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VNA Issue 26: Robert “3D” Del Naja Interview and Special Cover

Just a quick follow up to our post the other day about Very Nearly Almost issue 26, last night at the launch we picked up one of the two special edition screen printed covers and what a beauty it is. Faced with the tough choice between pink and lemon, we went yellow!

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Glittery Special Edition Lemon Cover

There are four variants on the cover Mr Greg Beer from VNA explained last night. The retail over-the-counter edition features a portrait of the artist.

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Cover 1

The mail order/subscription order edition features a cover based on 3D’s art.

Very Nearly Almost Zine Launch Issue 26

Cover 2

Then there is the limited edition screen printed cover which comes in either glittery pink or glittery yellow. This photo does nothing to show how glittery and lemon yellow this cover is in the flesh. The pink is stunning too.

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Special Edition Lemon colour

Finally, we came across this short clip of the VNA interview with Robert “3D” Del Naja made by our good friend DScreet whose art sometimes features on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour, depending upon what route we take. If you can hear the tune that kicks in at about 1 minute without thinking of Ruth Wilson, then you probably missed Luther.

Very Nearly Almost Zine Launch Issue 26

Once a quarter a new edition of street art/urban art/illustration mag VNA hits the streets and excitement is unrestrained. The launch is heralded by not one but two launch parties. Thursday 22nd May sees a launch at Lazarides Outsiders Gallery on Greek St, Soho then on Saturday the festivities move to Weapons Of Choice Gallery in Bristol.

VNA25_launch-party_LDN

Cover artist for Issue 26 is multi talented Robert “3D” del Naja, artist and musician with Bristol’s seminal Massive Attack (my cue to put Heligoland on the hi fi right now). The magazine comes in four versions including a glitter sprinkled limited edition featuring a heavyweight cotton tote bag, featuring one of 3D’s iconic knife and fork prints, and some tasty postcards of his work.

Cover 2

Facebook event pages for the two launches are available here:

Bristol Launch – Weapon Of Choice Gallery – Saturday 24th May – 6-9pm www.facebook.com/events/672665359467071

London Launch – The Outsiders – Thursday 22nd May – 6-9pm – www.facebook.com/events/456982974436187

Having read the Robert del Naja and Aida interviews we can say that VNA’s impeccable coverage of the scene is sustained through this issue. Artists featured in this issue include Numskull (Aus), Augustine Kolfie (LA), Calma (Brazil), Buff Monster (NY via LA), Katrin Fridriks (Iceland), Greg Lamarche (NY), Ernest Zacharevic (Lit), TenTen (Poland), truly an international roster of the highest pedigree. VNA issue 26 also contains the usual slew of great photographs from Mark Rigney, Paul Grey, Claude Crommelin and (cough) NoLionsInEngland, as well as Chasing Ghosts’s photo feature on stickers and street art from Singapore.

Both Covers

Cruise the party, get the mag. VNA Issue 26 is here, details of an online lottery to get the ridiculously cheap special limited edition are due to be announced by VNA shortly.

VNA Bristol Launch

Shoreditch Gets Decorators In!

The weekend of 10^th and 11^th of May saw a huge street art “rehang” in the ever changing gallery of Shoreditch walls.

Despite the rain, the best of London’s spraycan painters had a productive weekend. Jim Vision assisted Louis Masai raising awareness of looming eco-catastrophe with the #saveTheBees mural.

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Save The Bees – Masai

Perhaps by chance this was the wall where a few of our finest ran into a spot of bother with the feds the previous weekend, a truly bizarre situation partially rectified this weekend when the wall was painted not once but twice!! This piece featuring Blair Zaye, Ubangibangi and others lasted barely 24 hours.

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Ubangibangi, Blair Zaye

On Sunday evening, Swizz artist FRA was back in town in company with his compatriot Quendo peppering the walls with a variety of paste up stencils.

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Fra, Quendo

Quendo

London silk screen printer and Master Of Scale Donk was out late on Sunday putting up an awesomely composed Westminster Abbey reimagined as the sinister starship Gothica 2! If you are going to go over a long running masterpiece it had better be good, this qualifies. Look and learn toys!

Donk – Gothica 2

Shoreditch is nothing without its ability to draw high calibre international artists so we are pleased to find this piece from Denver based Bunny M, her lady with unicorn and errrr…antelope? Gazelle? Horns is beautifully intricate and an un-expected surprise.

Bunny M

Rounding a corner we chanced upon the French legend Thierry Noir, king of the Berlin wall faces decorating an also legendary panel outside Cargo nightclub. The Shoreditch Street Art Tour Group had an interesting chat with Noir and one of the group had a lovely discussion about a long wall of sad faces they had found in Berlin.

Thierry Noir

Jim Vision also found time to produce this masterpiece collaborating with Martin Ron from Argentina, who maybe was trying to redeem himself for the horror of painting the Hanbury St wall alongside the ROA piece last September.

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Jim Vision, Martin Ron

In Slater St car park a huge array of London’s street artists turned out to paint a giant cartoon mural in honour of Captain Kris’ (Lost Souls) birthday. In the mix we can see in no particular order Saki and Bitches (that stands out!) Captain Kris, Irony, Ubangibangi, SP067, Si Mitchell, Himbad, Airborne Mark, Squirl Art, Seeds One, Mr Fan HC, The Real Dill, Lilly Lou, Tonyboy – with apologies to any others left off this list. Also present but not visible in this picture 616.

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Too many to shake a stick at

Finally, situationist sloganeering on Hanbury St, not the first time we have seen this yellow paint on clingfilm in Shoreditch, artist unknown. (and of course, not the first time in history it has been done either!)

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“Too much time, not enough sense” Clingfilm artist unknown

all photos: NoLionsInEngland

New Shoreditch Street Art

Another long weekend, another amazing collection of new street art on the streets of Shoreditch.

Although put up a little before the weekend, this piece by T.Wat received huge press attention as he timed this to coincide with Max Clifford, the most notorious peddler of smut and scandal to the UK tabloids, being found guilty of charges of abusing underage girls and sentenced to 8 years in prison. Already considerably modified and tagged.

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T.Wat

Unify is a stencil artist who has been getting busy around Shoreditch quite a bit in the past few months, two new pieces appeared over the weekend including this pop at Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) and his view on the recent budget.

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Unify shafted by Chancellor

Paste up artist IMR Vere did a couple of nice contextual pieces including this javelin thrower

IMR Vere Javelin thrower

We last saw Paris based Monsieur Qui on the streets of Shoreditch in 2010, he evidently is back judging by this awesome paste up we found this morning. Although he has gone over Syd, it looks like Syd’s stencilled girl is poised for revenge.

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Monsieur Qui vs Syd

616 who is always on the look out for unconventional media to paint his tribal characters found a foam mattress but lost his bed.

616 Lost His Bed

The hard working always up Sell Out added butterflies and some Mary Poppins to Jef Aerosol’s Gnawa musicians.

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Sell Out v. Jef Aerosol

Finally and although again painted just before the weekend but too good to omit on that technicality, we love the humour in Cosmo Sarson’s Caravaggio selfie.

Cosmo Sarson

Steve Powers Book/Film “A Love Letter For You”

Photos from “A Love Letter For You”, copyright Steve Powers; Free News Projects, Publishers; credited photographers Adam Wallacavage, Zoe Strauss, Darwin Rowland and Mike Lee; other photo as stated.

Shoreditch Street Art Tours was proud to have among its guests today Jane Golden, Executive Director City Of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and Brian Campbell from Philadelphia Mural Arts Program following an intorduction from our good friend in Philadelphia, RJ Rushmore of Vandalog. They kindly presented me with a copy of the book “A Love Letter For You” (Brick valentines on the Philly skyline) by Steve Powers as Espo Icy.

I was fortunate in 2012 to attend the Moniker Projects screening of Steve Powers’ film of the same name and the Cedar Lewisohn hosted Q&A session with Steve Powers after. I believe this may be the only time the film has been screened in the UK. Many guests on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour will have heard our synopsis of the plot and how it is connected to Steve Powers’ still running “Let Us Adore and Endure Eachother” London love letter.

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London Love Letter

photo: NoLionsInEngland

I was particularly struck by words written by Steve Powers at the back of the book in which he laments the disproportionate 8 years in state prison for 18 yr old Sebastien Perez and 19 yr old Ralph Mirabel, my views on the obscene sentence handed down to London writer 10Foot have been covered before on Graffoto but nothing I wrote matches the eloquence and target smacking punch of ESPO ICY’s words:

“The marks they made will fade before they get out, but their lives are completely and irrevocably vandalised [emphasis mine] by an unrepentant tagger named justice.”

Feel those words.

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Busy Easter Bunnies

There was no break over the Easter weekend for street artists in Shoreditch, productivity was high and a number of super new pieces of street art appeared.

This year’s star Borondo lived up to his soaring reputation in the London street art scene by painting the iconic Sclater St car park wall. Previous pieces on this wall by Jimmy C and Dal East lasted roughly 10 months and 11 months respectively so hopefully Barondo’s new piece will prove equally enduring. At first glance the intertwined bodies suggest the aftermath of a roman orgy but as someone on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour pointed out over the weekend, it might also be a body pit, a mass burial grave. You decide!

Borondo

The Shoreditch Street Art Tour also chanced upon the Portuguese talent Furia ACK completing a wonderful portrait in charcoal and chalk.

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Furia ACK

Otto Schade was also spied out on Brick Lane with the slightly curious task of painting a yellow ribbon based acid smiley map of London over….. a yellow ribbon based acid smiley map of London! This is at least the 4^th painting Otto Schade has created on this particular wall, the new version is a tad larger than the old and a misty fire now smoulders at the bottom of the wall.

Otto Schade

We don’t see much street art composed as a dyptich but that seems to be exactly what Lex Dura has done with this “Life is beautiful”/ ”So is my Mum” two parter.

Lex Dura

Jim Vision made huge strides on a mural of a white horse thundering through the shore break on a beach but the continuous rain in the latter part of the weekend means this is yet to complete. Many other artists were out making clandestine marks on Shoreditch’s walls over the weekend ensuring continual change to the bright, colourful and interesting street art.

all photos: NoLionsInEngland

Jef Aerosol New London Street Art 2014

French stencil legend Jef Aerosol surprised the Shoreditch Street Art Tour when he strolled past in a hurry after creating some fresh street art. By chance we happened to meet right at a spot where in 2008 Jef Aerosol put up a long lasting stencil of John Lennon and Mick Jagger.

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Brimful of excitement, the group was amazed later to find a new piece of Jef Aerosol work on the streets. This pasted image shows two Moroccan Gnawa musicians, Jef visited Morocco last month and it made a deep impression on him and the composition is an interesting addition to the many popular musical legends who have been a mainstay of his work.

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Jef Aerosol – Moroccan Gnawa musicians

Further East Jef has done an even better piece of art on the dilapidated and boarded up exterior of an old fishmongers. The images are stencilled onto the wall, not pasted and in addition to a couple of his urchin children there are two fishes rising up and escaping their normal aquatic boundaries, and interesting response to the former use of the site.

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You can view a photographic survey of Jef’s London street art over the years here.

Jef has had several significant shows in the UK over the past decade, our favourite was probably Spray It Loud in Islington back in 2008.

all photos: NoLionsInEngland

Banksy old, Banksy New

Lots of excitement in Banksy World at the moment with new pieces of street art appearing and old pieces being stolen.

First the two new new pieces, one has gone up in Bristol and has in effect been confirmed as a Banksy by its appearance on his website, from which these two photos are borrowed with thanks:

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mobile lovers, Bristol

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photos: Banksy.co.uk

The second piece is a brilliant composition mocking government surveillance of our phone calls and social media interactions, as described fully by The Guardian in various Pulitzer Prize award winning articles. Everything from the subject matter to the style of the stencils, the colours, the humour, the use of the specific furniture and fabric of the street screams Banksy but as yet it hasn’t appears on his website. The location is particularly brilliant, this piece is in Cheltenham, home to the UK government spooks at GCHQ.

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photo: flickr user SaLLy

Everyone seems agreed it is a Banksy and I’m joining that crew! This photo was taken by flickr user Sally, thanks Sally.

The new Bristol Banksy has already been removed though not without some controversy. The piece was taken in “to prevent any vandalism or damage” by Broad Plains Boys Club based next door to the property with the Banksy on, they believe they can sell it to raise much needed funds that would help them avoid closure due to funding cuts. Certainly they seem to believe that it may have been deliberately placed there by Banksy for them to use for fund raising, even though that isn’t really his usual modus operendi for contributing to deserving causes. In their favour it seems unlike Banksy to install a nice piece like this in such a casual way that a couple of dozen easily removed cross head screws are all that stand between it and liberty. Perhaps he did want them to take it. There is a debate that the door actually belongs to the council and isn’t the Boys Club’s to remove or sell. On the other hand, reports suggest that the wood sheet it is painted on was placed there by Banksy and therefore didn’t belong to the council. Doubtless this one will run awhile until facts become fully established and lawyers chip in.

Meanwhile, in a seemingly unrelated development, a video has appeared by StealingBanksy.com showing the recent removal of a Girl With Balloon Banksy piece from a wall in Shoreditch, sometimes our tour swings by this spot.

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StealingBanksy.com

The organisation behind its removal is part of the Sincura Group. Whispers started circulating two months ago that this Girl with Balloon was to be put on display in an exhibition this April with six other pieces of Banksy street art after which the pieces were to be auctioned. If we heard that rumour, you can be certain Banksy heard it too. We expected a publicity blizzard to blow up around this display of street Banksys but Banksy himself has hijacked the agenda by launching his own pre-emptive newsworthy stunt, cutting right across the promotional efforts to pump up the show of the street Banksys.

If Banksy hadn’t appeared on the walls at exactly this point in time, all the press coverage surrounding Sincura’s publicity hype would have focussed on “Banksy has done hardly anything in the UK recently”, now Banksy has prevented that train of thought developing steam. Great timing Banksy!

I Hate This Font, Banksy, May 2012

Curiously, StealingBanksy.com seems to be somewhat over-reaching in a strange attempt to dress up their activity as some kind of glamorous vandalism. Illegally stolen? Not if rumours that they bought the wall off the legal wall owners are to be believed.

Sloppy errors of fact relating to Banksy’s street art are littered across the StealingBanksy blurb. There were more than just the two Girl With Balloons they claim in London. What is their objective, to attach some sense of scarcity value to their Girl With Balloon?

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Girl With Balloon, 600 yards from King Johns Court, Shoreditch (buffed)

Banksy,London, Shoreditch, street art,graffiti,tour,guide,guided,walk,theft,

Girl With Balloon, honest (buffed), 300 yards from King Johns Court

The film also claims that the Girl With Balloon from King Johns Court was painted in 2006 but we know for certain it dates from well before that.

Girl With Balloon, photo ArtOfTheState, 2004

Banksy certainly dislikes his street pieces being removed and sold like this, he’d much rather they lived a natural life on the streets, even if falling victim to the buff is their fate. If speculation that he intended the mobile lovers in Bristol as a life saving gift to the Broad Plains Boys Club is in any way accurate that would be a radical change for the Master!

UPDATE: the always excellent Vandalog street art blog has just published a fascinating interview with a Director of the Sincura group, well worth reading here

Thanks to great friends ArtOfTheState and HowAboutNo for fact checking and opinion sharing and use of ArtOfTheState’s photo with kind permission, to Sally for kind permission to use her Cheltenham Banksy photo and to Banksy for use of his photos.

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.

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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.

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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!

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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!). .

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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