Tag Archives: Tours

New 616 art in Shoreditch

Yesterday at about lunchtime I bumped into a figure wearing a kagoule with strings drawn tight around the hood and a 7 month “just back from the Arctic me” beard poking out through the face port.  I greeted the street art legend 616 as he tugged a large wheeled box down Brick Lane.  It might have contained paint; 616 was vague about where he might be heading and I am sure would have been even more vague about the box’s contents.  This is the way it should be.

This morning, Seven Stars Car Park sported a new piece of art by 616.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, tours, photography, 616, spraypaint, seven stars

616, graff by Vibes RT

A gorgeous multi layered piece arranged across successive stub walls guides the eye to a new set of characters on top a wall, beyond which after a couple of intervening properties lies the graveyard around Christ Church Spitalfields.

From a distance the characters appear to be masquerading as tombstones but closer inspection reveals that eyes and mouths are present as usual.  What to me is not usual is the 6 eyed character on the wall, it was only last year that I noticed 616 introduce a four eyed character for the first time.

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I often praise 616 for the inventiveness of his street art and racking my brains I can’t of too many other artists who create single pieces of street art spread over several surfaces (but, see below), This work he created yesterday refines and repeats a similar piece of work he painted over the same walls last year:

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Knowing 616’s perpetual quest for new mediums and the way he often submerges his identity beneath cryptic clues alluding to the moniker 616, it wouldn’t surprise me if he figures out a way to do a mono eyed character in his leaf shape style and then presents a mono eyed character flanked by two six eyed characters.  Ground, gauntlet…….  c’mon 616!

Here is a piece by Zabou that we looked at on the street art tour this morning, another example of an artist using two different surfaces in a single piece of street art; there are also others that have used this corner shutter configuration.

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All photos: Dave Stuart aka Nolionsinengland


Constant Changes

The enormous panoply of street art in Shoreditch changes daily and it is a constant thrill to be guiding the tour and to come across brand new art which we didn’t know existed. The tour this afternoon was no exception, we came across a lovely piece by Alice Pasquini which hadn’t been seen on any previous tour.   The colourful female character is in typical Alice Pasquini style and its placement outside a shop across lettering proclaiming various beauty treatments available within just “works”, even the drippy tag underneath Alice’s character contributes beautifully to the colour scheme.

London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, guide, Alice Pasquini

Alice Pasquini

Alice Pasquini was in London late last week in connection of the opening of XX: A Moment In Time, an exhibition of new works by female street artists in the Saatchi Gallery so this new piece dates back to last weekend. In another location there was a new piece of art which was so fresh we could still smell paint! Frankie Strand and ThisOne have created a green hued female character threatened in some way by a skeletal gypsy figure. This is the first time I have ever seen Frankie Strand paint a human (like) character.

London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, guide, Frankie Strand, This One, This1

Frankie Strand v. This One

Earlier this week on a different route the tour came across a couple of other fresh Alice Pasquini paintings.

London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, guide, Alice Pasquini,

Alice Pasquini

London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, guide, Alice Pasquini

Alice pasquini

Frankie Strand has been quite prolific in the past 12 months and earlier this year painted an interesting piece with Crey One on the boundary of the old Shoreditch Tube Station which fuses the core disciplines of graffiti and street art.  Notice This One also appearing in the margins on that piece.

London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, guide, Frankie Strand,, Crey One

Frankie Strand v. Crey One: street art & graffiti

Links:

Alice Pasquini

Frankie Strand

This One

XX: A Moment In Time

Saatchi Gallery 3 Feb 2016 – 6 March 20216

all photos: Dave Stuart aka NoLionsInEngland


London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, walks, found art, free art, #365artdrops, Sean Worrall

New Years Day New Free Art by Sean Worrall

Last night I was picking photos and writing words to go in a review of 2015 street art that had caught my eye when I saw on Sean Worrall’s facebook page that he had been out hanging a few pieces of free street art, also known as found art or art that the artist does intend you take home and treasure in Shoreditch. I am going to have to re-write what I wrote last night because on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour today we found several pieces of Sean’s #365artdrops project.

London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, walks, found art, free art, #365artdrops, Sean Worrall

#365artdrops number 239

#365artdrops is a project that Sean has run throughout 2015 and a number of the free pieces of street art he has left on the street have gone home with guests of Shoreditch Street Art Tours.

London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, walks, found art, free art, #365artdrops, Sean Worrall

#365artdrops 258

London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, walks, found art, free art, #365artdrops, Sean Worrall

#365artdrops 258

The two pieces above are both going to a new home in Sydney, Australia.   This next piece was destined to decorate family premises in Spain.

London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, walks, found art, free art, #365artdrops, Sean Worrall

#365artdrops 357

An interesting aspect of Sean’s project is that he has no control over what happens to his #365artdrops once he steps away from it. Some of it may end up in skips, one piece I know of found a home hanging in the toilet of a Shoreditch café and a number have actually ended up travelling the world, a long way from their original liberation from skips and bins on the streets of London.

London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, walks, found art, free art, #365artdrops, Sean Worrall

#365artdrops 357

Sean has just published a blog post about the completion of his #365artdrops project and promises a more comprehensive review of the project soon, it will be fascinating to get his insight into what impacts the project has had on him as a person and an artist.  Well done Sean Worrall for keeping up that project throughout 2015, we will miss the excitement of these chance discoveries.

Sean updates his Facebook page and a photo album with the latest news on his #365artdrops project here: https://www.facebook.com/sean.worrall1

For previous works of art from Sean’s project which were found, photographed and written about on blog posts, click here

All photos: Dave Stuart aka NoLionsInEngland


London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, walks, found art, free art, Imaginary Friend

Shoreditch Free Art Finds New Homes

Street artists have been in generous mood leaving Free Art for people to collect and a couple of guests on this morning’s tour found themselves going home with new found art pieces.

First, Tindra found this curious burnt matchstick painted on glass which she hopes she can take home to Sweden.

London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, walks, found art, free art, Imaginary Friend

“He Tells me To Do It” – painting on glass

“He tell’s me to do it” [punctuation: artist’s own] – Some pyromaniac is blaming the Imaginary Friend, this will look great in a plain frame with the wall behind being set alight by the match.

Then Jennifer became the proud owner of the latest in a substantial line of free art by Sean Worrall deposited on the streets under the aegis of his #365artdrop project.

London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, walks, found art, free art, #365artdrops, Sean Worrall

Sean Worrall #365artdrops

Part 312 of 365 is going to find a new home in Missouri, USA.

London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, walks, found art, free art, #365artdrops, Sean Worrall

Delighted new owner Jennifer

London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, walks, found art, free art, #365artdrops, Sean Worrall

Sean Worrall “Please Take” #365artdrops

Previous #365artdrop discoveries by guests were mentioned on blog posts here: http://bit.ly/1M2nEnf

Sean updates his Facebook page and a photo album with the latest news on his #365artdrops project here: https://www.facebook.com/sean.worrall1

All photos: Dave Stuart


London, Shoreditch,Nomadic Community Gardens, Meeting Of Styles, Graffiti, Street art, tour, tours, artist, art

Meeting Of Styles UK 2015

Meeting Of Styles returned to Shoreditch recently for the second Summer on the trot. Over a 2 day period spraycan graffiti writers and street artists from Brazil to Russia via Spain and UK threw a wild ribbon of colour around Shoreditch.

London, Shoreditch,Nomadic Community Gardens, Meeting Of Styles, Graffiti, Street art, tour, tours, artist, art

Tyme (Swe), Adno (Rus), Awone (Swe), DJa’Louz (Fr) and from the UK Jim Vision, Zadok and below them Kak, Ekto and Wisher.

London, Shoreditch,Nomadic Community Gardens, Meeting Of Styles, Graffiti, Street art, tour, tours, artist, art

Meeting Of Styles UK 15

Meeting of Styles is an international and not-for-profit federation of spraycan festivals, this year 22 MoS festivals around the world are responding to the “Mind Above Matter” theme, though not all were as focussed on the theme as Neoh below.

London, Shoreditch,Nomadic Community Gardens, Meeting Of Styles, Graffiti, Street art, tour, tours, artist, art , Neoh, impressionism

Neoh

The focal point for the festival was a dramatically transformed elbow of land trapped between a knot of railway tracks now under new ownership and currently renamed the Nomadic Community Gardens. A primarily Bangladeshi community have transformed the Fleet St Hill end of the gardens with raised beds of allotments while a temporary village of tents, vans and dens of upcycled wood and canvas housed kitchens, bars, decks and admin.

London, Shoreditch,Nomadic Community Gardens, Meeting Of Styles, Graffiti, Street art, tour, tours, artist, art

Nomadic Community Gardens

Wall locations were geographically more wide spread this year, the centre of weight shifted over to the Bethnal Green side of Brick Lane with some painting taking place even further east than the Nomadic Gardens Community Centre.

London, Shoreditch,Nomadic Community Gardens, Meeting Of Styles, Graffiti, Street art, tour, tours, artist, art

Stendec & Soma

Traditional bubble letters and wild style sit happily alongside 3D, abstract, the “post graffiti graffuturism” and calligraphy based graffiti writing. It is not all letter writing though, characters and creatures and even sculpture made an appearance.

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For a lot more photographs and a bit more analysis, check out the Graffoto post of which this is essentially an abstract of highlights.

All photos: NoLionsInEngland


Borondo London Exhibition – “Animal”

Spanish street artist Borondo moved to London in early 2014 and has been a firm favourite among the guests of Shoreditch Street Art Tours ever since for street art such as these:

Shoreditch,London,Street Art,Tour, Street artist,Borondo,Spanish,window,figurative, Street art,graffiti,London,Shoreditch,walk,tour,Borondo,Spain,Spanish

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Tours, Borondo, impressionist, impressionism,

He made us wait quite a while for a gallery exhibition but the wait is over, his show “Animals” is in the London Newcastle space on Redchurch street and is a superb exhibition.

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Tours, Borondo, impressionist, impressionism, animals, beasts, London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Tours, Borondo, impressionist, impressionism, animals, beasts, London, Shoreditch, Street Art, Tours, Borondo, impressionist, impressionism, animals, beasts,

There is a fuller critique with a lot more photos on the Graffoto blog, click here


London, Shoreditch, Street art, tours,tour,walk,tripadvisor,reviews,independent

Wow – You Are Awesome (yes you!)

Wow – you guys are awesome! You’ve only gone and written 500 brilliant reviews on Tripadvisor of Shoreditch Street Art Tours. In doing so you have made Shoreditch Street Art Tours the 3rd best thing to do in London out of 1179 activities! For a while your support even made us No. 2, maybe we’ll get back there sometime.

The thing is, these reviews are the independent opinions of guests of Shoreditch Street Art Tours, we can write all the waffle we want on our website but none of it will ever mean as much as your independent feedback, that’s the beauty of Tripadvisor, it is you folks and your brilliant summaries.

So, thank you very much to all of you who have shown unanimous appreciation of the passion and dedication put into making Shoreditch Street Art Tours such a memorable and powerful experience.

There are over 200 super photos taken by guests on the tour have been uploaded to the Shoreditch Street Art Tours Tripadvisor profile and as a tribute to you, we have created brief slideshow of a selection of those pictures. The guests whose photos feature in this selection are acknowledged in the picture captions and of course we thank all other Tripadvisor reviewers who have also uploaded a selection of their photogenic memories of the tour.

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London, Los Angeles, San Juan, Berlin, Street Art, artists, graffiti, illustration, skate, punk, fashion, tour, tours, Shoreditch, Valentines Day

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

London, Los Angeles, San Juan, Berlin, Street Art, artists, graffiti, illustration, skate, punk, fashion, tour, tours, Shoreditch, Valentines Day

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.

London, Los Angeles, San Juan, Berlin, Street Art, artists, graffiti, illustration, skate, punk, fashion, tour, tours, Shoreditch, Valentines Day

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).

London, Los Angeles, San Juan, Berlin, Street Art, artists, graffiti, illustration, skate, punk, fashion, tour, tours, Shoreditch, Valentines Day

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.

London, Los Angeles, San Juan, Berlin, Street Art, artists, graffiti, illustration, skate, punk, fashion, tour, tours, Shoreditch, Valentines Day

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

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

photo: Jef Aerosol

In London:

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

je suis charlie

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

je suis charlie

London, Shoreditch,Street art,graffiti,walk,tour,walks, tours,jesuischarlie,artists, Pure Evil

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