6833. St James street, Liverpool

Liam Bononi, St James Street, Liverpool, March 2025
Liam Bononi, St James Street, Liverpool, March 2025  

There were several memorable highlights to our recent weekend away in Liverpool, and nestled just under my wife’s completion of the half-marathon, and walking around the docks and the Liver building, was this utterly outstanding portrait mural by Liam Bononi.

Liam Bononi, St James Street, Liverpool, March 2025
Liam Bononi, St James Street, Liverpool, March 2025

The portrait piece, of a contorted agonised male face, is particularly impactful on account of both its size and its positioning on an entire elevation of a large, isolated Victorian building. There is so much detail in the face and hands, a signature of Liam Bononi’s work, and there is a fair amount of emotional wrestling going on here.

Liam Bononi, St James Street, Liverpool, March 2025
Liam Bononi, St James Street, Liverpool, March 2025

Without doubt, I am a big fan of Liam Bononi’s work, and the quality of his portraits. What a fabulous surprise to find one as magnificent as this on the back streets of Liverpool.

3665. St Werburghs tunnel (238)

At the entrance to St Werburghs tunnel, Face 1st left this beautiful trademark piece a little while back. It would seem that Face 1st has been experimenting of late with some angular block lettering which I have seen two or three times now.

Face 1st, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2021
Face 1st, St Werburghs, Bristol, March 2021

As ever, there is an enormous amount of expression in the piece, something that Face 1st manages to achieve with the minimum of fuss, not dissimilar to the way Stik conveys emotion with his simple figures. I have lots of Face 1st pieces to catch up on… aargh, the backlog!

1260. Upfest 2017 (124)

I don’t know an awful lot about Gee street art and the Interweb and his Instagram profile are not particularly enlightening, although I do believe he has been about for some time. One thing is clear from his social media presence is that Gee street art is available for commissions and willing to travel.

Gee street art, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Gee street art, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

This upfest piece itself is probably an expression that many of us can identify with. The character is nicely conveyed in a moment of fed-upness or maybe discombobulation or something not quite reaching despair. Interestingly I don’t really remember this piece very well from my walks around the festival, and only really picked it out from the thumbnails on my computer.