would recommend concerning Shoreditch. Wooo hooooo, we are pleased and honoured, thank you very much Julie, author of that very discerning blog.

Aven, St8ment, Anna Laurini, Street Art,tour,tours,blog,Shoreditch,London,graffiti

Face the facts! Avem, Mr.Farenheit, Anna Laurini

We like to illustrate our blog posts with relevant and beautiful photographs but a screengrab of our own blog on this occasion would be a bit, well, tcky and redundant. So, as we love Shoreditch’s street art AND a new issue of Very Nearly Almost magazine is launching this week, we thought we would celebrate with some of the photos submitted by NoLionsInEngland to VNA which didn’t make the cut. We won’t be betraying any confidences if we say that for each edition, VNA’s content gurus looks through about 20 or so images we select and generally publishes 4 or 5 in the magazine. This leaves us with a number of photos which then generally don’t see the light of day but are too nice to be totally forgotten. Enjoy these photos, more information about the launch of issue 29 of Very Nearly Almost to follow shortly.

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All photos: NoLionsInEngland

Dan Witz street art in London

New York based street artist Dan Witz has recently visited London to create a politically charged emotive street art campaign. Dan WItz started painting delicate realistic hummingbird on the streets in the 1970s and is now known for eerie street art featuring despairing oppressed humans incarcerated behind doors and gratings.

London, Street art, Shoreditch, tour, tours, walk, walks, Dan Witz, PETA,” People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals”, “Empty The Cages”, sculpture, installation,cow,pig,chicken,rooster

Danger of Death

Empty The Cages is a new PETA (People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals) campaign for which vegan Dan Witz aims to raise awareness of the cruelty inflicted on animals in the quest for more efficient and cheaper meat production to feed the worst parasite this planet has ever witnessed – mankind.

These pieces have been placed mainly in the Kings Cross and Clerkenwell areas of London. The pieces stand out for their accomplished finish, their coherent message and the daringness of their placement.

A full description of the merits and meanings of this street art campaign can be found on our sister blog Graffoto

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All photos: NoLionsinEngland

Street Artist Skeleton Cardboard Brings Day Of The Dead Early

A burst of activity by English street artist Skeleton Cardboard resulted in the discovery of a number of new nuggets by several Shoreditch Street Art Tours over the weekend.

We found the above painted doors yesterday morning on a route which we hadn’t explored since Saturday morning. A pair of skeletons exhort us to abandon various false media, perhaps we have to learn from their example, look where too much TV, too much responding to the junk mail, living on the never never got them!
Skeleton cardboard is not one of those globe trotting street art mega stars who gets high profile permissioned murals where ever he goes round the world, he has been doing small and generally witty pieces on Shoreditch walls and we can see a clear trajectory of improving street art over the past two years or so.

Just a couple of weeks ago Skeleton Cardboard had a solo show in Monty’s Bar on Brick Lane. The walls were peppered with dark, day-of-the-dead skeletal characters who mocked those stern proclamations prohibitions issued by various authority figures or found on product packaging which we are expected to read and heed. “Nothing of value stored in here” or “invalid if opened” takes on a darker meaning when juxtaposed with a grinning skull on a dancing skeleton.

A couple of tour groups over the weekend also found new paste ups of skeletons painted on found vintage magazine paper. The magazine in question was a supplement to Amateur Gardening, a respectable gardening periodical it seems and the content was Percy Thrower’s picture guide, to what isn’t stated but we guess gardens. There is no date on the paper but Percy Thrower passed away in 1988, he bestrode the worlds of TV and horticulture like a garden centre goliath but those were days when a man mimicking various bird calls was prime time TV.

Good street art pops off its background and Skeleton Cardboard has certainly found a couple of gorgeous locations for placing these paste ups.

We have previously found free art by Skeleton Cardboard on the streets, see here

Street Artist ALO hits Shoreditch again

A perennial favourite, street artist ALO has been busy in Shoreditch in the past few days creating several stunning new portraits. This first one caused quite a stir when we unexpectedly found it on the route of the Shoreditch Street Art Tour this week.

The second of the all female trio is one block away from the Shoreditch Street Art Tour meeting point in Spitalfields.

This third one (below) is actually a matter of yards from where the Shoreditch Street Art Tour usually ends.

Sometimes it is nice to know that others share your love for a particular artist, as passionately declared by this tagger off Brick Lane.

I love your work

After a long period where fans of his work found purchasing canvasses tricky and he was not easy to find online, ALO broke cover with a solo show this Summer at the prestigious Saatchi Gallery, covered here.

London, Shoreditch, street art, street artist, Saatchi, gallery, fine art, solo, show, German, expressionism, Jean Michel Basquiat, Basquiat

Hail To The Loser

.Always popular on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour, it is good to know that we aren’t running out of ALO art anytime soon, join the tour to see other examples of his great work.

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 .

Shoreditch, London, Street art, street,art,Nathan Bowen,graffiti,walk,walks,tour,tours,fish,soldiers, builders, marker pen

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

Flashback – Banksy v. Bristol Museum and Art Gallery 2009

It was 5 years ago that Banksy took over Bristol Museum and Art Gallery for what was his biggest ever proper exhibition. With pre publicity consisting of an undignified scamble by TV stations to a hastily convened press conference the night before, this show took us first by surprise then by storm with attendance records smashed.

London, street art, Bristol, Banksy, Exhibition, tour, walk, graffiti

Banksy v. Bristol commoners

Banksy’s team worked over a three day period behind closed doors to install 100 pieces of Banksy paintings and sculpture, including a mock up of his studio.

Banksy Studio mock up (detail)

Not only was it the largest Banksy inside exhibition ever, it was also his most recent in the UK as we can safely exclude the Marks and Stencils Christmas 2010 group show in Soho, London. We are overdue another Banksy epic on these shores (we felt that in May 2009 too)!

Where Banksy drew the line

Banksy’s real coup was showing how even stuffy institutions could be transformed into a wildly popular public exhibition with a dash of humour and populism, the show was the biggest tourist attraction in the West Country for years and indeed since.

Enter via the 4 hour queue

Graffoto provided the best coverage at the time with both a review by NoLionsInEngland (moi) and an obsessive’s guide and record of the exhibits by Shellshock, my friend, co-blogger and author of the two famous Banksy Locations and Tours books.

Banksy Fat Tourist Rickshaw

LINKS:

Banksy v. Bristol Art Museum and Gallery Review

Banksy v. Bristol Art Museum and Gallery guide to exhbition

all photos: NoLionsinEngland

Jonesy Paints Stunning Shutter In Shoreditch

Jonesy has been one of our favourite artists for a number of years and spotting artwork by him has been a favourite game on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour. He has sprung a surprise by painting a shutter, not something we have seen before from this passionate artist and craftsman.

Jonesy is a master craftsman and awe inspiring artwork in the past has included bronze castings set into walls and atop street sign poles, linoprints and paintings in pastel and oil. His art resonates with concerns over non renewable fuels, nuclear waste and genetically modified organisms.

Jonesy: cast bronze plaque,

In his most recent wave of artwork over the past few weeks, we have seen a number of linoprints on heavy art paper (none of your nicked-from-work photocopier paper), carved wood panel creations and a stunning sculptural installation.

sculpture

Jonesy: Carved wood, paint

drawing

Linocut print A/P

This morning on a pleasant cycling interlude we found this totally unexpected shutter painted by Jonesy. We have never seen anything worked directly on the surface like this before from Jonesy but its real impact is simply in its painterly beauty, nevermind what surface it is on or whether this was spray cans or emulsion and roller, this is just a beautiful work of art – with a message.

Jonesy shutter “Missing Link Hydrogen”

By the way, the “How To Build A Universe” is a relic of a previous piece of work by Edwin. It is possible to see a link between Jonesy’s new piece and Edwin’s old headline.