Tian, a gallery.
Tian is a stencil artist and wheatpaster from Paris whose sepia-tinted paste ups add mystery and wonder to the streets of Bristol on his occasional ‘tour’ visits.
All photographs by Scooj
Tian
Tag: Tian
2917. The Bearpit (188)
I miss The Bearpit street art so very much, particularly when I find pictures like this one of a Tian wheatpaste in my archive. Using his favoured sepia tones, Tian presents us with another glamorous lady… possibly famous, possibly not. All of his work is designed to get us thinking about the central character, even if we can’t help ourselves.
I am a very big fan of paste ups, and finding them in Bristol is a bit of a treat, because unlike other parts of the country/other countries, the scene is pretty small here, and most wheatpastes are from visitors like Tian or qWerT or Upfest artists. It was Kid Crayon’s wheatpastes that drew me in to being more curious about street art some five or six years ago, and I haven’t looked back.
2912. The Bearpit (187)
Looking back to May last year when The Bearpit was nearing its end as a street art spot, (shame on Bristol City Council) and the visiting French wheatpaster Tian, left us several fabulous pieces in Stokes Croft and the roundabout.
This fabulous piece, printed from a stencil, is of a boxer, I have no idea who, and is one of his larger paste ups at about three-quarters life size. The yellow tones work really well on the red background and the piece is full of life and movement. If and when Tian returns to Bristol he may struggle to find as many spots to paste his work as he has been used to on previous visits as the pace of gentrification accelerates.
2864. Stokes Croft
I thought I had posted all my pictures of French artist Tian’s wheatpastes in Bristol from a visit he made in May last year, but I was mistaken, and the opportunity that Covid-19 has given me to ‘look back’ has unearthed a whole bunch more of which this is one.
I love Tian’s work and that he has twice visited Brisol in recent years and left us these wonderful pasteups is a real privilege. I’m not sure who the sepia-tinted woman featured is, it might be Jane Fonda? Or possibly it isn’t anyone famous. No matter, it is beautiful in my eyes. More to come, and possibly a gallery soon.
2629. The Bearpit (185)
It is only a few months ago that The Bearpit was a street art hub, and very much a ‘go to’ destination for street art tours and hunting in Bristol. But then the Council stepped in, painted all the walls with anti-graffiti paint, cleared out all the containers and a double decker bus that had been a cafe, but once closed became a squat.
It was as if the graffiti and street art was symbolic of the squallor and so it had to go. In my view it was the chronic homelessness problem in Bristol that was responsible for the decline in amenity value and increase in anti-social behaviour, but the Council know best and have created a sterile space.
Nothing happens there any more. No more artists, no more skateboarders, no more gardeners – it is a joyless place. I wonder where they have shifted the homeless people to. I know a bunch of them live in the underground car park near my work.
One of the last pieces I photographed there was this wonderful wheatpaste by French artist Tian, which was one of a series of wheatpastes he left us in and around the Stokes Croft area last spring. I guess on his next trip to Bristol he’ll have to give The Bearpit a wide berth.
2266. Stokes Croft
A few more striking wheatpastes from Frenchman Tian on the streets of Stokes Croft. Unfortunately with all the rain we’ve been having, several of these have started to peel off and disapppear, but I guess that is the ephemeral nature of street art.
There appear to be two colour variants of this stencil piece of an oriental woman looking so beautiful with flowers in her hair, this blue one, and a slightly less colourful sepia one.
I am so full of admiration for the way Tian works his art – first sourcing a great photograph, then creating a stencil from it, then printing off and cutting out paste ups and finally finding the precise and thought-out locations for each of them. He is a true master of his craft and I am an enormous fan.
Tian, Stokes Croft, Bristol, May 2019
Tian, Stokes Croft, Bristol, May 2019
2230. Stokes Croft
Well you have seen a couple of these now in recent posts, so you should be able to tell me the artist’s name. It is of course yet another sensational wheatpaste by French artist Tian who visited Bristol in early May, I think. Once again I am left uncertain who is featured in this stencil paste up, but the detail on the tattoo is incredible.
I absolutely love this one, not only for its technical brilliance, but also for the interesting pose and picture selected and more so the exact spot where the piece was pasted. A window that was already fairly heavily fly-posted and stickered is no dominated by this beautiful woman. One of my favourites of his great portfolio of work. Still many more to come.
2216. Stokes Croft
Wow, just wow, another wonderful paste up from Tian down in Stokes Croft. This one features a boxer, but I fear I don’t know which one. I have Googled Muhammad Ali, it might be him; Apollo Creed, it’s not him; Joe Foreman, it might be him when he had hair; Joe Frazier, I don’t think it’s him. And there my knowledge of boxers dries up… any ideas?
The wheatpaste itself is a beautiful stencil using his preferred yellow/sepia tones, I just don’t think I can get enough of his work and rather joyfully I have a whole load more to post over the coming weeks.
2210. Stokes Croft
I can’t express how excited I was to see this last week, but it appears that Tian has been on another tour of Bristol and has left dozens of paste ups in the Stokes Croft area. Although He came for Upfest 2016, his last wheatpasting drop was in April 2016 so it has been some time, but how utterly worth the wait.
Over the next few weeks I will post more of his pieces. Once again he presents us with stencil work that has been printed and pasted up and this first design appears to be a Japanese scene with a geisha. If any of his past work is a guide, the piece is probably taken from a famous film, but I don’t know for sure.
Unusually for the work of Tian that I have seen, this piece diverges from his normal sepia-toned pieces and in fact if you look carefully there are two different tones of orange used in the versions of this wheatpaste.
These four paste ups were from various spots on my way to work… what a walk that was. I seem to remember it was raining quite hard but it simply didn’t matter I was in street art appreciation mode.
Loads more to come from this fabulous French artist.
793. Stokes Croft, I forget where
I believe this to be the very last set of my images from Tian’s tour of Britain in April 2016. It was an exciting week, discovering all the gifts and surprises he had pasted up all around the Stokes Croft area, and it was great to see his work at Upfest in July too.
My knowledge of screen actresses from the fifties onwards is rather poor, and I am not sure who this is, but I am sure she is famous. I’m sure Southampton Old Lady would know. It is a pity that the wheatpaste is tagged, but in a strange way it adds to its ‘street’ credibility (not street credibility) (does that make sense?).
I dearly hope Tian will visit Bristol again soon.
Natural adventures 