Category: 5. Street Art

201. Stokes Croft various, Bristol

I am going to break with tradition for my 201st street art post, and talk about an unknown tagger. I have been seeing a lot of this tag lately, and my first instinct is to rather enjoy it…certainly better than scrawling black initials over everything. This may be an attempt by a new artist to start marking their presence before graduating onto something more ambitious, I certainly hope so. Here are a few sites from the Stokes Croft area that started appearing in March 2016.

Unknown tag, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March/April 2016
Unknown tag, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March/April 2016

 

Unknown tag, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March/April 2016
Unknown tag, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March/April 2016

 

Maybe I’ll get to find out who it is and observe their progress.

200. M32 Roundabout, Junction 3 (8)

The final one of a quickfire burst of Deamze wildstyle works. This is yet another one on the M32 roundabout. Doing this reminds me that I really ought to get back down there to see what’s new.

Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016
Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016

This time we are treated to pinks and reds in this intricate work. Unfortunately it is very tricky to photograph, because it is in quite a narrow passage which makes it difficult to get the whole piece in frame. The sideways shot just about does it.

Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016
Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016

OK, I’ll leave Deamze alone for a while now and concentrate on some other works.

199. M32 Roundabout, Junction 3 (7)

So here we have another fine example of wildstyle writing at its very best. Deamze is really a master of his craft and prolific too. It can be really difficult to keep up with his new work.

Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016
Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016

This work sits alongside a work by Soker that I featured a little while back. I think that they were concentrating on the yellow and blacks, and I assume that they sprayed the wall on the same day. Another great work by Deamze.

Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016
Deamze, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2016

198. Jubilee Street (4)

An old, and now long gone wildstyle piece from Deamze in my favourite backwater, Jubilee Street. This is a beautiful work, which is offset really well with the robot character at the right hand end.

Deamze, Jubilee Street, Bristol, November 2015
Deamze, Jubilee Street, Bristol, November 2015

There are so many Deamze works in Bristol, the next couple of posts will also feature some of his great stuff.

197, Stokes Croft, PR Solicitors

I have had this picture in my archive for a while, but simply never got round to publishing it. I love the piece, but the photograph is not very good, slightly blurred and so I have held back. It is by Kid Crayon though, and I do so very much like his work, so the time has come.

Kid Crayon, Stokes Croft, Bristol, September 2015
Kid Crayon, Stokes Croft, Bristol, September 2015

Kid Crayon’s wheatpastes are really curious. His style is quite unique, and it is difficult to see who might have influenced him. Not that it really matters. I really like his stuff, and am always pleased to uncover another work. I saw a new one last week and will post about it soon.

196. Hillgrove Street (6)

What a lovely surprise I had on Thursday this week…a new artist has hit the streets of Bristol. When I say new, I mean new to me. Tian is a French artist, born in le Mans in 1964, which makes him pretty cool in my book, we are the same age. In 1982 formed a punk-reggae band called Nuclear Device…remember them?…nor me. He started pasting in 2007 and has been going from strength to strength since then.

Tian, Hillgrove Street, Bristol, April 2016
Tian, Hillgrove Street, Bristol, April 2016

He is currently ‘on tour’ in the UK (see his itinerary on his Facebook page here) and was in Bristol from the 18-20 April. So far I have found three of his paste-ups but I will be out looking for more…you can do a lot of pasting in three days. Because this is the first of his works that I saw I am dedicating a single post to it. I will probably post collections by area if I find a lot of his work. I really like this style, the tints and subject material, but of course I am always a big fan of wheatpastes. This piece made me really happy.

Is that Sphia Loren?

More from Tian’s own excellent website.

195. The Bearpit (13)

Walking home yesterday, I came across an artist painting a new work on the PRSC Open Air Gallery. The previous piece by Cheba had been badly defaced with Buzz tags (which are becoming a bit of a menace) so a new work was going up. I spoke with the artist, ObjectØØØ, another incredibly nice person, and we swapped Instagram addresses. I said I hadn’t seen any of his work yet and he told me he put something up in The Bearpit over the weekend. The penny dropped – I had photographed his work on Sunday and here it is:

Object000, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016
Object000, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016

This is a wild creation and a strong message too, like Narnia meets Billy Bragg. I like the ‘other worldliness’ of it. I am now looking forward to the completion of his mural on the Open Air Gallery, which also has a strong message.

Object000, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016
Object000, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016

194. Gloucester Road, Metropolis

This stylised owl seems to have occupied this little corner for ever – I can’t remember it not being here, but having said that my skills of ‘street art awareness’ have only been in full operation for about a year now, so it might not be all that old.

45RPM, Gloucester Road, Bristol, February 2016
45RPM, Gloucester Road, Bristol, February 2016

It is a work by 45RPM, the very same who created the corporate commission for the Body Shop in Hotwell Road. This owl is special, and you will note, completely unmarked by taggers. A lovely work that could do with a bit of a wash.

45RPM, Gloucester Road, Bristol, February 2016
45RPM, Gloucester Road, Bristol, February 2016

193. M32 Roundabout Junction 3 (6)

The concrete surrounding structure of the M32 roundabout between St Pauls and Easton lends itself very well to wildstyle work. There is not a great deal of height, but plenty of width, and therefore it is a bit of a magnet for wildstyle specialists. Soker is at the top of his game and producing some wonderful work. This is a recent example which I photographed in March.

Soker, M32 Roundabout, Bristol, March 2106
Soker, M32 Roundabout, Bristol, March 2106

I’m not sure why his work spells out Sokem and not Soker – maybe someday somebody will tell me. It seems to be a thing though with many wildstyle writers.

Soker, M32 Roundabout, Bristol, March 2106
Soker, M32 Roundabout, Bristol, March 2106

The colours and shapes on this work really well, and there were many accompanying pieces adjacent to this one…for later posts.

192. The Bearpit (12)

Another fabulous stencil, this time by Dice 67, an artist from Cheltenham, and one that I blogged about in August 2015. His work then was sprayed as part of Ufest 2015. This piece is quite different, lurking in one of the tunnels of The Bearpit.

Dice 67, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016
Dice 67, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016

An Instagram conversation with Dice 67 revealed that he only sprayed this on Saturday (four days ago) and by Sunday, when I photographed it, it had already been tagged by DBK. I do wonder if DBK are pushing the boundaries of graffiti etiquette at the moment. Anyhow, at least I got a reasonably clean snap of this really technical piece of work.

Dice 67, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016
Dice 67, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016

I love this work, in particular the signature on the spray cans.