Month: October 2017

1043. Rivington Street, Shoreditch, London (6)

Just a quick canter back to last summer when I spent a while working in London and, of course, took quite a lot of pictures of street art in Shoreditch and Camden Town. Most of the pictures I took are so far unpublished, but I will try to post a few more.

Ananda Nahu, Rivington Street, London, August 2016
Ananda Nahu, Rivington Street, London, August 2016

This amazing piece in Shoreditch is by Ananda Nahu. I will let her Facebook profile do her talking for her:

‘Ananda Nahu was born in Juazeiro, on Bahia, Brazil, in 1985. Moved to Salvador in 2001, in 2003 she attended College of Design abandoning it to start in 2004 to attend Fine Arts at the Federal University of Bahia. In this period, she became interested in studying photography and engravings, marked by time studies and research lithography, Serigraphs, metal engraving, and consequently a deepening works in references to these engraving techniques that are Posters.

In 2005 begins to develop the stencil, one type of engraving that is leaked into the mold to obtain shapes of and pictures. From the beginning of the fitting colors of the pictures, apply this combination on the stencil and began to work with multiple layers of color. Use these pictures in creating artistic compositions in urban environments and canvases, also begins to improve regional fabric painting, oriental and African, as well as calligraphy and sources together to compose the picture stencil.

The photographs used to make stencil or free hand painting of his (sic) characters are mostly written by the artist itself, which is done a photographic essay for construction work, or if not, are based on photographs from renowned photographers of Latin America.

In her references are album covers and movie posters, posters and banners, black culture, Latin, Islamic and Asian, urban and goticas calligraphy, printing and fabrics Brazilian, African, Chinese and Japanese, also classical and religious paintings.

Ananda has established itself as a reference in the technique of stenciling and painting, she maintains an international presence for the Arts since 2006, mainly in Holland, Germany, France and Brazil, having many collectors around the world.’

Ananda Nahu, Rivington Street, London, August 2016
Ananda Nahu, Rivington Street, London, August 2016

This was one of the first pieces I saw in London and it had a lasting impression on me. There is something about it that reminds me of Gustav Klimt. It is a lovely piece.

Spiny spider crab

 

Fine decorations

adorn a tough carapace;

king of camouflage.

 

by Scooj

1042. Upfest 2017 (65)

Pahnl were the selected festival artists for Upfest 2017, which meant that they had to work twice as hard as any of the other artists. They provided the visuals for the programme, map and other publicity material and they produced two stencils to advertise the upcoming event, previously covered in this blog.

Pahnl, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Pahnl, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

Their work consists of beautifully designed stylized figures, looking a bit like they have marched off a corporate logo portfolio, set in various, often witty scenes. The work is very time consuming, as each element is stencilled onto the overall scene.

Pahnl, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Pahnl, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

The effect is a world of colourful small designs interacting with each other and the viewer. Something about the figures reminds me a bit of Play Mobil figures.

Pahnl, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Pahnl, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

This wall, alongside the ‘Hen and Chicken’ was the first of two ambitious pieces by Pahnl which at various times saw them valiantly spraying under plastic sheeting cowering from the rain. There are loads of individual pirate stories going on here involving these little people.

Pahnl, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Pahnl, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

1041. Upfest 2017 (64)

Just occasionally at Upfest, it is impossible to write about one piece without writing about a piece adjacent to it. This happens particularly with the portrait boards, most of which were in North Street Green this year.

Stelle Confuse, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Stelle Confuse, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

The piece on the left is by Stelle Confuse, an artist from Florence, who is one of the most active protagonists of sticker and stencil art in Italy. Here his message is clear and simple – Plant a tree, plant peace. It is a fine stencil piece, with extraordinarily beautiful patterning and shading of the leaves.

Max Syther Oughton, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Max Syther Oughton, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

The piece on the right is by Max ‘Syther’ Oughton, and artist based in East Anglia. This is another beautiful work which has an added three dimensional element in the shape of bird boxes attached to the tree.

I don’t know if it was deliberate or coincidental, but it is great to see two interpretations of trees in two very different styles. Both beautiful.

 

 

1040. Upfest 2017 (63)

Anyone who was at Upfest 2016 would have been utterly charmed by the incredible tree frogs by JXC. It was one of my favourite pieces from last year, and I wrote about it here.

JXC, Upfest, Bristol July 2016
JXC, Upfest, Bristol July 2016

This year he was afforded a larger wall, one that Voyder wrote ‘Bristol’ on last time round. Instead of tree frogs, JXC treated us to an extraordinary seascape with a rather intimidating octopus in the foreground and some naval mines in the background.

JXC, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
JXC, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

This was another of the pieces that probably took longer to create than might have been expected, due to the constant rain interruptions over the three days of the festival.

JXC, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
JXC, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

The mouth on the side of the octopus isn’t the octopuss’s beak, rather is it a shark mouth inked onto its side. JXC’s work is heavily inkled with words and drawings that resemble tattoos, creating an interesting effect o the surface texture of the subject.

JXC, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
JXC, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

There is a story going on in this piece which is a little tricky to decypher. The words ‘Just Lie’ appear under the shark but I’m not sure what that refers to. Nice to see a smiley on the bomb – some ironic commentary there?