Sunday 8 January 2012

Graffoto Round Up of the Year - Part 4

Photos by HowAboutNo and NoLionsInEngland And here we have it folks, part 4 of 4 in the round up of 2011. This final look at the year now covers September all the way through to the end of December. Being that it was mild for the time of year, and there were a shed load of art festivals and paint jams in town, the surrounding areas had a nice smattering too. Street art pastes and stencils seemed to be out of the window for pretty much most of this quarter, and I think that was also a big shift for the year. Good to see more talented artists grafting it at the side of a wall. Also nice to see lots of quick and dirty damage throughout town. Rowdy Rowdy/Horror, photo HowAboutNo Brick Lane Rusht, photo HowAboutNo Shane Shane ODV, photo HowAboutNo Roid MSK Roid MSK, photo HowAboutNo D*Face D*Face in progress outside the Moniker Art Fair, photo HowAboutNo D*Face And completed, photo HowAboutNo Various, photo HowAboutNo Occupy Gold Peg, photo HowAboutNo Probs A solid year for the machine of graff that is Probs. Think this is my fave piece he has done ever. (photo HowAboutNo) Jimmy C @ Lounge Lover I think we'll see a bit more of JimmyC in 2011 (photo HowAboutNo) Motor Motor, photo HowAboutNo C215 C215, photo HowAboutNo Ronzo & Conor Harrington, photo HowAboutNo 2011 was the year Ronzo turned his hand away from sculpted pieces to graff.....and a welcome turn it was. This piece painted with Conor Harrington Evol photo HowAboutNo Evol impressively buggered about with scale this set of blocks making up a mini housing estate complete with Elk, Drax and Shun tags. Read more about his visit here P.O.W photo HowAboutNo Banksy did quite a few street pieces, all outside Soreitch - consequently I didn't get off my lazy arse to photograph them. No bother, this was my favourite thing he did all year anyway. Damáge General and most lovely damage . . . (photo HowAboutNo) Swoon Swoon, photo HowAboutNo Gaia This superb paste up by Gaia lasted no more than a few days and was fly posted over (photo HowAboutNo). Revok Roid Revok/Roid at the most single hit "legal" spot in Shoreditch (photo HowAboutNo). Don’t believe the nay-sayers saying the scene has tanked, looking back we have been overwhelmed with top quality shit on the streets of London in 2011. Stuff that should have got a mention earlier but just got missed in the admittedly random selection process includes: Phlegm was down several times during the year Phlegm photo: NoLionsInEngland One of the highlights of the year was the privilege of seeing Sweet Toof and Paul Insect collaborate on this stunning rooftop piece, and in case you missed it, the timelapse is here Sweet Toof, Paul Insect, London Rooftop photo: NoLionsInEngland Elbow Toe Elbow Toe - This Too Shall Pass photo: NoLionsInEngland This Chu sticker made us chuckle earlier in the year CHU - Smoking's fine photo: NoLionsInEngland So that's it for Graffoto's round up of the action in 2011. At the beginning and at lots of points throughout the year it did seem like it was stale and not moving anywhere. Part of wanting to look back at the year at the beginning of a new one has shown that it was a busy and colourful year, full of lots of new names and techniques and people to watch in 2012. The shift also seemed to go towards lots more "with permission" spots last year, I guess a big test for those shutters and areas may fall closer to Olympics time, when the council may decide to buff at random for no reason whatsoever. Happy 2012. Fuck The Buff.

Thursday 5 January 2012

Graffoto Round Up Of The Year - Pt 3

HowAboutNo rashly promised FOUR picture-rich blog posts to review what was up on London’s streets and alleyways in 2011, so I thought I’d contribute something at this stage covering the Summer months, mainly because with our productivity we might not complete this magnus opus until Dec 2012.

Dr D was present and correct throughout 2011, this particular poster reflected what we were all thinking but by pasting up on this scale on the A501, Dr D said it with a little more panache.

Dr D


Small was beautiful throughout 2011,not only the likes of Isaac Cordal and Pablo Delgado (see VNA issue17 for an interview) but new to London’s streets were a collection of hand painted anthropomorphic pig sculptures by lovepiepenbrinck.

lovepiepenbrinck


Italian artist Clet Abraham visited these shores early in the Summer and took the liberty of modifying a number of our street signs.

Clet Abraham

We didn’t see too much of Kid Acne on London walls this year but he seemingly did go out on a bombing mission one night in the company of Aida and Emma. Seeing my bike leaning against a wall on the fringes of the shot reminds me of the self inflicted stupidity that led to my bike being nicked from just 3 feet from me in Brick lane in October. Twat.

kid acne


Stencils on old newspapers are Mr.Farenheit’s stock in trade, he (she?) certainly got up a lot throughout 2011. Supposedly the QR codes used in a lot of his paste ups do work.

Mr.Farenheit


Mobstr had a great year, frequently targeting street artist’s commercial agendas and, as in this one, the council buff.

Mobstr


Continuing to display a refined appreciation of vintage Burlesque as well as a faculty for hitting the high spots, Saki and Bitches turned out to be a continuing surprise and mystery – until her warmly received pop-out, sorry... pop up show in East London.

Saki and Bitches


Saki and Bitches


Ai Wei Wei had a piece running in Tate Modern in London and despite being unjustly detained in China for a long period was able to get these fearsome beasts up outdoors in London. OK, the courtyard, Somerset House.

Ai Wei Wei



Dain
Dain putting up some of my favourite paste ups EVER. This lasted 1 day and was then fly pasted over.

Stinkfish
Stinkfish

C215
C215 had at least a couple of trips to the UK in 2011, this was my fave from the year.

El Mac
El Mac painted this piece shortly before going off to paint in the Bristol "See No Evil" event.

New names in 2011. . .

These artists may well have exhisted long before last year, but in 2011 they smashed Hackney/Shoreditch and Brick Lane . . .

Nemo
Nemo

Nemo
Nemo

Malarky
Malarky

Malarky
Malarky



Kata

Kata

Kata - who showed ealry spouts of activity in July/August...but not much else since.


Part 4 before the weekend is out....in your Face!

Monday 2 January 2012

Graffoto Round Up of the Year - Part 2

Part 2 of 4 in the round up of my favourite graffiti and street art action in 2011. Already a few days into the new year, this all feels so last year already. . .

All photos by HowAboutNo except where stated.

Probs
Probs

Various

Blam repainted his famous Oscar the Grouch piece (and possibly one of the longest lasting pieceof street art, it was up for nigh on 6 years, but was unfortunately buffed quite a while ago now) I think we all knew this one would never last as long. Painted on a legal spot in Brick Lane that had a lot of visitors this year.

Blam

Pablo Delgado proved to be an interesting newcomer, a slightly new take on stuff that could have just been tired and forgotten about, he made sure that he placed them in enough spots to be seen and at least he was an artist that was getting up regardless of any print release of self marketing campaign. (his work is available at Pure Evil I realise, but small hand limited editions only.)

Pablo Delgado

Pablo Delgado

Pablo Delgado

Stik
Stik

A.ce

A wet weekend at home in East Sussex in May. Being at home means usually not much to be seen in the way of street art or graffiti - so I took up "urbexing" to fill in some down time. I thought nothing of seeing the odd bit of graff here and there in the derelict buildings....but was amazed to find my first real Paul Insect piece in an old abandoned girls school. . . . .

Dead Mickey

Islington-20110617-Myne
Myne

Back in January, a chance encounter with a young man on the streets was our first introduction to the colourful and angular world of ALO. Before too long ALO was getting up with spiky, twisted characters on board

Raise a glass to Bortusk Leer who did more than his share to brighten London's corners with mad-cap fun.

DSC_8129
Photo: NolionsInEngland

In April we got our first introduction to a man who came to pretty much own Shoreditch shutters before the year was out. Malarky continued to have a big impact throughout 2011 with High Roller Society hosting a Malarky presented Gocco Printing workshop workshop and a prestigious interview in VNA issue 17, still available here

DSC_9780 copy
Photo: NolionsInEngland

We lost two HOFs during the year, the second comes up later but regardless of the arts council lumberjack fest, nothing in the UK matched the cultural desecration the demolition of The Pit, RIP, wrought on an un-broken line back to the very beginnings of London graff.

The Pit RIP
Photo: NolionsInEngland

One of 2011's most brilliant street art campaigns was by the old master Ron English. Judging by the huge numbers of human-free photos that surfaced on the net it seems not many spotted that the speech bubbles were meant to interact with passers-by, as revealed on Graffoto here.

ron english
Photo: NolionsInEngland

Ad Skewville was over in the Spring. Apart the brilliant "Slow Your Roll" show at High Roller Society, Skewville dropped a number of stunning shutters on Roman Rd and Bethnal Green Rd including the pair above exchanging honest Brooklynite greetings across the street.

Skewville  "YO!  - YO backatcha" shutters DSC_4815
Photo: NolionsInEngland

Part 3 to follow soon which will cover the months of July to September.