LostHills, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024
I wanted to make sure I posted a few more pieces from Manchester before moving on and losing them in my archive. As I have said many times before, I would think that 60% or so of all the street art I find and photograph never gets published on Natural Adventures, and my backlog now spans almost ten years. I try to find ways to upload as much as I can, but it is difficult, especially as I like to write a little about each piece.
I am going to break from tradition a little with this post, and present it as a gallery of wonderful paste ups from LostHills and portrait pieces by Ethan Lemon and Frodrik.
Back to normal for my next post.
LostHills, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024LostHills, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024LostHills, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024Ethan Lemon, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024Ethan Lemon, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024Ethan Lemon and Frodrik, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024
When randomly walking the streets of a town or city I am unfamiliar with, I am reminded of the iconic line from the film Forrest Gump “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get”, and that is pretty much how my recent stroll in Manchester unfolded.
C215, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024
I turned a corner and found this incredible stencil portrait piece by C215 staring out at me. He is an artist who has made a couple of appearances on this blog before, but I don’t think that he has ever painted anything in Bristol, surely it is time to change that (Upfest?). The stencils that C215 uses range from very small up to this kind of size, and he achieves this scaling without compromising his style at all. A memorable piece from my recent trip.
Liam Bononi, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024
Natural Adventures is a blog with three or four strands, the most dominant of which is the street/graffiti art of Bristol. I am finding it increasingly difficult to feature art from other cities and countries, that I would like to share, but without compromising Bristol posts. I have been pondering this conundrum for a little while and decided that my posts from other places will more likely be galleries, which makes sense because I don’t know very much about the artists in other places, This way I get to share a whole load more pieces. Having said that there are some pieces that simply deserve their own post, and this awesome portrait piece by Liam Bononi is one of those.
Liam Bononi, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024
One of my Favourite ever Upfest pieces is by Liam Bononi, and I have posted a different piece from a previous visit to Manchester where the artist is based. His incredible photorealistic portraits are disrupted by fractures and cracks, creating distortions, which I would guess are metaphors for disrupted and fractured minds behind the faces. The artwork is meticulous and beautifully presented. This piece was tucked away in a street with low foot fall, and you’d certainly have to go out of your way to find it. I only found it, because I was conducting a forensic tour of the streets of the Northern Quarter in Manchester. Another piece in my favourites folder (which incidentally doesn’t actually exist anywhere other than in my mind).
Dale Grimshaw, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024
While wandering around the Northern Quarter in Manchester, I came across a heavily boarded building site, inside which I could glimpse the top of a Dale Grimshaw mural. There was a small letter-box hole in the hoarding and I managed to take a snapshot of the piece together with some construction workers. I also took a picture over the top of the hoarding, without really being able to see what I was doing. I wasn’t unpleased with the results.
Dale Grimshaw, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024
Dale Grimshaw is no stranger to the pages of Natural Adventures, and his huge portraits featuring people of different regions and cultures are instantly recognisable. Here is a nice little bit of insight from the artist about the piece, written on his Facebook thread last November:
Storytime – So, this piece has been in central Manchester for quite a good, few years now. It was painted as part of the Cities Of Hope festival. It’s seen so many things – the environment around it has changed dramatically, from a potholed carpark to a new, trendy block of flats. The wall has been tagged & blasted with rain & sun over the seasons. It stood alone, staring out at the empty streets, during the years of lockdown. The wall it’s painted on is even crumbling & damp beneath it – yet it shines on! True warrior. Technically it’s not my best piece – (it was a bit rushed) but it seems to have captured something with the good folk of Manchester.
Memories of painting – the alarm on the scissor lift was beeping for the entire time, day in, day out, (I swear I could fckin hear it in my sleep ) I got to know a few of the local addicts that occupied that spot. One day a pretty wirey guy ran at the scissor lift & climbed up it like Spiderman – I was about 5 meters up & he hung onto the platform edge with his finger tips, staring at an £800 camera within reach, like Gollum & the ring! After that incident, I decided to load all the spray paint in to a shopping trolley at night & take it up to my hotel room in the lift. I’ve always been sophisticated like that.
All great stuff, a brilliant portrait from a very good artist.
D7606, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024
I recently visited Manchester for a work meeting, the second visit I have made in a matter of a few months, and made the most of the morning before the meeting started to revisit the Northern Quarter. I spend about an hour weaving my way through all the little backstreets, snapping away at so many pieces of street art and graffiti – it was like being a child in a sweet shop. Among all the pieces, I found several wheatpastes from D7606, who hasn’t appeared on these pages for a long while. I don’t know how old some of these paste ups are, but they appear to have weathered pretty well.
D7606, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024
I have met D7606 when he has been visiting Bristol for Upfest, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for wheatpasters at the festival, because the organisers have to remove posters and paste ups after the event, so they are discouraged, which is a pity.
D7606, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024
Here are some wonderful post boxes, telephone boxes and old style telephones with some celebrity additions for you to enjoy. Original ideas that are executed well and replicated all over the country. Great to see some more of D7606’s work (I feel a galley coming on).
D7606, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024D7606, Northern Quarter, Manchester, February 2024
TEAone, Northern Quarter, Manchester, November 2023
It seems a little odd to be rounding off the year with a couple of pieces from Manchester, rather than from Bristol, but that is how they have rolled off the production line. In a way, 2023 has been a special year for me travelling around the country, and I have managed to find one or two pieces of street art along the way, including this beauty from TEAone in Manchester.
TEAone, Northern Quarter, Manchester, November 2023
I have only ever seen a handful of pieces by TEAone, but every one of them is an absolute stunner, and this is no different. TEAone has painted a colourful market scene which feels like it might be from a Mediterranean country – certainly a little warmer than a chilly November Manchester that is for sure.
Liam Bononi, Northern Quarter, Manchester, November 2023
One of my favourite pieces from recent Upfest festivals was the magnificent piece in North Street by Liam Bononi, so it was just perfect to come across this outstanding piece by the artist in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.
Liam Bononi, Northern Quarter, Manchester, November 2023
There is so much to admire in his work, from the composition through to the incredible execution. There is so much fine detail in the subject’s face and hands, with every wrinkle and fold of skin beautifully painted. His work tends to play with the viewer, with the photorealistic image being fragmented or distorted in some way, with hands clutching the face, perhaps indicating some kind of anguish that is not present in the face itself. Truly wonderful street art, and free for all to see.
Discovering the Northern Quarter in Manchester was like entering Aladdin’s cave. My daughter and I were wondering around aimlessly, killing a bit of time before heading back to the hotel, picking up our bags and catching the train on to Sheffield. I knew there was quite an active street art scene in Manchester, but I hadn’t had time to research it, so to find this area, which reminded me a lot of Shoreditch, was a super-bonus.
Qubek, Northern Quarter, Mancester, November 2023
My knowledge of artists outside the Bristol area is rudimentary at best, and I don’t think I have seen anything by Qubek before. What a piece to start with! The lama, a creature notorious for spitting, is looking suitably cheeky, and the sign next to it says ‘please don’t feed the lama’ with the word ‘feed’ crossed out and replaced with ‘kiss’. Why anyone would want to do such a thing I would never know. A classy piece on a well-used hoarding.
Natural adventures 