A gallery of fabulous expressive faces from Bristol-based street artist Zake
Instagram: @zake_two
All photographs by Scooj
Zake
Tag: Street art
3298. St Werburghs tunnel (203)
This piece has been in the tunnel for rather a long time and similarly was in my October folder for an equally long time, speaking to me saying ‘post me, post me’ every time I saw it. I have at last yielded, and I am writing about this piece by Zace, a Bristol artist whose work I can’t recall having seen before.
An alien face with brains hanging out of the top of a severed skull – now there’s something you don’t see every day (unless you go through St Werburghs tunnel a lot). This is a memorable piece in bright colours that attract the eye, and the artist has woven the letters ZACE into the brain squiggles. Weird and wonderful, and I am sure not the last we’ll see of Zace.
3297. Brunel Way Bridge (69)
I am reliably informed (Thank you, Paul) it was Face 1st’s birthday last week and this piece was part of a birthday/Halloween paint jam with friends to celebrate. The whole wall was a creative smorgasbord of delights and this horror Face 1st face was right up there.
The face character appears to be holding bits of a skeleton in one hand and a rather nasty looking ball and chain in the other and her head is split open with what looks like molten lava instead of a brain. It is certainly a vibrant piece, full of movement and action and I would say appropriate for Halloween. Happy Birthday.
Thursday doors – 12 November 2020
Doors 128 – a return to some street art and graffiti doors
As the country is once again locked down (although it somehow doesn’t feel as severe as the last time) photographing new doors continues to be something of a challenge. I long for a visit to a National Trust property or something similar, but I fer that such a trip is still a while off. In the meantime it is another dip into my archives to bring you some more graffiti doors from last year.
Short and sweet this week.
Have a great weekend and keep safe in this crazy world.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors and you really ought to take a look at the Norm 2.0 blog – the originator of Thursday Doors where there are links to yet more doors in the comments section at the end.
by Scooj
3296. Dean Lane skate park (363)
I haven’t seen a piece by Turoe for quite a while and I understand that his absence may be attributed to a recent illness. Whatever the cause of his absence he makes reference to it with the words ‘back from the dead’ at the bottom right hand side of the piece.
Turoe has painted a reasonably uncomplicated piece although it has a real feel of a Slim Pickings TES piece, especially the two ovals at the start of the T and the fills drips and letter shading. Both artists belong to the No Frills crew so it is no surprise that their styles impact on one another. Welcome back Turoe.
3295. Brunel Way bridge (68)
I am catching up a little on Halloween pieces, so forgive me for the delay. This is a magnificent work from Nightwayss which I’m afraid the photographs fail to capture adequately, so you just have to imagine how much better this looks in the flesh.
The piece is nicely framed in a portrait orientation and he would have needed a decent ladder to get to the higher parts of the wall. There is quite a lot of glare on this piece which is unfortunate, but putting that to one side, the scene that unfolds is crazy and nightmarish. There is a zombie monkey (of course), holding a bunch of keys and sitting immediately below a large eye.
An elaborate decoration surrounds the piece but look out, a snake lurks within the swirls. This is an unusual and intriguing Halloween piece from Nightwayss and is rather special in my eyes.
3294. Dean Lane skate park (362)
Within street art circles, the digital social media network is a fairly crowded place, and a fair proportion of the pieces I photograph I have already seen on Instagram and I make a deliberate decision to go and find them. A smaller proportion of pieces I ‘discover’ all on my own and in a strange way this gives me rather more personal satisfaction. I suppose one solution would be to stop using social media (would probably be a good thing in the long run), but somehow these platforms lend themselves so well to the ephemeral nature of the art I love. I found this one without knowing of its existence and what a lovely surprise it was.
Soker has knocked it out of the park with this tight colourful and beautifully designed piece of graffiti writing in Dean Lane. The colours used with the letters complement each other so well whilst contrasting too – how does he achieve that? The whole thing simply oozes class, something I have said so many times when writing about Soker’s work. Classy work, classy artist.
3293. Cheltenham 2020 (15)
The Celtenham Paint Festival was a bit of an unusual affair this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Slightly last minute and slightly reduced in ambition there wasn’t quite the atmosphere one would expect at a paint festival, but the quality of the art and variety of artists was nonetheless up to its usual standard.
Fark is not an artist I am familiar with, but am very much drawn to this piece. The strong lines, uncomplicated scenes and bold colours are reminiscent of Dick Bruna’s work, a Dutch artist and author whose ‘Miffy’ books were a cornerstone of my early childhood. There is a lot to like in this simple painting of a songbird and who can argue with the central message of love? We need to get this artist to Bristol!
3292. Cheltenham 2020 (14)
There were so many Bristol artists at the Cheltenham Paint Festival, which should have come as no surprise really as it is only a short distance away. One of those artists was Pekoe with this rather nice portrait piece.
Pekoe’s portraits are easy to identify, usually by the fabulous styling of big hair filled and decorated, and this piece certainly doesn’t disappoint on that score. I stupidly haven’t met Pekoe yet, but I guess it is just a matter of time, being in the right place at the right time, although with a new lock down in place that might be a little while away.
3291. Cheltenham 2020 (13)
Mr Draws really came up with something of a surprise at this year’s Cheltenham Paint Festival with this environmental piece of an elephant and the slogan ‘ system change not climate change’.
I caught up with Mr Draws in the centre of town and he told me that he had used a technique for the first time which is used by many artists called a doodle grid. He reported that he enjoyed it and that it had worked really well. There seems to be a bit of a mixture of techniques and styles within the piece, for example the rather abstract foliage, the well proportioned elephant and the twigs with leaves. A strange combination but one with a clear strong message.
Natural adventures 