Tag: Graffiti

342. Upfest 2016 (1)

What a busy couple of days it has been – a lot of walking and looking at hundreds of new pieces in South Bristol. Many of the works created are temporary and will be removed after the festival, some have been allocated prime sites and will remain for at least a year, others have been surreptitiously slapped up in interesting places and will have variable lifespans.

Phoebe New York, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016
Phoebe New York, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016

I will start my posts of Upfest with some wonderful pasteups by Phoebe New York (aka artist Libby Schoettle). I was especially pleased to see her work here in Bristol as I have only recently become aware of her and how brilliantly refreshing she is. A simple idea really well executed.

Phoebe New York, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016
Phoebe New York, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016

I particularly like the edge of her work, both in the content and statements, but also in the locations she chooses. I am a fan, and I expect there are more than just these two examples from Upfest in Bristol. I will be hunting for more.

Phoebe New York, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016
Phoebe New York, Upfest 2016, Bristol, July 2016

Upfest is a truly spectacular festival and I feel honoured as an adopted Bristolian that people have come from all over the world to participate over the last two days. There is still one more day to go, but it is a working day and I suspect things will be a lot quieter. I have no idea how I am going to post all the amazinf things I have seen this weekend – I’ll just have to see how it goes.

341. Raleigh Road, Vector (2)

Well this may well be my last post before Upfest 2016 festival which begins tomorrow, and for which I have already seen a few early works on Instagram. There is a certain privilege that goes with being a Bristol street art blogger, and that is that each year, the largest gathering of street artists in Europe happens right here, in my back yard.

Deamze, Raleigh Road, Bristol, July 2016
Deamze, Raleigh Road, Bristol, July 2016

Another privilege is to watch, all year round, the work of these two wildstyle writers who are at the top of their game. This simultaneously painted pair of pieces is on the back wall of the Vector car park. Deamze is on the left, and Voyder is on the right.

Deamze, Raleigh Road, Bristol, July 2016
Deamze, Raleigh Road, Bristol, July 2016

The Deamze writing is reminiscent of a piece I posted back in June from the M32 cycle path. It uses the same greens and has his customary character and ASK motif.

Voyder, Raleigh Road, Bristol, July 2016
Voyder, Raleigh Road, Bristol, July 2016

The Voyder piece is really unusual and something quite special. In his Instagram feed he has tagged the piece with #lichtenstein, and you can see the pop art explosion of colour and form.

Voyder, Raleigh Road, Bristol, July 2016
Voyder, Raleigh Road, Bristol, July 2016

I love, love, love this. Voyder has absolutely cracked it with this one. Interpretive and in the style of a great artist and brilliantly executed. I can ask no more. Both of these will now have to make way for new pieces for the festival tomorrow. So excited.

340. Ashley Road (8)

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have a real soft spot for Face F1st. I will always try to post his works as soon as I can after I have spotted them, although it is not always possible with such a huge backlog of street art.

Face F1st, Ashley Road, Bristol, July 2016
Face F1st, Ashley Road, Bristol, July 2016

This is a slightly unusual Face F1st piece. Sure, the soft colours are there and the FACE letters and the swirling hair, but the expression on the girl’s face is something new altogether. I’m not sure if I like it as much as the softer faces, but it is certainly striking. Good to see more work from the Face.

339. Stokes Croft, the Carriageworks (15)

This rather unusual piece was sprayed back at the start of June and is by DNT. Rather delightfully entitled ‘RIP corporate bunny’ it taps into the edgy political community that makes Stokes Croft such a creative force in Bristol. I like this work for many reasons…bullet holes in a cuddly bunny character. Disturbing and visually engaging all at once.

DNT, Stokes Croft, Bristol, June 2016
DNT, Stokes Croft, Bristol, June 2016

The piece has been sprayed over the Hoax and AKArat work that I featured in one of my earlier posts this year.

338. Stokes Croft, Attic Bar

I’m not sure how many times I might have walked past this before I noticed it. I would like to think not many. Recently (I think) the Attic Bar at the bottom end of Stokes Croft (It might even be North Road) had a little face lift with this collaboration between Aspire and another artist. I haven’t yet worked out who the other artist is, but the work looks familiar.

Aspire and ? Stokes Croft, Bristol, June 2016
Aspire and ? Stokes Croft, Bristol, June 2016

As always, Aspire has turned out yet another superb bird, which looks like a blue jay again, to watch over us.

Aspire and ? Stokes Croft, Bristol, June 2016
Aspire and ? Stokes Croft, Bristol, June 2016

I am perplexed by not knowing who the writer is. If anyone reading this knows the answer, please drop me a comment.

337. Leake Street tunnel, London (3)

Everything was unexpected when I visited Leake Street Tunnel recently, not least the large number of new pieces that had been created as part of the #do1cancer campaign. It would have been easy to overlook some of the other works that had been in the tunnel…except, I find it hard to overlook anything.

Hannah Adamaszek, Leake Street, London, July 2016
Hannah Adamaszek, Leake Street, London, July 2016

Having reached the end of the tunnel, I returned the way I came – it is funny how you see different things when you go in the opposite direction. High on the ceiling was this wonderful face by Hannah Adamaszek, who I have featured a couple of times recently.

Hannah Adamaszek, Leake Street, London, July 2016
Hannah Adamaszek, Leake Street, London, July 2016

There are two notable things about this work: the first is that it must have been very awkward to do…neck-breaking; the second is that depending on where you stand, the face takes on very different appearances. More great work from Hannah, who I am expecting to see at Upfest.

336. Old Bread Street (6)

The hoardings at the end of Old Bread Street are one of the favoured Bristol ‘illegal’ sites for street artists. The boards have been up for some considerable time blocking off a derelict site where construction is soon to begin. This piece by Deamze was next to Sepr and Voyder works recently posted on this site.

Deamze, Old Bread Street, Bristol, June 2016
Deamze, Old Bread Street, Bristol, June 2016

This burner by Deamze sits with other pieces he has done which are easy to read, fresh, simple and clean in appearance. Nothing particularly wildstyle here, just bright fun writing. Deamze doing his stuff.

335. Devon Road (6)

Let me take you back a short while to a gorgeous May day, when I discovered for the first time the wonders of Devon Road. This is a place where the local community wanted to brighten up their back street and so invited some of Bristol’s street artists to paint back doors, gates and walls. The result is absolutely wonderful and this is, in my mind, one of the highlights.

Sepr, Devon Road, Bristol, May 2016
Sepr, Devon Road, Bristol, May 2016

This brilliant piece by Sepr contains many of the themes he uses in his work. We have two young women playing instruments, in this instance snare drums and high-hats cast in monochrome on a delicious blue background.

Sepr, Devon Road, Bristol, May 2016
Sepr, Devon Road, Bristol, May 2016

I have been holding on to this piece for a long while, keeping it close…behaving a little like Gollum. It is my ‘precious’ you see. Well sort of. Now it is out there for all to enjoy. And if you get to Devon Road, be sure to stop and enjoy this piece.

334. North Street, 188

This is an absolute gem recently stenciled on a rather obliging white wall by one of Bristol’s finest street artists, Stewy. What make this piece extra special for me is that it is a picture of one of my favourite musicians, Robert Wyatt, whose version of ‘ship building’ is in my top ten personal hit list.

Stewy (Robert Wyatt), North Street, Bristol, July 2016
Stewy (Robert Wyatt), North Street, Bristol, July 2016

Stewy, when he is not stenciling animals, is creating images of well known people. Other works I have posted on include Cary Grant and DJ Derek. I love his work and was really excited to come across this one. I knew he had done it, but just didn’t know where. I expect It’ll get loads of attention at Upfest 2016.

Stewy (Robert Wyatt), North Street, Bristol, July 2016
Stewy (Robert Wyatt), North Street, Bristol, July 2016

333. Raleigh Road, Vector (1)

On Raleigh Road, just opposite the Tobacco Factory, is the car park for a small company called Vector. There are four available walls in the car park which are frequently sprayed…the turnover here is very high. I have only ever been there when the car park gates are shut. This is both good and bad. It is good because there are no obstructions in front of the cars. It is bad, because I have to photograph through the railings and for the walls on the right hand side, I only ever get oblique views. It will be one of the venues for Upfest 2016.

Cheo, Raleigh Road, Bristol, June 2016
Cheo, Raleigh Road, Bristol, June 2016

I took this photograph recently, but already it has been replaced. This is a lovely work by Cheo. This is one of his busier pieces, with so much going on in the mural.

Cheo, Raleigh Road, Bristol, June 2016
Cheo, Raleigh Road, Bristol, June 2016

Unusually, he appears to have abandoned his bee in this work and replaced it with an animated spray can. It is always good to see Cheo busy on the streets.