Tag: Stokes Croft

208. North Street (A38)

In the grubbiest little bit of street on the northern approach to St. James Barton Roundabout and The Bearpit from Stokes Croft, is a building that spans across the main road called 51º02. It is not the most beautiful of buildings. On a side wall is this incredibly well concealed Gregos face.

Gregos, North Street (A38), Bristol, April 2016
Gregos, North Street (A38), Bristol, April 2016

Gregos needs no introduction, but for those new to his work, I point you in the direction of a previous post about a mask he did in the other North Street in Bedminster. This face really has to be hunted down, most people pass by it completely oblivious…this is the joy and mischief of street art.

Gregos, North Street (A38), Bristol, April 2016
Gregos, North Street (A38), Bristol, April 2016

The forlorn face complements well the large metal disk it has been attached to, and indeed the general demeanour of this tatty stretch of road. Another great work from the Frenchman.

207. Stokes Croft, Shambarber

This is just brilliant. A pasteup of Jodie Foster from the 1976 film Taxi Driver up against a hoarding in Stokes Croft. There is something about the subject, the location and the shades that make this…well, as I said before, just brilliant.

Tian, Jodie Foster, Stokes Croft, Bristol April 2016
Tian, Jodie Foster, Stokes Croft, Bristol April 2016

I think Tian’s work taps into our formative years and triggers these iconic memories (‘yes, I remember that’ moments) and presents them as if they are faded by time. It really works for me.

Tian, Jodie Foster, Stokes Croft, Bristol April 2016
Tian, Jodie Foster, Stokes Croft, Bristol April 2016

Better still, Tian has left a trail of wheatpastes all over Stokes Croft and I look forward to sharing them with you, over the coming days.

206. Stokes Croft, Canteen (2)

No self-respecting Bristol street art blogger can ignore what is probably regarded as the most Bristol Banksy of them all. The Mild Mild West still sits proudly on the wall outside the Canteen, and opposite Cosmo Sarson’s Breakdancing Jesus, in spite of attempts to vandalise it (layered irony there).

Banksy, Stokes Croft, Bristol, July 2015
Banksy, Stokes Croft, Bristol, July 2015

This iconic Banksy (and which ones aren’t) tells so many Bristol stories, which are really nicely captured in this 2008 article from the The Telegraph. I see this wall pretty much every day and it is special, really special. The area in which it stands is an area which has played host to several riots, the most recent of which was the ‘boycott Tesco’ riot.

Banksy, Stokes Croft, Bristol, August 2015
Banksy, Stokes Croft, Bristol, August 2015

So established is this piece, that it makes it into the ‘Visit Bristol’ website as a must see attraction. How things have changed from the days of rounding up and arresting Bristol street artists.

This work simply has to be one of my all time favourite pieces in my adopted city.

205. The Bearpit (14)

In the South East tunnel of the Bearpit you may this wonderful and very typical work by Angus (although nothing lasts very long there). It is a fun piece featuring Meg Griffin from the Family Guy, a TV cartoon I don’t watch so can’t explain any more about the work. Over the last few years Angus has burst onto the Bristol graffiti scene, and being a local street artist, he has had many great influences all around him.

Angus, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016
Angus, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016

If you want to know more about Angus, there is a lovely interview with him on the Best of Bristol website, which I thoroughly recommend reading. I rather hope to bump into him at some time, because he seems like a really decent bloke. I like the familiarity and crispness of his work.

Angus is also a member of The Secret Society of Super Villain Artists (SSOSVA) – you will see more artists from this group in future posts.

201. Stokes Croft various, Bristol

I am going to break with tradition for my 201st street art post, and talk about an unknown tagger. I have been seeing a lot of this tag lately, and my first instinct is to rather enjoy it…certainly better than scrawling black initials over everything. This may be an attempt by a new artist to start marking their presence before graduating onto something more ambitious, I certainly hope so. Here are a few sites from the Stokes Croft area that started appearing in March 2016.

Unknown tag, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March/April 2016
Unknown tag, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March/April 2016

 

Unknown tag, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March/April 2016
Unknown tag, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March/April 2016

 

Maybe I’ll get to find out who it is and observe their progress.

197, Stokes Croft, PR Solicitors

I have had this picture in my archive for a while, but simply never got round to publishing it. I love the piece, but the photograph is not very good, slightly blurred and so I have held back. It is by Kid Crayon though, and I do so very much like his work, so the time has come.

Kid Crayon, Stokes Croft, Bristol, September 2015
Kid Crayon, Stokes Croft, Bristol, September 2015

Kid Crayon’s wheatpastes are really curious. His style is quite unique, and it is difficult to see who might have influenced him. Not that it really matters. I really like his stuff, and am always pleased to uncover another work. I saw a new one last week and will post about it soon.

196. Hillgrove Street (6)

What a lovely surprise I had on Thursday this week…a new artist has hit the streets of Bristol. When I say new, I mean new to me. Tian is a French artist, born in le Mans in 1964, which makes him pretty cool in my book, we are the same age. In 1982 formed a punk-reggae band called Nuclear Device…remember them?…nor me. He started pasting in 2007 and has been going from strength to strength since then.

Tian, Hillgrove Street, Bristol, April 2016
Tian, Hillgrove Street, Bristol, April 2016

He is currently ‘on tour’ in the UK (see his itinerary on his Facebook page here) and was in Bristol from the 18-20 April. So far I have found three of his paste-ups but I will be out looking for more…you can do a lot of pasting in three days. Because this is the first of his works that I saw I am dedicating a single post to it. I will probably post collections by area if I find a lot of his work. I really like this style, the tints and subject material, but of course I am always a big fan of wheatpastes. This piece made me really happy.

Is that Sphia Loren?

More from Tian’s own excellent website.

195. The Bearpit (13)

Walking home yesterday, I came across an artist painting a new work on the PRSC Open Air Gallery. The previous piece by Cheba had been badly defaced with Buzz tags (which are becoming a bit of a menace) so a new work was going up. I spoke with the artist, ObjectØØØ, another incredibly nice person, and we swapped Instagram addresses. I said I hadn’t seen any of his work yet and he told me he put something up in The Bearpit over the weekend. The penny dropped – I had photographed his work on Sunday and here it is:

Object000, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016
Object000, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016

This is a wild creation and a strong message too, like Narnia meets Billy Bragg. I like the ‘other worldliness’ of it. I am now looking forward to the completion of his mural on the Open Air Gallery, which also has a strong message.

Object000, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016
Object000, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016

192. The Bearpit (12)

Another fabulous stencil, this time by Dice 67, an artist from Cheltenham, and one that I blogged about in August 2015. His work then was sprayed as part of Ufest 2015. This piece is quite different, lurking in one of the tunnels of The Bearpit.

Dice 67, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016
Dice 67, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016

An Instagram conversation with Dice 67 revealed that he only sprayed this on Saturday (four days ago) and by Sunday, when I photographed it, it had already been tagged by DBK. I do wonder if DBK are pushing the boundaries of graffiti etiquette at the moment. Anyhow, at least I got a reasonably clean snap of this really technical piece of work.

Dice 67, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016
Dice 67, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2016

I love this work, in particular the signature on the spray cans.

190. Moon Street (10)

Laic217 is certainly providing me with loads of material at the moment.This is his latest work in a very busy Moon Street. In my view, this is the best that I have seen of his work so far. Weird, trippy and well executed – perfect for the wall it has been sprayed on.

Laic217, Moon Street, Bristol, April 2016
Laic217, Moon Street, Bristol, April 2016

I like the melting face and acid house theme. More of his work can be viewed on his profile page of streetpins.com a site for graffiti artists to show their work.

Laic217, Moon Street, Bristol, April 2016
Laic217, Moon Street, Bristol, April 2016

This piece was, I think completed over the weekend of 16/17 April.