Ahead of The Git

Stopped on my bike on the way home this evening to snap some rooftop stuff. It has been there for ages, its on a pretty fast and hectic stretch of road, the Euston Road just before the underpass.






Scientific measurements by journalists last year proved this is the shittiest, most polluted bit of road in England.

Its easy to spot this stuff on my way in to work, but I am usually late and it is also on the other side of the road. Tonight, as I came up the underpass I thought hah - lets do it. So I pulled over onto the derelict un-trodden paving that separates the 2 lanes of the westbound underpass from two lanes merging from Tottenham Court Road.


(this mauvey looking building is RASA, one of the best indians in London. Used to be the home of Ghurkas 20 years ago, a great Nepalese restuarant and student staple).

I'd grabbed a few pictures when a silver Porsche pulled to a stop on the outside lane of the slip road. The driver wound his window down and snarled "Don't stand there, you look like a policeman" (I was wearing a cycling top which retains its luminescence despite being 14 years old). I walked over and got a bit Churchillian right in his face, and he hit the pedal and fled.

Since when was a policeman putting the fear of the law into penis-mobile drivers a bad thing?



In case you were wondering, ATG, look above the restuarant rooftop, stands for the Ahead Of The Game crew which includes errrrrrrr... Elmo, flyboy, Mighty Mo, Panik, Asure, Getsy. possibly some or all London Frontline members, possibly they are one and the same, I dunno. But thats what it stands for and thats why the title.

Toronto Graffiti - Wild Times

Toronto is a grey place. Grey skies, grey buildings, grey lake, grey roads, grey people. When the sun un-expectedly burst through the clouds I grabbed my camera and went looking for a bit of wall colour.

I found brickloads, in a system of alleyways just south of Queen St West, between Spadina and Portland. Tons and tons of wild style, quite a bit of art.

The pieces curiously were very dated, ranging between 2005 and 2007, there didn’t seem to be much renewal, much churn. Quite a lot had commercial overtones and appeared to link to art shops or recording studios nearby. It had the appearance of being rather formal and sanctioned and in my eyes for that lost some appeal.

Walking along Queen St W, there was a healthy quantity of roof top tagging and roller jobs but unfortunately my camera battery had died. There was even a building with a slanted line along the side and the message “Proposal: tilt this building 5 degrees”! Again, a nice idea tainted by a whiff of legitimacy.

The pictures below are a few of my favourites from this wander. Lots more on flickr as per usual.
A Nigerian cabbie (I got his life story and his business plan!) told me there was a lot in the area of Kensington Market and Chinatown, though as I was on my way to the airport I mentally noted this for my next trip. If there is one.

Alternative Philosophies

Feat: Anton Unai, Marok, Jaybo, Andy Howell, Daniel Tagno, Ala Ebtekar, Kill Pixie, Bortusk Leer, Antonio Diaz

The Leonard Street Gallery 18 Apr – 22 May


A kaleidescope of art and entertainment opportunities within spraying distance of eachother meant a hectic night on Thursday 17 April. Cargo for Nick Walker was obviously going to be an insane and unseemly zoo, Pure Evil was always likely to run out of beer, so we started at the Leonard Street Gallery’s group show.

Kill Pixie’s elaborate and strikingly colourful ink and watercolour drawings are a definite highlight in this show. The intricately drawn and naively shaped figures in the crowd scenes could have been celebrating weird mysteries or possibly fawning in terror from some un-seen deity. Word To Mother might be an influence (or possibly has been influenced by..)


Kill Pixie


Andy Howell’s large knotty limbed anatomies would definitely spook the horses. The Golddigger version of the Bad Tarot Series superficially looks attractive, until you scrutinise the drug warped eyeballs and skull holes. Imagine Elbow-Toe’s multiple jointed limbs but more psychedelic and less fine art.


Andy Howell – Egyptian Vodoo Princess

Andy Howell – The First Bionic Hand


Part2ism’s collages with ink scrawl were mainly colourless and flat, and the biro scrawls whilst poisonous and bitter (“I cannot ring you as you do not pick up your phone when I call you…”) didn’t add any much intrigue or any interest. The pictures looked like the visual equivalent of an un-tuned radio.

Part2ism - Emotional Exit


Jaybo aka Monk’s monkey faces have Matt Small’s strong colours swirling colouration on a Supine-esque blackness. They evidently were popular though I preferred the surreal Slow Down with its ginseng root being fed to a fat oriental face by a disembodied hand and the Everything OK Up To Here mixed media collage.

Jaybo – Slow Down

Jaybo – Monkeys

Ala Ebtekar’s small collection of manilla or white paper cutouts on crumpled then flattened out paper were nothing special, the characters were pencil drawn robotic Samarai warriors from some sci-fi fantasy Ghenghis Khan cruscade.


Ala Ebtekar

Marok brings the most obvious whiff of the streets onto his work with graffiti like slashes, tags and sprays cutting into more conventional abstract collages. The work is a bit heavy and dark, his black Manhattan landscape has the artist’s name looming across the skyline but overall effect is an un-resolved conflict of ideas, is it about his brilliance, his lucrative career or a shot at Wallstreet Gordon Geckos, and do we read anything into the presence of the twin towers? The biro exortation to “sell your wack shit before it’s too late” in the detail of a more abstract piece could have been a direct message to frenzied price-insane refugees from the nearby Nick Walker show.

Marok over Manhattan


The Anton Unai pieces beg concerns about actual longevity of art, featuring materials such as stickers, stuck on photocopies, old newspapers and coffee. The wooden box below looked like it had been left out under a pigeon roost.

Anton Unai - Dissection


Un-announced, possibly a cheeky little spoiler against the main show opening simultaneously at BRP, an Apishangel stencil and spray on canvas surreptitiously sneaked into the show. The stencilled characters appear a bit vague in places, the background fuses the appearance of street tags with abstract slashes and shapes of colour and give the impression of a canvas prepared in burst of anger.

Apishangel


Trotting swiftly through other artists featured:

Bortusk Leer: featured a collection of modified and framed old prints and painting, some of which had been seen at his previous joint show at the Voila Gallery.

Bortusk Leer


Daniel Tagno – though hard to tell from the picture below this was acrylic on a 2m tall canvas. He also had an abstract print featuring coloured marks on black paper on a much more manageable scale.

Daniel Tagno - Tim Dogg vs Madonna

Johnny Rodriguez, possibly a late addition to the line up as he didn’t feature in the pre show announcements:

Johnny Rodriguez - Friday

Leonard Street had crammed so many artists into this show that even in the miniscule Project Room had to accommodate three, seemingly selected to maximise the use of the space rather than any coherent link between their work. Downstairs was empty. Strange decision.

More pictures here:

Church Street Graf Area

For a couple of years we’ve been meaning to check out this space. The London Frontline collective/Mighty Mo is the most obvious stuff seen from the top of any passing number 6 bus.

This particular one has awesome tartan and psychedelic whirl fill-ins.

Hadn’t expected so much ATG. A little bit of sniffing around on the net suggests ATG could be Panik, Asure, Getsy, possibly others as well.

Spoke to the guy in charge, he sees the graffiti as not doing any harm. Doesn’t mind good stuff getting thrown up. He was pissed off whoever that his favourite ATG – “Ahead Of The Game” had been painted over. Thanks to Bravo99, who’s pic I’ve nicked here, (Bravo – if you can help identify the others – chip in!).

(which previously was....

photo courtesy Bravo 99

I've no idea who this one is by but melikee

Bloke in charge also says the cops sometimes come around to check signatures. What next – the Met doing Banksy print authentication? He doesn’t like pornographic or political stuff, and couldn’t understand why “Blood For Oil” had been slapped up one day.

Plenty of Wildstyle slapped about

The guvnor also said something about college students coming round to practise their graffiti. Is there a course in that as well these days? Anyway, leaving the bet until last, I was quite gobsmacked to come across this D-Face:

There was some stuff which had vans parked hard up against it, one day I’ll return. Just give it a few years. Plenty more pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11928372@N04/sets/72157604517443370/

Dale Grimshaw - Echoes and Exorcisms

Signal Gallery, Curtain Rd, London, 11 Apr - 10 May


Dale Grimshaw previewed his first solo show at the Signal Gallery in Curtain Rd last night. His pictures are dramatic, energetic and powerful. I saw hints of Conor Harrington on the slightly canted lines across the portraits. At times the montaged composition of the faces is reminiscent of the style of Francis Bacon. In the more monochromatic pictures, like Echoes below, there seemed to be nods to Guy Denning who had a pretty dark show in this space a couple of months ago.




Time Past and Time Present






Turning Point





In The Beginning There Were Punks




The New Labours Of Hercules







Oedipus


more pictures:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/11928372@N04/sets/72157604485896958/

Charity Graf Walk

"Cancer Sell" is an event that is being staged to raise funds primarily from the contribution of art works given by the artists on Flickr. I am doing all I can to help out a friend that I met through the site to make the night and the fund raising total a big success. Thanks to all artists that have donated to the cause so far.

Two guys with no artistic talent, HowAboutNo and NoLionsInEngland, both of whom have a penchant for clocking street art, will do their bit for this good cause by organising a graffiti tour of the streets around Shoreditch, Hackney, Brick Lane and various dubious but possibly interesting spots in between.

The plan is to guide a group of 20 or so people up and down the streets providing a commentary on the art there and possibly art that used to be there – depending on whether the council buffer squads have been particularly vigilant the night before. We hope to describe some of the different approaches to getting up used by different artists and describe from second hand knowledge some of the issues faced by graffiti artists in going about the clandestine activities.



We will also throw in a bag of freebies – mainly stickers and postcards, depending on what we have scraped together. There will also be 5 copies of the book "Banksy Locations & Tours" by Martin Bull available to some lucky punters, we havent decided what you need to do to get one as of yet, bet when we probably end the tour in or very close to a pub I'm sure we will think of something ;)



The aim isn't to replicate the legendary Banksy Tours of 2006 (mainly because there are so few Banksy's left in the area!) But we will probably be checking some spots from those tours. There is even a possibility Martin, the author of BLT may aid and abet on one or other of the jaunts.

We expect to see some Banksy pieces, it all depends on what's still up.
The tours will take place whatever the weather is like.

Here's the deal:

First - pick your date – Sunday April 20 or Sunday April 27.

Then email your name name, preferred dates and how many places you want to nolionsinengland *at* gmail.com

When lists fill (hopefully!) we will email you requesting payment. Payment will be by paypal to a paypal account set up for the Cancer Sell fundraising monies.

We will confirm the meeting point about 2 or 3 days prior to the walk. This gives us some flexibility to customise the route according to what's around.

Cost will be £10 per person, all of which goes into the Cancer Sells coffers.

Many thanks and we look forward to hearing from you.

HowAboutNo! www.flickr.com/photos/howaboutno
NoLionsInEngland www.flickr.com/photos/11928372@N04/

Mode2 – Never Too Late

Laz Gallery, Greek Street, 4 April – 2 May


Thursdays, perfect for a night to seek sensory stimulation, art and free beer. Tonight’s cultural oddessy started at Cargo gardens for live charity painting by Bristol Graff legends and 1980s Banksy contemporaries Inkie, Cheba, Cheo and Lokey. We watched and sniffed the spray work under progress, we listened to Bristol poets sounding like reactionary Wurzel Gummages with humour, perhaps a scanning equivalent of Banksy. Tangent books were selling Bansky’s Bristol with author Steve Wright on hand to scribble his name inside.





It's worth checking flickr for pictures of the completed pieces, Inkie’s in particular is awesome. Didn’t have time to stick around to watch them finish as it was…..

… to Laz’s where to our immense surprise we have managed for the first time in two years as a buying customer (ok… a couple of prints 2 years ago, that’s one a year if you average it out) to get included on the list for Mode2’s new show.
Gone are the bootylicious libidinous party girls and in their place are distinctly policital, socio-political and environmentalist themes

The first canvas, We Believe In One God, is a kind of religious clash, male figures dressed in characteristic religious and ethnic clothing batter the living daylights out of each other in an “you’re all as bad as eachother” allegory of all religions being equally to blame for conflict.




Seig Heil, pastel, acrylic and canvas like all the works in this show, depicts a street scene on a cold shadow-less day with a pair of down and out street drinkers giving a nazi salute to an apparently middle-class couple with child in a pram, the backdrop being a shop called Kaisers – the title of German emperors up to the first world war. To equate the passing family to fascists seems a bit extreme but their evident comfort, their togetherness, the cut of their clothes does set them over the two itinerants but the family themselves have a blindspot to the plight of the humanity sinking deep into the embrace of the bottle.




Butterflies In The Springtime pushes both an environmental agenda as well as protesting about in-equitable share of land wealth, specifically targeted at the harm done in the process of commodity raping third world countries. A steel mill belching noxious fumes to fuel the greed and consumption of the developed world squats incongruously in a pleasant green prairie though which butterflies flit. A naked negro child whose lack of clothes symbolises his non-participation in the comsumerist acquisition of possessions gazes up at the billowing smoke, the sole element of the process in which he gets more than his share.




The concept of un-recompensed theft of precious raw materials from the rightful occupants of the land is repeated in All You Get Is, a native figure fruitlessly scratching around the soil whilst societies “haves” look forward to a convenience world of diamonds, gold and black oil.




The most dramatic piece is a burning hot gathering of people under the gaze of a couple of armed men, though we only see their sinister weapons. The context of the gathering of the people is ambiguous, they might be celebrating a feast, they could be captured, the urns balanced on the heads may contain water, or perhaps food; perhaps it is a fire that is out of control and not a party bonfire. Who knows, but it is good to have something to speculate about.




The most, perhaps the only optimistic piece in the show, that which perhaps prompts the plea in the title, is a familiar Mode2 luscious female figure ripe to give birth. Life Expectancy has a gorgeous rich patina, warm and almost satiny to look at.




All the works are mounted on striped back to plaster gallery walls giving a coarse rough temporary feel to the work. Tallying the works to the list isn’t easy as Laz hasn’t troubled the laser printer to produce labels, a sure sign of pretentiousness rather than lazy arsed-ness

All told there are 13 large scale canvasses in the show, more pictures here. Superficially Mode2s work is based upon simple, self evident statements yet several pictures have a fine multi-layered symbolism giving cause for thought.

More Mode2 pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11928372@N04/sets/72157604389241715/

From Laz it’s a short weave to Elms Lester to view Phil Frost canvasses and pick up a signed copy of his book. And what a signature that is, a slow inky work of art in itself and cause of a long straggling queue. Gorgeous canvasses though with a sort of aboriginal repetition thing going on.


Phil Frost


Phil Frost Siggy




Following a recent run of luck in getting into off-limits areas, we managed a sneak via a small hatch into the back gallery at Elms to snap a few fascinating historic pieces of graffiti, though we did miss the alleged Banksy. Some pictures of this area are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11928372@N04/sets/72157604385463612/detail/: