7.2. Upfest 2017 – Page 16 – Natural adventures

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One of the stars of Upfest 2017, and quite rightly so, was Dzia. This incredible artist has been brightening up streets all over the world with his beautifully drawn/sprayed animals with a style so unique and recognisable. We have been lucky enough to get this robin.

On the face of it, his pieces are constructed with lines, almost like doodles that, when brought together, create a magnificent whole. The pieces he creates look like they have come out of an A4 sketchpad and yet they are scaled-up significantly and work just as well. There is often a lot of white space in his work, but again this works in his favour.

This wall had been reserved for Inkie, but for whatever reason he didn’t fill the space, so Dzia got an extra wall and Bristol got this magnificent robin. This was actually his second piece and supplementary to his main piece which is at the Red Point climbing centre. I still haven’t gone there to photograph it yet, but when I do I will be posting it here.

I feel like it is a real privilege to have one of his pieces in Bristol, but to get two is simply being spoilt.

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Stefania Gala is an Italian tattoo artist who has only recently turned her talent to street art. Her first piece I think was from earlier this year and shows what a future she can have in street art should she wish to follow it up.

Stefania Gala, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

In the Biography notes of the Upfest programme, she says ‘Recently I had the opportunity to paint my first wall in an abandoned place and I had the great joy of being able to express myself artistically in a place to be revalued. In order to get rid of the ‘canvas’ and to give my artwork to others, unconditionally.’ I like that sentiment very much.

This piece for Upfest is really beautiful and captivating and interestingly does not look like a tattoo piece reworked…she is creating something special in its own right as street art. It is a clever piece, using a 3D effect to place the subject in the box really skilfully.

I hope she spends more time on her street art and comes back to Bristol for next year’s Upfest.

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A great thing about Upfest is that it gives us all the chance to see emerging local artists and it gives those young artists some great exposure. Lisa Allen is a Bristol artist who started to create urban art only last year, and here we have a stencil piece with a pop art feel to it and the surrounding decorations give it something of a 1980s touch.

A bright and witty piece which makes good use of the metre square format. I very much look forward to seeing more of her work on the streets of Bristol – perhaps as more ‘legal’ walls are created.

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I had been waiting for a long time to at last meet up with Mr Klue, and the one place you can be more confident that such a meeting will take place is at Upfest. I found him just as he was finishing off this beautiful abstract piece in a corner of the South Street Park site.

Mr Klue is a disarmingly modest man whose style of abstract work is unparalleled in Bristol. I’m not entirely sure he knows how gifted he is, and his works convey great skill and thoughtfulness. I particularly like this one with its wispy smoke and swirly shapes shifting to a vanishing point.

I don’t know how we got onto the subject, but Mr Klue told me that he does all his drawings in biro…an implement I can’t stand, but one that allows his work to flow, he likes the feel of it. Now there’s something you didn’t know.

A great piece from a great young man who I was so very pleased to catch up with. I hope our paths cross again soon.

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This is a wonderful and photogenic piece by Karl Read, a stencil artist from the south coast who produced another lovely piece at Upfest 2016. A boy dressed as superman wearing converses and flying on a swing is a winning idea, and this piece has movement, tenderness and nostalgia combined in equal measure.

I don’t know how he put up with the tiny space he had to work in and the crowds stepping over his kit to get photographs of his work and the adjacent work of Lemak.

This was another really striking piece from the festival and has been shared a lot on Instagram over the last week or two. I really rather like it and feel that perhaps it deserved a permanent wall rather than a board, but then I could say that about pretty much everything at the festival. Note for next year…more permanent walls please.

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Many will instantly recognise the wonderful abstract work of Decay instantly. A Bristol-based graffiti artist who has appeared in numerous posts on this blog, with his characteristic concentric shapes of black, white, grey and red. He was very smart this year – he is a quick worker, and he sprayed his piece early on the Saturday morning before the rain came, and was then free to enjoy the festival with the rest of us punters.

I met up with him in one of the venues, I think it was the Rising Sun, by chance which was lucky, because I had told him via Instagram that I wanted to buy one of his lovely new T-shirts and would do so if I met him. The shirt is great, and a nice souvenir of the day. I also had another little souvenir in the shape of one of the spray cans Decay used to spray this piece (the one on the left of the feature image).

Mrs Scooj was not impressed and said that I was behaving like a groupie and should grow up a bit. I prefer to think of myself working alongside these artists, and whilst I admire them I don’t think I idolise them. Without archivists and rapporteurs, our world would be transient and ‘in the moment’ but there would be little in the way of context.

Another fine Decay piece.

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Regular viewers of this blog will be familiar with the talents of Georgie, a Bristol artist who uses many different techniques for her street art work. This time she has selected a collage and spray piece with a nice big smiley face. She has incorporated other pieces of her work in the surrounding collage, including the ‘Citizen of Nowhere’ stencil.

It was all pretty busy in North Street Green where she was working when I passed through, so I decided not to bother her, especially with the showery weather which made things tricky for artists and visitors alike. This was a wonderfully cheerful piece which really embodied the spirit of Upfest. Keep on Smiling.

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Upfest this year hosted so many talented artists and they produced a plethora of really striking pieces. This one by graffiti artist Sonic Oner is a real eye-catcher, and a quick look at his Facebook page shows you what an extremely talented artist he is.

It was a real challenge to take good pictures at Upfest this year, because of the very changeable weather conditions, and these pictures just don’t do justice to the amazing contrasts between the black background, the bright green and wispy white.

This wasn’t the only Upfest piece that Sonic Oner did…he managed to find a permanent wall as well which I will feature in a future post. This really is an outstanding piece.

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First impressions count, and when I was doing my first walk around Upfest on the Saturday, this piece leapt out at me and grabbed my attention. Although I tend to have many favourites much of the time, I think I would have to say that this was the outstanding piece for me at Upfest 2017.

This friendly monster is by Bisser, a 27 year old Belgian artist and according to his Upfest biography notes ‘he’s influenced by graffiti, street art, muralism, cartoons and comics. His visual style is figurative and is very recognisable’.

The first thought I had when I saw this monster was of the book ‘Where the Wild Things Are’, by Maurice Sendak. So much expression, a simple idea beautifully executed. This piece deserves a permanent wall. Maybe if he comes to Upfest again he’ll get one – he certainly ought to on the back of this.

I chatted for a while with Bisser, and he is such a decent unassuming, modest fellow. He told me that his name in Flemish (I think that’s what he said) means ‘taken twice’ in relation to exams/college work – I think the equivalent in English would be ‘retake’. He adopted the name because he had to do his art exams a second time after first failing them. I like it that he has found strength and even a moniker from facing up to challenges. My favourite piece at Upfest.

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Oze Arv was a very busy man during his short stay in Bristol for Upfest. This Portuguese artist from Lisbon uses patterns to mix expression and graphics. His style is instantly recognisable, as you will see as I post all of the work he left behind for Bristolians.

This is a lovely shutter piece on North Street, one of two ‘official’ pieces he sprayed for Upfest. Shutters are always hard, but he has been smart with this one, laying down a white background, which lifts the whole piece really well. I think most of his work tends to include the natural world.

I like the combination of the abstract and natural, I think it works well. I caught up with him for a few minutes, and he seemed like a really nice guy, happy to chat about his work. Lots more to come.

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	paulh121 on 14 years
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	beth on 14 years
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