Alongside some lovely work by Fanakapan and Mr Cenz, Unify has painted this lovely spray can. Representing a spray can as the main subject or as a ‘bit part’ is one of the recurring themes that I have noticed in street art. Acknowledging the tools of the trade.
Stik is probably the most instantly recognisable street artist in the world. His simple stick figures hide a sophistication that is quite baffling really. They appear to convey such strong feelings and emotions, often compassionate. How does he do that?
This is a cheeky little ‘left-over’ from Upfest 2016 by Feoflip when he was in town in July. He has playfully animated a plug and wire, giving it a little personality. He sprayed several of these around the place, and I will try to post about them all. This one is on the wooden panels that create a terraced lawn (a bit of a fancy word for some grass) on the northern side of The Bearpit.
You can tell that Feoflip is not from these parts – we don’t use plugs like that in the UK, we have much more chunky square-pin jobbies that would look more like bull dogs than this rather cute ‘terrier’.
It is not so long ago that I posted a piece by Face F1st, which was in the same place as this one, although this face predates the other. Aaargh! the confusion and disruption of archiving. There is simply too much Bristol street/graffiti art to post in a nice logical sequence. When I go out to take pictures, I might get a dozen or more new pieces. These will be additional to the hundreds I have not yet published. I only get enough time to write about one piece a day, so I have a dilemma…do I publish the most recent piece or just post in a rather more organic way. I have opted for the latter, which is why this older piece by Face F1st has been published after the more recent one. An over-long explanation I fear.
I have long admired the work of Annatomix from the comfort of my PC or mobile phone through Instagram and other digital social media. It was a real pleasure then to see her at work at this year’s Upfest.
I have said on a number of occasions that one of the great privileges of Upfest is that we get to see so many artists from all over the country and beyond. This amazingly moving stencil is by Mister Feeney who is a spray paint artist and maker of stupid videos, so his Facebook profile says.
Mister Feeney has been a stencil art prize finalist for the last three years and it is easy to see why. His Facebook stream is well worth a visit, and you get to see first hand just how accomplished he is. This is a fabulous piece.
Regular readers will know that I am particularly fond of paste ups and the artists who create them, such as Kid Crayon, Tian, 23 Magpies, D7606 and Phoebe New York. Another wonderful and highly distinctive member of this genre is C3 whose works can be seen not only in Bristol from this year’s upfest, but also all over the popular street art areas of London.
Her work is always thoughtfully designed and presented cleverly. In this case, her subject shares a space with Phoebe New York and a tin of Stella Artois. Placement is everything for wheatpasters. This is like a little shrine.
I first ‘discovered’ Stephen Quick in January this year, when I found one of his pieces in the Tobacco Factory car park. I was immediately drawn to it because of both its wonderful stencil technique and its subject matter – Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher kissing. Brilliant.
I then found another of his pieces, again in the Tobacco Factory car park (a fine venue for street art), which features Alan Rickman as a ‘Severus Sane’ commemorating the sad passing of Rickman and David Bowie in one superb piece.
Imagine then my excitement then at not only finding another piece at Upfest 2016, but also at meeting Stephen and having a long chat about his work and compositions. He is a really, really nice guy.
This is a remarkable piece, presenting the unlikely couple of the Iron Man and Judy Garland’s Dorothy in a close and intimate pose. There is tenderness and a passion from her and a cold, metallic heartlessness from him. It works so well. This is a magnificent stencil, and one of the best pieces from Upfest this year. I look forward to meeting Stephen again, and if I am lucky enough interviewing him. Great work.
Time to post a few more pieces from Upfest 2016. This wonderful fish, in the playground of Ashton Gate School, is by Angerami, an artist from Sao Paolo but who now travels the world for his art. He has a Wikipedia page, but sadly it is in Portuguese (I think), and I don’t know what it says.
The biography for Angerami in the Upfest Programme is as follows:
‘Angerami uses travel as an immersive process in the nature, revealed through art in many different medias. Travelling is a passion, which allows connection with his perception of time, space, spiritual awareness and human presence on earth.’
Go figure that out…translated I guess from another source. He paints fish on walls, and that is good enough for me.
I have held back from writing about this piece for quite a while because I am not too sure who the artist is. I have a feeling it might be DNT, but it is not signed, and I am not getting a whole lot of insight from the Interweb.
It is a rather fun shutter piece on the Wolseley Road garage, and not something you’d necessarily expect to see this far up the Gloucester Road. Street and graffiti art in this part are pretty much on the extreme edge of the more frequented areas. Good to see though.
This is what I would consider to be classic shutter street art – a commission with some edge and relevance to the business. Unfortunately one sees quite a lot of dismal shutter art that is created by fine artists, who just don’t quite have the outdoor urban touch. This however is good.
If the artist is not DNT, I would love to know who it is.
Natural adventures 