Hit Shot Walls May 2013

All photos: NoLionsInEngland


May was a busy month for street artists and photographers of street art. London has been blessed by visits from a plethora of overseas street art stars, let’s start with a few shots of work by an artist new to us, Dede who is reported to come from Israel. Dede’s paste ups were all nice, original and well placed but specially noteworthy were the huge quantity of evidently handmade (screenprinted?) individual stickers


DEDE



DEDE


Also from Israel, regular recent visitors Unga and Tant of Broken Fingerz crew popped back to Shoreditch recently to paint some naked chicks on bikes with big handle bars stuff. It’s what decaying disused doorways are for really.


BROKEN FINGAZ


The international invasion turned intergalactic with the arrival of Space Invader, whose Earth base is in France.


SPACE INVADER


SPACE INVADER


London always welcomes Belgian artist ROA and this month he obliged with two of his finest large scale murals. One located on South Bank must by dint of the nature of the tourist spot and also the heavy traffic on passing railway lines be in with a shout of being his most eyeballed ever, while the other in a grim alleyway is far from the beaten track for anyone other than winos, junkies and street art photographers.


ROA



ROA (detail)


DALeast and Mrs DALeast, herself more commonly known as Faith47, arrived to decorate various walls around Shoreditch. DALeast ran a cheeky little competition for the first 50 people to photograph all 7 pieces he did in London, the twist being the 7th one is located on private property behind locked doors and I can testify that a polite knock earns a frosty reception, so no image here of that particular holy grail.


DALeast



FAITH47


Yola is another artist previously unheard of who visited London and put up some large scale paste-up. Whilst this particular wall has been running for far longer that is healthy in an active street art scene, we weren’t impressed with the lack of respect in papering over this DScreet/Cept collab on Bacon St. On the other hand, this may possibly be a symptom of the pressure on space these days with so many spots reserved for curated/permissioned street art.


YOLA over Dscreet



YOLA


South Coast native Shuby visited London and revealed a complete potty-mouthed approach to letterpress paste ups though frankly who’s surprised, surely you remember the “knickers” portraits from a couple of years ago?


SHUBY


Early in the month we located a cluster of Lad stickers by The London Police but the star find were these custom kicks done in “get your chems here” boots over the telephone wires style.


THE LONDON POLICE


Not all invasions were intergalactic, Kid Acne brought a fresh wave of his Bouddica referencing Stabby Women to various front doors.


KID ACNE


At some point local hero Benjamin Murphy did this stab through the heart though we only found it in May so it qualifies for this months’ HSW.


BENJAMIN MURPHY (artist formerly known as AD/SO?)


An all too infrequent visit to Hackney Wick for a whistlestop shutter clicking frenzy yielded a cluster of ballerinas by spraycan impressionist and rude tagger Neoh.


NEOH



NEOH

Many London graff photographers have got used to popping in to the Kings Court car park to photograph the high spec spraycan artistry available there on a fairly good turnover. However, about 6 months ago the moody bastard on the gate who I always made a point of checking in with said "no photographs on weekdays, punters don’t like it; weekends only”. More recently this became "no photographers at all", a point reinforced with a laminated notice displayed at the gate. You can take spray paint into the car park but not camera lenses???? Cue our community’s applause and general mirth at Malabrocca’s huge fuck-off notice directly opposite. Apart from the dig at the car park proprietor’s, there is of course the irony that documenting the art breaches its prohibition, ho ho.


MALABROCCA


MALABROCCA


We have been hugely impressed with Jonesy’s use of street art to promote environmental awareness and score political points. This seemingly unique piece appears to show an over-furry figure with a stunted tree growing out of his head squatting behind a begging bowl, so while we like the art its meaning has us a little baffled.



JONESY

Aida’s fluorescent cheebra’s, half zebra, half cheetahs have been popping up in a few locations, curiously they always seem to yield good photo opportunities which reflects good placement.


AIDA


I mentioned this was a busy month for photographers what with 2 street art photography shows and a debate on the nature of the incestuous relationship between street art and photography, there is also the small matter of the Street Art Photography Workshops which I want to brazenly plug here. The essence of the idea is spending about an hour talking through tips, hints and ideas for photographing street art with the aid of a slide show then to go out onto the Shoreditch streets to play with the wide range of opportunities for street art phototgraphy. The feedback has been pretty awesome and the workshops continue. Check HERE for updated news and schedule. Plug over. For this time.

Hit Shot Walls March 2013

All photos: NoLionsInEngland

Not making any promises that this will become a regular feature but....here are some musings on and pics of street art and graffiti which happened to catch our eye around London recently.

Sweet Toof and Insect knocked up some gorgeous paste ups and papered a broad swath of London’s East End. Choosing photogenically distressed spots to get up, Sweet Toof went for a slightly less lurid pink version of his characteristic gums whilst Insect churned out a range of floppy eared mouse characters with colourful highlights, a reprise of a Hendrix zombie and a barcode coffin wake.








OBIT is on a roll and you can find his stickers and paste ups all over London but in the past week he took on the shutters on a well known bric-a-brac den on Brick Lane, his subject matter reflecting the three organs which come to most harm in Graffoto's obsession with the wondrous beauty of street art (and lavish art openings with free beer).


KGS, Allintha, Obey (modified),Obit


What was interesting to see was KGS getting the crew name high and loud in this street art central location, more power to them. In a world gone mural-loco with several organisations competing to pass permission slips into the hand of any visiting artist who is willing to play the mutual promotion painting game, illegal street art has really been marginalised over the past 18 months. Good to see people willing to grow a pair and get up high and illegal along this mural mile. Compare the above shot with the same spot just a few days earlier, noting by comparison KGS’s comedy modification of the Obey at the far end.


Kata, D7606/Gee Street Art, Unknown, Mobstr, Unga, Allintha, Obey


ACE’s London centric paste-ups have been a firm favourite with Graffoto for many years and despite hectic preps for a recent solo show in LA, ACE managed to add many prime specimens of his mashed up beauty to walls around London






Graffoto first came across Italian ALO one cold evening just over 2 years ago as he put up a few modest paste ups on his first outing to hit the streets of London. While his the energy of his vibrantly coloured portrait imagery was evident even on first sighting, he has recently been finding quiet spots to paint and paste in situ on larger scale to beguiling effect. This particular shot captures the chance moments that crop up as a photographer; with my non viewfinder eye open I could see this girl approaching and thought she’d add interest to the shot but I never imagined her lips, teeth and particularly the grey hat would so magically mirror ALO’s portrait, a lucky bonus. With slogans such as “Deceit”, “Loser” and “Frustration” juxtaposed with his female figures, we wonder if the young, male, Italian artist is allowing some biographical detail to influence his imagery.


ALO (modified/dogged by Endless)





We’re not sure if Kate hangs out in the East End but, avoiding the obvious gag with the juxtaposition of the two paste ups here, we like to think that our favourite screen printer Aida is reflecting on the post Olympics legacy with her modified message here.




Dee One has kept up a high output, I particularly liked this mashed up portrait of Cameron with Dee Devils for brains.


Dee One, D7606/Gee Street Art


The telephone boxes in the shot above started appearing in London late last year. Iconic females including Liz Taylor, Princess Diana, Audrey Hepburn, Barbara Windsor, Sam Fox and errr, Rhianna amongst others are trapped within pop art multiple telephone box paste ups (and the occasional tardis) that look lush on the street. The guy has his mojo and is rocking it hard. Collabs with street artists such as Gee Street Art and 616 seem to be his latest twist not to mention an increase in size as can be seen in the earlier shot of the Brick lane bric-a-brac cabin.




D7606/Gee Street Art, St8ment


Mentioning Gee Street Art, he/they have been among the hardest working street artists over the past winter. At the moment he is mostly making his mark with paste-ups though this multilayered stencil with its free hand reflection is just the way street art should be. He has also put on a street art show out in the provinces which opened this week, sadly we couldn’t make it.




616 doesn’t seem happy unless he has at least 1 new idea each week and recently it was a delight to find him putting up small captioned Polaroid collages, you don’t need permission and a 30 by 8 foot shutter to make an impact round here.






Last year the only 3 warm weeks we had outside the Olympic period were reserved for Jo Peel’s Holywell Lane stop motion mural. This year inside the Foundry Car Park she had to endure 3 weeks of finger freezing weather, hats off to anyone prepared to work outdoors high and hold cold cans for that length of time. We look forward to seeing the resulting stop motion this year, assuming camera operators’ shivers didn’t blur the photos.




Yesterday Graffoto had the pleasure of a couple of hours in the company of master snapper Art Of TheState. His un-erring eye sniffed out a couple of C215’s whose location we weren’t aware of, these are a couple of months old. Isn’t the year flying by.




This final flick is a piece found yesterday, no idea how old it is or who the creative genius was but it made us chuckle.




To those hardly souls undeterred by the brass monkey weather of the past few weeks, whose un-curated art has added beauty to London streets, we salute you!


Linkytron:

616

ACE
 Aida
ArtOfTheState flickr
ArtOfTheState website
C215 flickr
D7606 flickr
Jo Peel
Mobstr
Obey
Paul Insect 
Sweet Toof

Banger Art - Part II

13 Jun 2012 - 1 night only

then Lovebox Festival, Victoria Park, London

15 Jun - 17 Jun 2012

all photos NoLionsInEngland,

In case you missed Part 1 of Graffoto’s news and views from Banger Art, check it out here (opens new window or tab or something) for background and loads of artwork.

Eine, Will Barras, Aida, Sweet Toof

Did you know Pablo Delgado also painted? News to us but a reliable source identified these coarse and somewhat KKK channelling figures as by Pablo.

Pablo Delgado

Matt Small paints anonymous humanity, defusing the stereotype and reducing the inferred intimidation. In this show Matt paints on car bonnets and doors, revisiting a format he showed at Black Rat Press in early 2009 but let’s face it, there aren’t many forms of reclaimed metal that Matt hasn’t daubed. Matt’s technique is based upon blending various immiscible oils and liquids on a level(ish) surface then dragging the fluid around to create the image. A little information about his technique is quite irrelevant of course as these hanging works serve as a jolting reminder of the colour and beauty in Matt’s portraits.

Matt Small

One of the first examples of Will Barras’ work this keyboard botherer came across was a battered van at Cans II Festival in 2008, his stunning char-a-banc at this show was an even wilder and willowier series of ethereal wispy human and equine figures on a smoky abstract background. Should black, greens and cornflower yellows work together in a Ridley Walker-esque frieze of gothic post apocalypse characters and mad animals, perhaps not in theory but behold the beauty.

Will Barras

The underground car park is huge, let’s take a guess and say it might have fitted 60 to a hundred cars in the architect’s utopian scheme. Pillars, pipes and weird skanky flooded side rooms break up the space. Transits, that is lines of sight rather than Ford vans, offer all kinds of beautiful interactions between cars, installations and art on the walls.

The eyes have it: Jorge Rodriguez-Garada, Matt Small, Sweet Toof

The Borrowers style miniature figures of Pablo Delgado have been populating the streets of London for over a year now but the pavement level dwellers have suffered some tragedies with spectacular lorry jack-knifings and terrorisation by Aida’s oversize dayglo queen of the jungle. It has the look of a cult B movie in the making.

Aida, Pablo Delgado

The car decorated by Pablo Delgado features a hugely intricate mankind-as-plague tableau. The human population squeezes out the animal kingdom and to escape their self inflicted overcrowding the humans scramble up the passenger side door (dear America, right handed drivers would find drive-by shootings easier with the steering wheel on the other side) and in through a hole in the window, to reappear out another hole on the driver’s side where they expire in free-fall, greatly improving matters for the rest of nature which now have more room to graze. As a fully thought through coherent composition executed in pain-staking detail, this stood out in exceptional company.

Pablo Delgado - passenger side

Pablo Delgado - side where the steering wheel goes

Back to Aida, the Princess of Screenprinting has done a masterpiece of pop art with more than a hint of glam with a glittery neon zoological kaleidoscope, perhaps the spangley gun on the dashboard even hints at gangstaaa! Rising to the challenge of the novel medium, Aida brought her screens with her and sprayed through the image with aerosol stencil style, bet that’s easier said than done..

Aida

Group shows generally give us the willies with many ill-combined artists chucking in lackadaisical “cluttering up the studio” pieces but in Banger Art, all the artists worked on site for days putting in shitloads of time and creativity. There is not a single crap “dialed-in” performance in the cavern. In the case of the artists whose work is familiar to us (sit down Dan Hillier, Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada) the concept was much more taking the refinements of the studio art to the car park rather than the usual cash-in taking the street into the gallery, except of course for Matt Small who routinely paints rusty metal in the studio. Good art deserves a great environment and this grubby neglected underground bunker provided a perfect ambience for art on wrecks.

Dr D

The potency for street art to play a positive role in a regeneration programme has been discussed before and specifically was one of the elements in justifying the use of the St Peter’s estate car park facility.  I am a little inclined to be sceptical and cynical about this but there is no doubt that the wave of positivity around this event, where the door was open and residents mingled and marvelled, creates a lasting impression that feeds into the necessary positive sentiment about the area.

There was something so right about this location for this spectacle, it will be interesting to hear from anyone how these cars fit in in their second incarnation at Lovebox festival in London’s Vicky Park this weekend, link up your pics in the comments below.

The texture, scale and colour of this show made it incredibly photogenic. More photos meaning other photos not used in this blog are here.

Ella (surprise guest)

With so much to see and so many ways to see it, there are several other great photo sets out there and each has a number of unique pieces not repeated in the others, check out HowAboutNo, Hookedblog and LDNGraffiti