Going for a walk?
the message is loud and clear,
clean up doggy poop.
by Scooj
Tag: Stencil
1008. Upfest 2017 (46)
At Upfest, I am always rather fond of these small square boards that give artists the opportunity to showcase their work. I am guessing that they might also be able to sell these small pieces, but I am not sure. This witty piece is by Mr Bear, who produced this lovely Baloo work at last year’s festival.
There are quite a few fun things going on here, although I really don’t know what the word ‘bacon’ is doing in the ‘Hello my name is’ badge. This is a really goos multi-layered stencil from that nice Mr Bear. Would be great to see him return again next time.
988. The Bearpit (87)
On the north steps dropping down into The Bearpit there is this wonderful new piece from Lemak. It is a wheatpaste of a complex multi-layered stencil. I love the original work Lemak is producing at the moment, confining partial images within geometric shapes, with much of the image hidden beyond the confines of the boundaries, leaving much to the imagination.
It is a piece that is in a similar vein to the one he produced for Upfest this year (to follow). I am sure that many busy pedestrians miss this, as they trundle into The Bearpit buried in their thoughts or mobile phones. It is a little bit camouflaged by all the scrawls and tags around it, and only seems to jump out at you once you have spotted it.
Another fine piece from the brilliant Lemak.
984. Upfest 2017 (37)
One of my favourite artists from Upfest 2016 was DinDin who produced this official piece and left a couple of wheatpastes in the Moon Street area of Stokes Croft before she left Bristol. This year she excelled with this beautiful stencil featuring a street dancer in what looks like a fairly stark wasteland.
970. Upfest 2017 (30)
The artist who created this piece has an interesting and colourful background. I will quote the profile from the Upfest programme:
‘Lapiz started wheat pasting in the streets of New Zealand after moving there from South Africa where he had worked in HIV research. The immense cultural shock proved to be a source of inspiration but needed a vent which was and still is street art. While living in Buenos Aires the many murals inspired him to paint his thought provoking stencils on a large scale.’
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This piece for Upfest is challenging, but also beautiful. Split into three colour sections the whole piece presents as slightly menacing…balaclavas are always menacing…but also witty and very skilfully composed. I like this one a lot, and it really stood out.
UPDATE (7 September 2017) – following an instagram exchange, Lapiz shared a description of the piece as follows:
Female #nipples still have to be covered in public or the internet. But when it is a painting they usually aren’t. But what happens if you paint one of the best known statue of a woman, the #venus of milo as she was a real person including the nipples. And how would the spectator react. That is what i did for #upfest2017 a #streetartfestival with thousands of visitors. The only way to do it, is to use a ridiculous amount of highly detailed stencils. The body has 9 layers, the toga 7. The pink beanie was done so she looks like a member of #pussyriot just to push the viewer into the right direction. What do you think?
956. Upfest 2017 (22)
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.
948. Upfest 2017 (18)
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.
916. Dean Lane skate park (68)
I was very excited when I saw this paste up by Lemak, and exceptionally talented Bristol stencil artist. Excited because I had seen a short video of him creating it on his Instagram feed only the day before. So this really was hot off the press.
I passed by the wall last Friday and it has been badly tagged, so it was fairly short lived, which is a pity. Whenever I see great pieces that are dogged or ruined I am reminded of the fantastic line in Bladerunner – ‘the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long‘ and so it often is with great street art.
I love the crisp collage effect with the graff all around – some similarities with the work of PichiAvo?
907. Beaconsfield Road
Anthony Wedgwood Benn, or Tony Benn, will be forever remembered as the Bristol South East Labour MP who ruffled the feathers of the establishment with his hard left wing views. An adopted son of Bristol and much loved MP. This is a lovely tribute to Tony Benn by Stewy.
I think I a several years late in posting this fabulous stencil, and it has faded a little over time, but I have only just discovered it, and felt it write to post it as soon as I was able. Stewy has a great track record of creating stencils of important popular figures from Bristol, some of which are recorded previously in the blog. I like his work very much, and this particular piece feels so very right.
902. North Street Green (8)
So here it is, time to get excited about Upfest 2017 with this year’s festival artist Pahnl. There are two of these pieces, one at the North Street Green, and the other at the North Street Standard. Both I expect will be over written at the festival, the latter I believe by Inkie.
I don’t really know anything about Pahnl, so it is lucky that the nice people at Upfest have produced a free festival map and a short biography of Pahnl which reads:
‘Living at a lower level of existence, Pahnl’s miniature people, dogs, cats and birds can often be found outside in the street. Taking influence from comics and street signage, whilst adding their own subversive and funny twist, Birmingham-based duo Panhl use stencils, stickers, posters, animation, screen printing, film and photography to bring their own small world to life.’
So now you know as much as me. Certainly their work has a very strong brand feel to it, and perhaps that is a good thing for the Festival, but it is quite unlike most of the street art you find in Bristol, and maybe not representative. Having said that this is strong and characterful and demonstrates the broad church of street/graffiti art that Upfest espouses. Only a few days now.
Natural adventures 