Friday 17 September 2021

D*Face, Kai and Sunny and Shepard Fairey London art show "Unity"

StolenSpace Gallery
17 Osborn St, London E1 6TD
10 Sep - 3 October 2021


Unity
Unity


Massive queues, a packed opening night at a gallery – is this 2008 all over again? Actually no, it’s D*Face collaborating with two of StolenSpace’s long term friends Kai and Sunny, a double act counting as one friend, and Shepard Fairey.

Many may recall that D*Face’s gallery StolenSpace has hosted three major Shep Fairey solo shows in the past (Nineteeneightyfouria 2007; Sound and Vision 2012 and Facing The Giant, 2019). What may be less well known is that Kai and Sunny, described by the gallery as having a “shared college experience” with D*Face, have been exhibiting at StolenSpace since New Year 2009, pursuing a style which back then was way too “design” for my tastes, not “street” enough. See also 2011, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2020!

NineteenEightyFouria by Shepard Fairey, London 2007
NineteenEightyFouria by Shepard Fairey, London 2007


Kai and Sunny have also exhibited at Subliminal Projects in LA, founder….Shepard Fairey, so connections are tight.

Now that the free beer and artist in-person appearances of the opening night have passed there is time to peruse the art at leisure. To appreciate who contributes what where, who combines with whom, it may be handy to really overgeneralise three massive careers in just three pairs of images. D*Face does D*Dog characters with wings and corrupted pop art; Shepard Fairey does Andre The Giant and striking political illustrations, Kai and Sunny come from a gorgeous geometric op art and flower painting direction.

D*Face's D*Dog love lock
D*Face's D*Dog love lock


D*Face mural from 2020 with Obey GIant and D*Dog stickers in foreground
D*Face mural from 2020 with Obey Giant and D*Dog stickers in foreground


Obey Giant Shepard Fairey
Obey Giant Shepard Fairey


Shepard Fairey, Brick Lane 2007
Shepard Fairey, Brick Lane 2007


Kai and Sunny "Shifting Times", StolenSpace 2018
Kai and Sunny "Shifting Times", StolenSpace 2018


With artistic collaborations there is usually one artist whose contribution dominates, who drives the idea and the collaborators “fill in”. Great collaborators appreciate that sometimes they are the chief, other times they are the Indian. I am indebted to City Kitty, or possibly Lunge Box (can’t tell them apart on their podcast) for this stolen and bastardised insight. The online catalogue ducks the whole who collaborated on what intrigue by simply attributing one “lead artist” to each image. Often what makes the art interesting, the “arty” or clever part of the art, is actually what’s added by the others. With Unity Star No 3 below, the foreground is occupied by a D*Face winged Obey Giant but the piece is electrified by Kai and Sunny in the background

Unity Star No 3
Unity Star No 3


Unity Star No 3 detail
Unity Star No 3


A stand out feature is how Kai and Sunny absolutely illuminate a piece when their contribution appears to perhaps be the less significant. I confessed earlier that a decade ago I really didn’t get their work, I am so pleased that recent shows and most notably this current one have opened my eyes to the flow in their art.

Ghost D*Moon Flower
Ghost D*Moon Flower


Obey Rise Up (above), Ghost D*Moon Wave (below)
Obey Rise Up (above), Ghost D*Moon Wave (below)


Unity Obey Flower
Unity Obey Flower


Unity Obey Flower (detail)
Unity Obey Flower (detail)


The whole notion of the catalogue of a show of collaborations, as in “not a group show”, attributing artworks on the basis of lead artist only does rather confound the concept of collaboration. The collaborator redux appears to have challenged the compiler of the online catalogue as “Apply Unity” appears in both the D*Face section and the Shepard Fairey section.

More show images:

Sure Shot Spray Can
Sure Shot Spray Can


D*Dog Icon
D*Dog Icon


Unity
Unity


Hope On The Tide
Hope On The Tide


Riot Everywhere
Riot Everywhere


The D*Face Treatment
The D*Face Treatment


Burning Brighter
Burning Brighter


Burning Brighter Detail
Burning Brighter Detail


The catalogue compiler has a curious concept of “lead artist", “Magnified Unity” attributed to Shephard Fairey features his Andre The Giant image but the main artistic device is the Lichtensein-esque benday dots and magnifying glass and which is a D*Faceification previously seen in his “Magnified Dog” painting in 2013.

Magnified Unity
Magnified Unity


To summarize, dudes all get on, artistic friendships have been put to the creative test and the artworks are genuinely harmonious interactions between the styles of the collaborators regardless of the lead artist nonsense. Back to the City Kitty/Lunge Box aphorism, justifiably large egos have been set aside to produce coherent beautiful art which is certainly worth popping in to enjoy.

Unity
Unity


D*Faced OG Sticker
D*Faced OG Sticker


Unity
Unity


Links:

StolenSpace Gallery website

D*Face website

Shepard Fairey website

Kai and Sunny website

All photos: Dave Stuart

Monday 13 September 2021

Scenes From Whitecross Street Party 2021

After the Sunday tour this weekend I cycled over to the Whitecross Street Party, always a reliable live street art/music/food fest. Here are some mainly work-in-progress highlights. Most of the ground level art, particularly those pieces on hoardings were only on temporary display so I regret not being able to hang around to see the finished artworks.

Neonita Work In Progress
Neonita Work In Progress


Stage watchers overlooked by Mr Cenz's epic futuristic portrait
Stage watchers overlooked by Mr Cenz's epic futuristic portrait


Gent 48
Gent 48


Filthy Lucre inflatable paintbrush with rainbow painting by Stikka
Filthy Luker inflatable paintbrush with rainbow painting by Stika


Boris The Spider and his web of lies by Spore and Mr Oliver Switch
Boris The Spider and his web of lies by Spore and Mr Oliver Switch


Choir singing Glory Glory Hallelujah while Filthy Lucre's Goofs menace them from above
Choir singing Glory Glory Hallelujah while Filthy Luker's Goofs menace them from above

This next shows Perspicere’s string art work in progress being admired by three passing policewomen.

Perspicere String art admired by 3 policewomen
Perspicere string art gets police attention


Perspicere’s string street art has been a familiar sight over the last decade and these super complex string portraits are a new form of his art which have been appearing on the streets in the past year.

Regrettably I could not get to Perspicere’s solo show at BSMT Space last month so this was the first chance I had to see the string portraits being created live and it is just jaw dropping. Here is a short clip made yesterday at the Whitecross Street Party showing how magic is made.



Perspicere making magic happen


Artist Links: Perspicere instagram

Neonita Website

Mr Cenz instagram

Gent 48 instagram

Filthy Luker website

Stikka instagram

Spore instagram

Mr Oliver Switch instagram

All photos and video: Dave Stuart

Thursday 9 September 2021

David Speed "Light Of Life"

Light Of Life
David Speed Light Of Life


Break out street artists are rare beasts. There are the street artists whose appeal grows way beyond the natural base of street art fans leading to popularity and commercial success. Commercial success doesn’t preclude artistic success of course.

Soundwave, Shoreditch 2021
Soundwave, Shoreditch 2021


David Speed started his neon illuminated portraits and animal painting around Shoreditch a few years ago and has achieved such ubiquity that he is one of the few artists, other than Banksy and Helch, whose art is recognised by Shoreditch Street Art Tour guests exploring street art for the first time.

David Speed Neon face, Shoreditch 2018
David Speed Neon face, Shoreditch 2018


David certainly wasn’t new to spraypainting at the beginning of this neon pink phase, his double life has him as Director of Shoreditch based spraypainting outfit Graffiti Life. Lockdown bestowed gifts on David in two ways –the reduced demand for commercial spraypainting services seems to have allowed him more time to focus on personal and artistic development and if you check out his Creative Rebels podcast that certainly comes across strong. There was also a significant increase in available street canvasses as business fearing a breakdown in law and order went for full plywood cladding as we went into lockdown in 2020.

Hoxton Ponies, Shoreditch 2021
Hoxton Ponies, Shoreditch 2021


David’s art exploded across Shoreditch property and caught a lot of attention.

David Speed neon "Creation" homage, Shoreditch 2019
"Creation" homage, Shoreditch 2019


It was a long wait, Shoreditch 2021
It was a long wait, Shoreditch 2021


Neon Tiger! Shoreditch 2021
Neon Tiger! Shoreditch 2021


In the street art world, London at least, David is synonymous with this pink neon street art style so it was an amusing irony earlier this year that a mural advert was painted in David’s signature colour combination by a rival spraypainted advert company. Many people erroneously identified David as the artist so he felt compelled to put up a deliciously executed take out.

Biting Style, Village Underground 2021
Biting Style, Village Underground 2021


DS Style, Village Underground 2021
DS Style, Village Underground 2021


He currently has a self-organised solo show running in Shoreditch, it turns out the neon illumination theme suits canvas and paper as well as it does brick walls.

Fly
Fly


Reunited 1
Reunited 1


Skull Left Facing, Skull .... ,Skull Right Facing
Skull Left Facing, Skull .... ,Skull Right Facing


Content
Content


Distance 2, Hope, Distance 1
Distance 2, Hope, Distance 1


Daily Walk, Poise and Reunited 2
Daily Walk, Poise and Reunited 2


A recent project that must have taken a long time to prepare was David’s “drop” of 1000 hand finished prints around the streets of London, to those with long enough memories this was a homage to Adam Neate’s 1000 print drop in 2008. We came across one of David’s murals on the Shoreditich Street Art Tour that day at which point a guest pulled a pair of prints out of his bag with a flourish and declared “I found those on the street as I was walking to the tour!” Lucky guy.

Various North, East, South, West
Various North, East, South, West


The show is located just a couple of minutes walk from where our morning Shoreditch Street Art Tour ends, so perhaps book a tour this coming Friday, Saturday or Sunday and complement it with a visit to the show.  Admission to the show is free.

“Light Of Life” show runs until Sunday September 12th.

The Depot
33 Boundary Street
Shoreditch
E2 7JQ

All photos: Dave Stuart With all that pink and blue no attempt was made at colour correction in processing the exhibition photos!

Sunday 15 August 2021

Banksy Street Art Staycation In East Anglia

East Anglia has in the past week or so became home to a spectacular trove of street art that finally this afternoon was verified as genuine Banksy. Banksy has verified a grand total of 10 new pieces of street art and to put this in context, there were only 5 outdoor Banksy artworks at his own Dismaland group show in 2015!

Banksy Chip Snatching Seagull
Banksy Chip Snatching Seagull


With my son for company as navigator (who needs sat nav when you have a boy armed with a smartphone and supersized data allowance) I headed off last Tuesday 10th August to explore the Fens and surrounds, hunting down the biggest collection of Banksy seen since New York, October 2013.

Banksy We're All In This Together
Banksy We're All In The Same Boat


The Norfolk Broads is an idyllic network of creeks and lakes which on the day we visited was looking stunning with boats gently sailing here, there and everywhere in glorious sunshine and perfect breezes. Nicholas Everitt Park sits at the inlet to Oulton Broad, a classic British daytrip destination full of playgrounds, bowling, tennis and ice cream vendors. It does its best to turn away from the sour, grubby creek that runs down its spine but Banksy hasn’t. “We’re all in the same boat” has three children in a distressed Swallows and Amazons tableau, a skipper and second in command upfront scan the horizon while, at the back a third child bails their leaking tub. The two children upfront have paper admiral’s hats suiting their privilege, the child dealing with the emergency in the bilges wears a worker’s beaney. Originally there was a decaying boat hull but that corrugated sheet of iron was hauled away as it was constricting the water course.

Banksy We're All In This Together
Banksy We're All In The Same Boat


“We’re all in it together” our leaders promised, that was until Boris decided to throw out all the pandemic restrictions and impose on us a doctrine of “personal responsibility” despite a 3rd wave delta variant surge. Banksy’s smartly dressed captain navigates blind to signs of imminent disaster while someone else, representing the NHS perhaps, heroically struggles to stop the ship sinking. Coming the week after Boris decided that he didn't have to isolate despite an office staffer who flew on a plane with him testing positive, Banksy mocks our political leaders’ inclination to shamelessly pick and choose which of the rules they can ignore.

Banksy We're All In This Together
Banksy We're All In The Same Boat


In one of Lowestoft’s shopping drags, one of those that can’t decide if it is pedestrianised or not, a chubby child in a sunhat plays in the sand with a crowbar rather than a spade, the beach is the sand under paving slabs which the scowling but resourceful child has prized up. The scene embodies the famous slogan from the French student riots of ’68 “Sous les paves, la plage!”, “Under the paving stones, the beach!”

Banksy sandcastle Lowestoft 2021
Child delighted to find Banksy girl playing in sand


This piece places the council in a quandary we will watch with amusement… Banksy is a great tourist draw for an economy “building back” but holes in pavements are a nailed on dead cert public liability nightmare! In appearance though not meaning, this piece recalls Banksy’s 2010 Tesco sandcastle at British seaside town Hastings.

Banksy Tesco Sandcastles, Hastings 2010
Banksy Tesco Sandcastles, Hastings 2010


Lowestoft has more, the largest of the bunch brilliantly reproduces that seaside promenade classic – the chip stealing seagull. This is the best realised of the current collection. The simulation of a bag of chips using cut up loft insulation and a rusty skip placed in situ without permission is next level, a real classic Banksy.

Banksy Chip Snatching Seagull
Banksy Chip Snatching Seagull


We had the pleasure of chatting with a local who saw the work in progress. He recalls shrouded scaffolding, a van and a bored looking young man keeping watch. With nearly 2 decades experience of looking bored around street art, my boy could empathise with Banksy’s lookout. Our local observer explained the building was owned by an absent owner in London who let it to council-guaranteed temporary residents and that it had been subject of complaints in the past few years about the accumulation of crap in the front hard-standing. So locals were not in the least bit surprised at what looked like contractors carrying out maintenance though they were puzzled that the work required insulation.

Banksy Chip Snatching Seagull
Banksy Chip Snatching Seagull


The size of the painting and the installation of the rusty skip give this enterprise a degree of planning that few apart from Banksy have the skill to pull off without permission. It will be interesting to see what happens to that skip when the chips have been stolen, as they inevitably will be.

Outside Lowestoft we found a chilled rat reclining on a beach chair, sheltered under a parasol while enjoying a cocktail whose mix includes the drip from an adjacent outfall pipe. The rat is staring directly at the pipe in anticipation of the next top up.

Banksy Cocktail Rat Lowestoft 2021
Banksy Cocktail Rat Lowestoft 2021


It’s nice to see a Banksy rat again, in this case the black colour is predominantly freehand painted over a stencilled white layer which is unusual but Banksy has used the technique in the past, despite what a particular high profile Banksy street art acquirer/remover said. See for example the Basquiat tribute piece at the Barbican centre in 2017, though that is one that the art chiseller failed to acquire.

Banksy Cocktail Rat Lowestoft 2021
Banksy Cocktail Rat Lowestoft 2021


“Au revoir Lowestoft, it was lovely visiting you” and “Hello” to Gorleston Beach with its newly decorated beach shelter now sporting an arcade grab machine claw. By the time of our visit, this piece had been opportunistically added to by local artist Raphiel Astoria, who signs their art Emo. Among the additions are a number of stencilled bears, a statement proclaiming this to be a collaboration between Banksy and Emo and most provocatively, a stencilled Banksy tag.

Banksy
Banksy arcade machine claw. Teddy bears and text added by local artist


The photo released on Banksy’s website shows the arcade claw before any additional artwork so the suggestion of collaborative intent on Banksy’s part can be dismissed. Robbo and Danny Minnick have made far superior interactions with Banksy street art in the past.

The additional bears look like the kind of bait prizes that never drop into the hopper of the arcade game. According to local news sources, experts apparently think the enhancements mean the Banksy piece “Makes more sense now”. What Emo has done dramatically changes our point of view, our relationship with the artwork. Stencilling the bears on the wall means we are now looking from the outside at a selection of prizes, which of course includes any poseur sitting on the bench, inside an arcade game. What Banksy painted actually gamified the whole world. We were all, the whole world, inside the game and the claw was selecting “winners”, the allegorical touch was a nod to life as a game that confers privilege on a select few while the rest of us flounder unwanted. From that perspective this was until the additions probably the most conceptually accomplished Banksy of the whole East Anglia collection. It still makes a great Instagram photo opportunity though.

Dave in front of Banksy
Dave in front of Banksy


Merrivale Model Village is a self-effacing Great Yarmouth beach front gem completely drowned out by the garish competition. Even the slush puppy concession outside is a bigger eye magnet. Inside is a different story - it’s big, it’s delightful and it’s brilliantly British in a classic wholesome way.

Merrivale Model Village
Merrivale Model Village


A clandestine Banksy addition to the model collection is a defaced stable in classic gingerbread vernacular style placed in a quaint village in front of a medieval castle. The vandalism inflicted on this fairytale scene is a Banksy fire extinguisher tag and a Banksy rat who has written “Go big or go home”, a very witty slogan to put up on the side of a miniature house. The rat defacing the property has been caught literally red-handed, like the “If Graffiti changed anything” rat in London in 2011.

Banksy graffiti house Merrivale Model Village
Banksy Graffiti house Merrivale Model Village


Banksy Graffiti house Merrivale Model Village
Banksy graffiti stable Merrivale Model Village


The Banksy tag is a model scale version of the fire extinguisher tagging hugely approved of by hard-core graffiti writers, reproducing the fire extinguisher effect at model scale is very impressive. Banksy has previous with fire extinguisher graffiti have sprayed the word “BORING” on the side of the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank in 2004. For purists concerned that Banksy doesn’t sign his street art these days, the Banksy tag here is not an artist signing their artwork, the tag IS the art which is a completely different thing.

Banksy Graffiti house Merrivale Model Village
Banksy graffiti stable Merrivale Model Village


Things get a bit complex at this point, the model is only on display between 1pm and 3pm. We had a lovely conversation with the son of the owner who told us that since word got out people were stepping onto the model village to get close up photos, so for the time the Banksy model could only be displayed for limited supervised hours. On Tuesday we did not know that! However the owner kindly showed us behind the scenes and let us view the stable close up, so what you see here is the empty space where Banksy left the model and a close up of the model photographed in another location.

Merrivale Model Village Banksy location
Merrivale Model Village Banksy location


UPDATE – it appears that the owners under advice have actually completely withdrawn the model from display.

UPDATE 2 – it seems that they may now display the model under perspex (plexiglass). Perhaps it is best to contact them before travelling!

Frank Newsome (Jr), son of the owner, told us was that it took them several days to spot the intrusion, an alert guest asked them if the Banksy defaced model was genuine and it took them a while to figure out what the guest meant. Their minds went back to an incident a few days earlier where a female guest had been particularly fascinated in the model making process and ended up backstage on a personal tour while simultaneously a drone intruded into the airspace surrounding the model village so they scrambled their air defences and knocked the drone out of the sky with a net. Management believes these activities were a deliberate distraction for the staff to facilitate the surreptitious placement of the new construction. Banksy’s Instagram account includes drone footage of the model village installation so the story truly deserves to become part of the Banksy legend and the model village folklore.

Banksy’s additions are an amusing comment on the ubiquitous intrusion of the modern form of graffiti into this idyllic setting, nowhere is safe. This is a companion to the Banksy humour seen in modified oil paintings such as “Tox Cottage”.

Banksy Tox Cottage
"Tox cottage", Banksy - photo banksy.co.uk


Close by the model village a stencilled dancing duo on top of a bus shelter trip the light fantastic accompanied by an accordion player. All the characters look like familiar Banksy cast but the most impressive aspect of this somewhat routine Banksy is its placement, it is a clever interaction with the street furniture and you have to admire Banksy for executing this on top of a council bus stop without being caught.

Banksy Bust Stop Dancers Great Yarmouth
Banksy Bus Stop Dancers Great Yarmouth


Two aspects of the Banksy artwork that has appeared in Cromer that might deter those of a less completist nature are that it is a bugger to find and the schlepp from the others to this one piece is an hour through the flattest English landscape imaginable. Don’t be put off though as this is certainly the most detailed and colourful of the set. A hermit crab with three empty shells is refusing access to three naked and needy hermit crabs, a social commentary piece touching on privilege, property ladder manipulation and social exclusion.

Banksy Luxury Rentals Only Cromer 2021
Banksy Luxury Rentals Only, Cromer 2021


Banksy Luxury Rentals Only Cromer 2021
Banksy Luxury Rentals Only, Cromer 2021


The arrangement and the placard device contain stylistic similarities with the 2014 “Migrants Not Welcome” piece in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex.

Banksy Migrants Not wewlcome
Banksy "Migrants Not Welcome" - photo www.Banksy.co.uk


So all told this is a very impressive and above all enjoyable collection of street art. The blending of political cynicism with humour is pure Banksy and above all, the execution bears Banksy hallmarks particularly the use of the scaffolding reported for the chip snatching seagull. The distraction strategy reported for the Merrivale Model Village installation may be new but it feels consistent with the degree of planning that characterises Banksy’s illegal street art.

Banksy Seagull Attacks Mini Cooper
Seagull attacks badly parked Mini Cooper


Interestingly two of the pieces in particular involved vandalism and dumping on public land, each of which could result in council jobsworths waving invoices for repairs to the pavement and removal of an abandoned skip in Lowestoft.

Banksy’s big reveal on instagram included two pieces which no one knew existed, they had not been spotted. The first one is a small one colour stencil image of kids by a paddling pool in peril from an inflatable dinghy. 03-spraycation-dinghy-closeup Banksy Spraycation Dinghy close up - photo Banksy.co.uk


By chance I happened to photograph the pool where that stencil was placed right next to the bench with the seated couple at the edge of the paddling pool. It had already been buffed by my visit on Tuesday and it seems probable it had gone the weekend before.

Great Yarmouth Paddling Pool - Banksy buffed
Great Yarmouth Paddling Pool - Banksy buffed


The council has stated that its contractors removed that one quickly because of an unfortunate resonance with the tragic death nearby of a young child a few years ago, they stated they thought that the stencil may have been an unfortunate coincidence rather than tastelessly intentional.
The other undiscovered new Banksy was in Kings Lynn.

Statue in Kings Lynn - Photo Banksy.co.uk
Statue with ice cream cone and tongue in Kings Lynn - Photo Banksy.co.uk


At time of writing there were 8 remaining and it is possible to fit in all 8  East Anglia Banksys in a day, it’s exhausting but hugely enjoyable. It was a real pleasure that the pieces were not totally mobbed by crowds as is always the case for a new Banksy in London and also, other than the unfortunate augmentation of the arcade grab piece and the loss of the boat hull on another it was great to find them in pristine condition.

Links: Banksy instagram "The Great Bristish Spraycation"

Banksy Website

Merrivale Model Village Website

All photos: Dave Stuart except where stated

UPDATE: Check my comprehensive location guide for the new East Anglia Banksy street art: https://bit.ly/3AHLvXk