Josh Sutterby (Alfa RT) solo show

Rolling With The Punches

The Print House Gallery
18 Ashwin St, London, E8 3DL
4 Dec 2009 – 10 Jan 2010



Celebrating identity is at the heart of graffiti, which makes Joss Sutterby of RT (RepresenT) crew a bit of a novelty among London’s finest for his avoidance of letter-form self promotion. While Vibes and Towns drop big “my-name-is” burners around the parish, Alfa chips in with lavish but virtually anonymous characters which introduce a cartoonist’s humour into the RT crew’s pieces.


Eating Beef For Breakfast, Alfa RT and Towns RT, West London


The RT crew are not exactly casuals, winning the 2009 European final of the Write4gold battle in Germany coming top in the tagging, throwie and concept sections (sounds like Final Score at 5 O’clock on a Saturday), Alfa produced the two characters in this Sclater Street piece in April 09


Molotow Cocktail, Towns RT, Alfa RT, Sclater St


Joss Sutterby’s first solo show takes place in Dalston, much better known for its rooftop and wall graff than artfag action.

The dominant theme in Sutterby’s canvasses are tattoos, characters with tattoos and straight use of the art of the tattoo. Portraits feature strongly in the collection and nearly all feature tattoos on flesh, tattoo art motifs on clothing and tattoo art in the background. One of the kings of traditional nautical based tattoo art is Sailor Jerry and references to Sailor Jerry appear in several of the works, most notably the Love Thy Neighbour canvas with its sullen and whey faced man with his death heart teeshirt set on a montage of stock Sailor Jerry tattoos.


Love Thy Neighbour


The shows suggests that on canvas Sutterby is pursuing a style with comparatively little reference to his graffiti work, though through the subjects themselves he brings his involvement in the movement the scene indoors such as in Antagonisers, a portrait of a friend in which the title (AnTaGonisers) and the tee suggests a member of the ATG crew. A GP would likely recommend the friend gets to bed a bit earlier.


Antagoniser


A gothic darkness runs through most of the art, purple roses and skulls form a bed for the anguished figure in Mother posed in painted version of the classic face obscured crew shot. One puzzling element in this particular canvass is that exposed flash is usually grasped by Sutterby as a base for tattoos but here the left hand is lacking detail, leaving it looking un-finished.


Mother


Tattoo art is generally not a big thing for me, other than the work of Dr Lakra which I love with a passion, though his recent London show was fairly poor. The detail of the tats on Ella below brought to mind the way Lakra fills the arms and legs with multiple tat images.


Ella


Two images are multi colourway editioned prints, the King of Hearts shown below comes closest to the cartoonish characters Alfa bookends RT pieces with, though the King of Hearts here is a million miles from the bumbling but well intentioned buffoon of Alice Through The Looking Glass. This editioned print is unusual as two different colourways have been displayed alternate ways up, presumably which way up it goes depends upon which which end the artist signs.


King Of Hearts, Blue and Yellow (also available: distressed background)


The second print references Sailor Terry again, with mono-eyed skulls and rotting zombie arms crawling across the print making various death-head style hand gestures.


Sailor Grave


In the hate filled world of graffiti any writer showing art in a gallery really sticks their head above the parapet, Sutterby has focussed on a show which tangentially alludes to his graff mates but in essence doesn’t expose him to haters accusations of selling out his graff.

Rolling With The Punches: more heavy hitting pictures here.

Is Street Art Dead?

all photos: NoLionsInEngland


I come to praise street art not to bury it. If that gives away my answer to my own question fear not, for purpose of dramatic suspense the best is still saved till last.

There are a myriad variety of ways I can cycle across London from home in the West to work in the East and luckily today I was able to choose a meandering tour-de-W1 which took in two new pieces which I had spotted in Ian Cox aka Wallkandy teaser pics.

This Paul Insect was not difficult to locate (ok – it’s W2 but lets not quibble) and as I took some flicks the adjacent door disgorged a family of mum and three kids under the age of 5. They loved the art but hadn’t witnessed its creation as the kids asked if I did it, ho ho ho ho. Somewhere in London, a young family may now believe Paul Insect goes to work in Lycra.


Paul Insect


The Mode 2 piece is rather saucy and of course, being W1 I couldn’t get this shot without some damn gorgeous woman walking into the frame.


Mode 2



Mode 2


Lunchtime presented the opportunity for a 1 hour whizz around Shoreditch, wandering the streets is great for blowing through the synapses after a hectic morning and this time I had five specific objectives.

I met Fauxreel aka Mr Dan bergeron at Pure Evil’s gallery last week and although he has been a flickr contact for a while I wasn’t really conscious of his art, my ears pricked up when he talked of his plans for a paste-up in a grubby but frequently hit alleyway. Seeing a flick of the end result on unusualimage’s flickr put the idea in my mind for a shot as if the camera was the eye of someone holding the ladder looking upwards, the pic here is the full piece, the “propping-up-the-ladder” shot is here on my flickr. Tick the box marked “not permissioned”, always worth an extra star on the street art rating scale and also the piece works so well with the wall furniture so top marks for placement.


Fauxreel


Continuing towards Brick Lane I paused at End Of The Line’s Curtain Road wall to photograph some Aryz, Tizer, Probs, Nychos, Biser and Does pieces, when I chanced upon them painting this last week i got some comedy pics of a grass on a moped watching them brazenly painting away in daylight without a care.


Aryz


Just yards further on, there were the Village Underground wall panels painted last week in parallel with Probs/Tizer’s stunning “Shades of Things To Come” show. Got some decent pics of more Probs, Aryz, Snugone, Does, Nychos, Biser among others and this masterful and witty Tizer confection.


Tizer


And on, still on a 1 hour schedule, came across a very nice new Mantis, check the paths in the maze, they're not as random as you might think.


Mantis


Yards further on came across another Fauxreel that I hadn’t known about, so with this one there was not only the illegal aspect but also the chance discovery element as well, getting close to perfect (free hand spray required for top marks!).


Fauxreel


And I haven’t mentioned the two new (to me) Elbow Toe written word pieces or the Sinboy shutter character and tags, save them for another day though recently there has been a lot of pieces kept back for such “nothing new” days which have been a long time waiting.

Sickboy’s flickr streamed yesterday revealed a new Sickboy letter piece on a familiar gate – so freehand spray but not “chanced upon”, Sickboys part had been partially spoiled by someone tearing off the flyers it was painted over, perhaps an audacious attempt to steal the whole piece!


Sickboy, Word To Mother (I think)


Mr Cox’s weekend flicks confirmed suspicions this Vhils piece was only about 80% complete when I snapped it last Thursday but it was still worth strolling into the Old Truman Brewery to capture the piece in its finished state, my fifth intended location. Curiously the lunchtime curry stall often positioned in front of it wasn’t there, sometimes you get lucky (other times, there’s be a bloody white van parked hard against it).


Vhils (sculpted render)


How did I get to the Brewery from the Sickboy piece, well I paused and pondered - go back to brick Lane or round the opposite side down a dog-legged road between a wall and a derelict warehouse. Easy choice! Rounding the corner I spied a cherry picker up against a warehouse brick wall and even from about 100 yards at a very oblique angle there was no doubt in my mind what I had found.

However after a matter of feet I came across this lush Grafter stencil piece that I had seen pics of but whose location I didn’t know, this wonderful and peaceful innocence in the midst of the urban crush feels like a throw-back to a rose-tinted previous world where kids could play outdoors unsupervised and un-threatened. Try leaving your kids alone at that age today and people not only wonder if she is safe they mentally start forming the unfit negligent parenting accusations. When street art triggers reflections like that, it’s clearly doing something right.


Grafter


Finally, the crowning glory of the walk, the un-expected chancing upon a street art legend in the act of creating a piece which stands a chance of lasting for the life of the building it is placed upon. They don’t come much more revered than the legendary French street artist Space Invader and here he was in front of me, working with a friend putting up a piece which is going to be enormous when it is finished.


Space Invader


Of course, quite a bit of the art photographed today isn’t there by chance, apart from the “Shades Of Things To Come” show mentioned earlier, the Paul Insect, Mode 2 and Space Invader pieces are connected to Lazarides “The Grifters” Christmas Show” which opens this week. The joy of discovering un-expected street art and illegal street art creates a wonderful rush and whilst today my cup truly did runneth over, thankfully this is not as rare an emotion as some might have you believe.

Shades Of Things To Come

feat ARYZ, BISER, BOM.K, DOES, NYCHOS, PROBS, RABODIGA, TIZER

Maverik Showroom
Redchurch St, London
25th - 29th (Sunday!) November 2009

All photos: NoLionsInEngland


When Probs23, laden with experience of putting on shows at The Dragon Bar (RIP) and a little black book filled with phone numbers of some the World’s best graff writers, not to mention the arranger of several London Meetings Of styles jams says he’s working with London graff heads favourite adopted son Tizer to put on a show, well you sit up and pay attention.


Probs – Shoreditch, London



Tizer – West London


The line-up is phenomenal and all apart from Bom.K (if memory serves) featured in this year’s London Meeting of styles.


Askym Bonsai Nash Biser Nychos Wany Aryz Does, MOS 2009, London


On the upper ground floor each of the artists has taken on an 8 by 4 panel , the standout being the violent distress of Biser’s abstract pterodactyl painted over cardboard, ink, paper and almost anything he could get to stick to the surface.


Biser – 8 by 4 panel



Biser – 8 by 4 panel detail


A set of four very deep chipboard boxes have been painted by Nychos, Does, Aryz and Biser , each producing something distinctive for their individual style yet each has used the managed to work the underlying chopped wood as if it was an un-prepped surface behind their graffiti.


Nychos, Does, Aryz and Biser


Tizer is a legend for letterforms, fills and characters so it is not a surprise that his work moves easily into the gallery. Among the canvasses, panels and sketches it is cool to find framed sketches featuring instantly recognisable Tizer characters annotated with the music that set the mood.


Tizer


Probs has been working with swirling vortices and warped intergalactic space effects in a number of wall pieces over the past year and these themes appear in several sketches and prints displayed in the show. The most stunning pair of canvasses take things in a very abstract direction and whilst the title Big Spaceora suggests more inter-planetary cosmic goodness but they could just as easily be read as sub microscopic intra-cellular life form skin fragments.


Probs – Big Spaceora


Rabodiga has one new piece in the show but seems to struggle making the canvas compositions appeal as much as her street face portraits.


Rabodiga – Queen Of Hearts


One of my pet hates is when writers do a large floor to ceiling piece on the gallery wall over a set of canvasses which each contains a small part of the piece, usually resulting is a set of meaningless accidental abstracts. Biser avoids this mess by writing his burner across a trio of canvasses, a gorgeous eruption of paint probes across a dirty drippy background, the wild lettering haemorrhages a slime of immiscible colour runs


Biser – Triptych Splats


Four favourite pieces:
Jaw dropping show-stopper is this very large canvas from Bom.K featuring snarling mutants rule a post apocalyptic (well, ok, slightly damaged) urban landscape, enormous amounts of detail in the composition and precision in the painting, many curious observers scrutinised the surface very closely seeking clues about Bom.K’s painting technique, several speculated the method is based on spray applied though airbrush.


Bom.K – Large Scale


Aryz has two spectacular canvasses, London (below) is a stunning colour shifting copper toned essay on booze and tea in an isolated self important world, which pretty much sums London up. Also check out his “Melting Portrait” on the flickr link below, another phenomenal canvas.


Aryz – London


Nychos contributes one of the large 8 by 4 panels, a deep chipboard box, sketches, a screen print and several canvasses ranging from the small (about 12 inches from memory) and ridiculously cheap canvasses featuring a rabbit character reminiscent of Studio Ghibli’s Totoro to this beautiful box headed roller wielding squid on acid paper.


Nychos – Box Head Squiddy


Like Biser, Does brings his letters off the streets and into the gallery, the meticulous detail of the lettering and the awesome fill patterns pop off the black backgrounds on a collection of five landscape canvasses.


Does


Graffoto tends not to write about group shows but this one is epic and has so many impressive pieces, two visits really weren’t enough. The art is extremely good yet a large amount of it retains something of the energy and roughness of street work. Probs and Tizer have put a load of effort into curating this show, gathering a strong collection of work and displaying the art to best effect, the attention to detail has paid off( though perhaps the piza-esque tower of print tubes in the basement is a distraction!). The show closes this Sunday, 29 Nov so there isn’t that much time left to whizz along and take in the goodness.

Hunto - The Graffiti Cubist

The Rag Factory
Heneage St, London
19 – 22 Nov 2009

all photos: Howaboutno (where noted) and NoLionsInEngland

Nothing really prepares you for the colourful orgy contained in the world of Hunto – The Graffiti Cubist. Internet searching doesn’t reveal much evidence of street style, Howaboutno among others captured this rare London piece in the Wick.


Hackney Wick with Twesh, Pharos, Saro (not in shot); Photo stolen from HowAboutno


Hailing from Italy, Hunto often paints with Heavy Artillery’s Italian representative Mr Wany, the London piece above was painted in the company of Twesh, also of Heavy Artillery. As a graffiti artist Hunto is a character man rather than a letterform purist.

A Rag Factory booking cock-up has forced the Hunto show to a utilitarian white cube about 100 yards further down Heneage St from the main Rag Factory site but at least the lighting is slightly better than the typical graff art cow-shed/dungeon/on-the-stairwell-down-to-the-pub-toilets space.


Hunto – The Graffiti Cubist


Hunto is showing a collection of canvasses, a mixed media painted-wall-plus-props installation and a beguiling set of screenprinted line drawings. His basic form involves character canvasses in lurid colours, cubist style with views from different angles collapsed onto a single plane (as opposed to intersecting flat planes and shapes).


The Hug


The first cursory glance will take in a collection of cubist faces with multiple viewing angles of various portrait figures. Closer inspection heightens the tension when erections and penetrated orifices become apparent. Finally, the penny drops when what at first looked like “urban art” splashes and dribbles are found to represent milky cum shots. All over the place!


Happy Time (7 pieces)


Hunto celebrates the joy of sexual abandon, multiple couplings and the erotic first crack, the moment when the budding relationship is consummated. The Bride is splattered with an excess of man juice, either she has had a traditional hen party or perhaps the catholic and horny Italian groom has been forced to wait until the first night.


The Bride


On these canvasses Hunto has used spraypaint almost exclusively, colours are generally flat, bright and blocky with just the occasional fade.


Eve


A corner installation features an amorous couple preserving their dignity by daintily discarding their underwear while they fumble around eachother’s bodies in that excited state brought on by the “your bedsit or mine” one night stand.


Hunto Installation


The bright and bold canvasses make the most immediate impact but the line drawings really show Hunto’s artistic skills. He certainly has the eye for rendering dynamic sex, passion, excitement and groups of bodies in a flat cubist style though the composition is more analytical and detailed than the relatively simple canvasses.


On The Bed



The party


One pair of canvasses stand out for being stylistically different, Hunto adopts a Basquiat style use of scratchy lines to outline the cubist subject which unsurprisingly is what newpaper reports would refer to as “a sex act”, done over a fractal colour layer.


First Meeting


Hunto seems to comment on contemporary casual sex in which a woman’s sexual favours are now cheap currency, evident in the Break in which the woman indifferently flits between a cigarette and a cock, we see a cityscape behind her perhaps signifying that she is so un-concerned she can’t be bothered to draw the curtains.



Break


This show is a treat for the eyes and a stimulant to the loins. I like the fact that Hunto has not forsaken his basic graffiti tool but he has confidence in his art and doesn’t feel any need to yell “I’m graffiti”, there are no references to his graffiti roots such as contrived dots or tags. The whole show has a strong style and a strikingly clear and consistent theme. The canvasses are brash and skillful but for me the drawings are among the best new work seen this year.


Title unknown dippy hippy line drawing


The art may be a little saucy for display in a family home but then again, it was the Italians who made nudity commonplace with their renaissance. It’s amusing to find that even in the hands of a cubist (f’naar) the masculine member still comes out looking like a toilet door graffiti cock.



It's not porn darling, It's art: pics here

The Thousands

Opening This Wednesday, "The Thousands" is a celebration of the gallery work of some of the top street artists in the World curated by RJ Vandalog. Artists to be shown include

Adam Neate
Aiko
Anthony Lister
Armsrock
Banksy
Barry McGee
Bast
Blek le Rat
Burning Candy
Chris Stain
David Ellis
Elbowtoe
Faile
Futura 2000
Gaia
Herakut
Jenny Holzer
José Parlá
Judith Supine
Kaws
Know Hope
Nick Walker
Os Gêmeos
Roa
Sam3
Shepard Fairey
Skewville
Swoon
WK Interact

Vandalog has developed an unrivalled coverage of what is new, news and fascinating in the world of street art. The energy he has brought to covering the street art scene on a daily basis is a tour-de-force, digesting his Vandalog blog in the form of a daily email has become required reading at Graffoto towers. Where one person gets the time and energy from is a mystery.

Graffoto is privileged to be involved in presenting a display of about 50 photos from the combined library of HowAboutNo and NoLionsInEngland at The Thousands, many of which haven't been published before.

The idea is to juxtapose the gallery art and installations with examples of work on the streets of London by the most of the featured artists.

The show also sees the launch of RJ's book "The Thousands: Painting Outside, Breaking In" again we are honoured that this features a modest photographic contribution from ourselves, we can't wait to see the finished article.

Entrance is free, details of location and opening hours are as per the flyer, see you at the opening - refreshments by Brewdog

Panik - Changing Faces

5 Nov – 28 Nov 2009
Sartorial Gallery, London

Panik ATG aka Mr P (and now – also known as Jack Murray) has been a feature of London streets for a decade or so, currently as a key member of ATG and formerly as a member of the now defunct London Frontline.




His second solo show this year has opened at Sartorial Art Gallery in the small project space which was previously earmarked as Tek 33’s Writers' Bench space.




As a bomber Panik has a pretty impressive ability to access rooftops and various other walls.


Panik ATG, ARXS


As a painter, Panik rocks a highly coloured a tribal geometric style tending towards a cubism with acid colours vibe.


Untitled


There are three larger canvasses, of which this gorgeous Basquiat influenced work blew the eyeballs off my face.


Free n Easy


The earlier show at Pure Evil gallery was characterised by a couple of nuggets surrounded by a large degree of untamed chaos, consisting primarily of the Panik dub at manageable canvas scale, this show is a far more accomplished artistic achievement and confirms Panik’s ability to leave the large scale street stuff behind and produce “art”. Having become accustomed to many recent shows incorporating pieces which the artists failed to sell last time out (which actually is a blessing, remember the bad old days when you walked into the PV to find every piece of shit had a red dot), it is also a relief to find that apart from one editioned print everything here is new (or at least, wasn’t shown in the Pure Evil gallery show).


Take Time To Dream

More pics of Changing Faces art here