Sometimes, when a piece is so good, it is probably better not to say too much about it. This magnificent work is by AKA Jimmy C and immediately adjacent to another of his fine pieces that I posted about on August 18 this year.
I particularly like the photograph that shows all the air conditioning pipes on the wall. Placement is a major skill with street art and this is perfectly placed. Massive respect to AKA Jimmy C. This is so good.
Dale Grimshaw must produce some of the most recognisable street art in the UK. This artist, originally from Lancashire, paints the most incredible faces adorned with face paints, and some additional wildstyle writing alongside the piece.
The pieces are haunting and captivating, he is a master of the large mural. In the last few weeks I have photographed a few of his works, but this is the first to make it into the blog.
This amazing work, painted on the side kitchen entrance to the Preem restaurant, depicts the face of a West Papua New Guinean. Grimshaw is currently supporting a campaign to free the West PNG people from the grips of Indonesian ‘occupation’. I didn’t know any of this stuff until I started to find out more on various websites, including this great post on Hooked website.
I am completely in awe of this amazing work, and I find myself saying ‘I don’t know how he does it’ far too often. Amazing piece.
Working two days a week in London has given me the opportunity to see some incredible street art in and around Shoreditch and Camden Town. It is interesting that the assemblage and style of art is really quite different to that in Bristol. In Shoreditch, for example, there are a lot, and I mean a lot, of paste ups, many more than you would see in Bristol. In London, there are also pieces by artists who would only ever visit Bristol for Upfest, but spray all over the place in their home City. One such artist is the incredible Shok 1 whose unicorn skull in Bristol is a memorable piece.
Here in Shoreditch we find a humorous piece by Shok 1. The ‘two fingered salute’ from an x-ray hand is quite brilliant. His style is so unique, that even the most unobservant viewer would be able to recognise his work.
Finding this piece was really exciting, especially as I don’t know my way around the Shoreditch ‘hotspots’ the way I do in Bristol, so pretty much everything is an unexpected surprise. To find this was thrilling.
I think it is safe to say that Roa must make it into most street art/graffiti art enthusiasts’ top ten, particularly those interested in wildlife and nature. On my latest work trip to London, I had another overnight stay and took advantage by finding a hotel not too far from Shoreditch.
I walked towards Brick Lane and found this wonderful, enormous hedgehog. Roa’s work is almost always in black and white tones and is picked out especially well on brickwork. The style is unmistakable and unique, sometimes a difficult thing to achieve in a crowded and growing scene.
When I was a youth, hedgehogs were abundant, so much so that they were very regular victims of road kill, even in cities. I even used to feed a family of them in my London back garden. Now alas, they are very much in decline. In fact this Roa depiction is the only hedgehog I have seen for about twenty years. It is a wonderful reminder of the splendour of this little creature. Thank you Roa.
There are few things more satisfying than wandering aimlessly around streets you have never walked down before and revelling in the architecture, bustle, characters and of course the street art. On one such recent walk I found this beauty. A stunning portrait by James Cochran or aka Jimmy C.
Aka Jimmy C grew up in Australia and studied visual arts at the University of South Australia before moving to London where he lives now. His very distinctive aerosol pointillist style reminds me of the post-impressionists like Van Gogh or Seurat.
There is always something very special that happens when fine art and graffiti fuse. Another example might be Bristol’s Tom Miller. This particular piece was painted back in 2011 but still looks so very fresh. A great work.
My wanderings in Shoreditch turned up so many wonderful pieces of street art, but this duo of Mr Cenz and Fanakapan really has to be the pick of the bunch. I am really familiar with both artists, thanks in part to the excellent London Calling blog.
For a while, I have longed to see some work, first-hand by both of these artists, so this was a real treat for me on a wet monday evening. Mr Cenz is a London street artist who started his graffiti in 1988 and is now a professional graffiti artist with his own company Positive Arts.
This reasonably recent piece is a freestyle creation of a female portrait distorted with shapes and colour, typical of his current work. Exceptional work and so very pleasing to the eye.
Fanakapan is a genius in my view. He creates the most incredible images of shiny surfaces which recently has featured helium balloons of lettering, animals and other shapes. The way he captures these subjects is quite extraordinary and his technique is quite exceptional.
In this piece he has even managed to incorporate two wooden features on the wall into his art. I am a huge fan of both these artists, and wish they would do more work in Bristol outside of Upfest. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. I was a very happy man after finding these works on the side of 333 Mother, a pub on the end of Hoxton Square.
Time for a little bit of a diversion from Upfest 2016…just for a few moments. With my work taking me to London for two days a week now, I am taking advantage of staying over in areas where I get great access to the London street art scene. Shoreditch is obviously the most famous place to go, and so this week I took my first steps out into the streets.
I had no idea where I was going, but it didn’t take too long to come across some really great pieces. This is by one of the the best South American street artists around at the moment – Stinkfish. This piece, outside the Bedroom Bar on Rivington Street is much smaller than his works I am used to in Bristol, but it is no less impressive.
Everything is here…the photo captured image, yellow faces and skin, and designs emanating from and around the heads of the subjects. I was very happy to find this and also to be able to recognise the artist immediately. Rewind 18 months and I would have known nothing, and would possibly have walked past without taking a closer look. I am happy now to be able to enjoy street art and share it with you. A good feeling.
Natural adventures 