Tag: Tobacco Factory

2253. Raleigh Road, Tobacco Factory (14)

Two weekends ago there was a special event held at the Tobacco Factory to celebrate 25 years since becoming a Bristol arts venue. As part of those celebrations the Tobacco Factory teamed up with Upfest who organised some artists to paint the car park walls under the Summer Editions banner. A firm favourite for such events is the wonderful Alex Lucas who painted this gorgeous piece.

Alex Lucas, The Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2019
Alex Lucas, The Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2019

Entitled ‘Pipe peace’ the illustration is based on a particular type of smoking pipe, used by a number of Native American cultures in their sacred ceremonies (so Alex tells us in her Instagram feed). I guess the link is tobacco.

The pipe reminds me that one of my closest friends at school, and indeed a next door neighbour, had a peace pipe in his house which belonged to his father. His father was an illustrator of children’s books, all of which were Native American stories, brought to life with the most extraordinarily detailed drawings using Rotring ink pens. I loved the books he created and the illustrations were sublime. His name was Paul Goble and I was always full of admiration of his work. I just read on the Wikipedia page that he passed away in 2017, which has made me feel very sad indeed. I digress…

Alex Lucas, The Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2019
Alex Lucas, The Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2019

Alex was very busy with her work when I went to the 25th anniversary celebrations, and I had my dog with me, so I wasn’t really able to have a chat, especially as my dog might have upset her dog which was in the crate next to her. I really like this piece, the lines are so clean and the simple four colours work so well together, a little reminiscent of the Dr Seuss illustrative style. Definitely worth a trip.

1762. Upfest 2018 (56)

One of the more unusual pieces at Upfest 2018 was this absolutely wonderful tile installation on the gates of the Tobacco Factory by Chinagirl Tile. As the years go by, her work becomes more and more ambitious, and this ceramic Giraffe is certainly the largest work I have seen from this Austrian (international) artist.

Chinagirl Tile, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Chinagirl Tile, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

The incredible giraffe is entitled ‘it’s a zoo up there’ was funded by the Austrian Cultural Forum London and BMEIA, and that got me thinking that her work must be rather expensive to produce and that funding and sponsorship must be an important factor in her ability to work. spray can artists probably don’t have the same kind of overheads.

Chinagirl Tile, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Chinagirl Tile, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

Unfortunately I don’t think I have been able to do this piece justice, mainly because when I took the pictures, the sun was directly behind it. I think this is a wall that needs photographing early in the morning or in the evening. If you look closely, you can see the individual tile sections that are placed together to make the whole. I guess this is for ease of modelling and firing as well as transportation.

Another unusual feature of this piece is that the head of the giraffe is 3 dimensional, not a flat tile that one expects from Chinagirl Tile. I really love her work and am proud that she has chosen Bristol to play host to several of her pieces over recent years.

1737. Upfest 2018 (48)

Unconscious bias is a curious beast, but it lurks in each of us in one form or another. One expression of it in me is the assumption that street artists are male unless they are not…if you see what I mean. I have made some terrible gender assumptions in the past with T-Rex, Skor85 to name just two, and so it was with Zabou. I have seen her work in London, but automatically thought she was a he. How glad I was to actually see Zabou at work during Upfest and to be able to write this post without falling in to the trap of gender assumption.

Zabou, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Zabou, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

To their credit, the organisers of Upfest do not ask for the artist’s gender on the application forms for entry and so never quite know what the gender mix will be at the festival…this year it was about 35% female artists, which, in what we consider to be a male dominated arena, is very encouraging indeed.

Zabou, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Zabou, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

This piece by Zabou, originally from France, but now operating out of London, is a stunning portrait beautifully executed, and it is really interesting to see from these pictures how the layers build up to give the final whole.

Zabou, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
Zabou, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018

I love the little sprays of colour on the hand, fingers and face of the subject – it is these little details that bring works like this to life. I really love the portrait, and wish I had been able to find a little bit of time to speak to Zabou, but the festival is large and the days short. Maybe next time.

1572. Raleigh Road, Tobacco Factory (12)

Every year in May, Stephen Quick organises a live paint jam at the Tobacco Factory Sunday market and invites along a bunch of friends to paint with him. Somehow I managed to miss it this year, which is a pity, but I did manage to get down eventually to see the results.

Lemak, Raleigh Road, Bristol, June 2018
Lemak, Raleigh Road, Bristol, June 2018

This is a fabulous multi-layered stencil from Lemak who creates these incredible pop-culture pieces. This one is of the legendary Jean-Michel Basquiat whose place in street art history is hugely significant. The crowns around the piece honour the subject as the king. Crowns denote the respect in which a particular artist is held and tend to be reserved for the upper echelons of the street graffiti/art scene.

Lemak, Raleigh Road, Bristol, June 2018
Lemak, Raleigh Road, Bristol, June 2018

It is a while since I last saw a new piece from Lemak (I think he has been busy in his studio) so it was great to see this one. The quality of his work is really out of the top drawer.

1434. Raleigh Road, Tobacco Factory (11)

I’m not too sure when Gregos came to Bristol, but I have a feeling it might have been for Upfest 2015. There are only one or two of his face masks that remain in the city. I took this picture in 2016, and to be honest I’ve not checked to see if it is still there.

Gregos, Raleigh Road, Bristol, July 2016
Gregos, Raleigh Road, Bristol, July 2016

His masks adorn walls all around Europe and beyond, and it is always a pleasure to come across one. These haunting masks retain so much detail from the original mould and you can see wrinkles and eyelashes. His expressions vary from mask to mask, and with all installation artists location is critical. Gregos is the king of this style of street art.

870. Raleigh Road, Tobacco Factory (10)

It is always great to see artists emerge from their studios and create wonderful public pieces like this one. In this case the young artist is Liz Clayton, a graduate artist from University College Falmouth who is now living and working in Bristol.

Liz Clayton, Raleigh Road, Tobacco Factory, Bristol, June 2017
Liz Clayton, Raleigh Road, Tobacco Factory, Bristol, June 2017

I have heard great things about University College Falmouth and I believe Louis Masai went there too. I have a niece studying there now and she seems to rate it very highly, and what a gorgeous part of the country to be a student in.

Liz Clayton, Raleigh Road, Tobacco Factory, Bristol, June 2017
Liz Clayton, Raleigh Road, Tobacco Factory, Bristol, June 2017

This is a striking piece and reminiscent of Mexican art celebrating Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead), which I am sure is entirely deliberate. This is a great stencil piece by Liz, and it is fortunate to have pictured her while she was working on it. I hope to see more of her public work.

Liz Clayton, Raleigh Road, Tobacco Factory, Bristol, June 2017
Liz Clayton, Raleigh Road, Tobacco Factory, Bristol, June 2017

 

 

819. Raleigh Road, Tobacco Factory (8)

The best part about this picture is that I got to meet the artist Lemak, who I have admired for some time, and who creates some of the very best multi layered stencils I have seen. This piece, space cadet, is an exceptional example of the complex and painstaking work Lemak produces.

Lemak, Raleigh Road, Bristol, May 2017
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He was telling me that it takes a very long time to cut the stencils for something like this, which is pretty much life size. The payback comes with selling limited numbers of the stencilled original. Talented beyond doubt, and his income drives further work…something of a virtuous circle.

Lemak, Raleigh Road, Bristol, May 2017
Lemak, Raleigh Road, Bristol, May 2017

Lemak is a real gent, and happy to stop and have a chat. This piece was part of the paint jam organised by Stephen Quick, and sprayed at the same time as the Quick/Adamaszek collaboration featured here a couple of weeks ago. This is a great stencil.

805. Raleigh Road, Tobacco Factory (7)

I had had a tip-off, via Stephen Quick’s Instagram feed that he and Hannah Adamaszek would be doing a collaboration at the Tobacco Factory, on the weekend of 13-14 May, so I managed to sneak over on the Saturday to see what they were up to.

Stephen Quick and Hannah Adamaszek, Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2017
Stephen Quick and Hannah Adamaszek, Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2017

What a treat. Stephen had organised for a few established, up and coming and debutant artists to spray the car park bays during what was a bit of a Bedminster festival. This work is really interesting because it brings together two distinct styles into a synthesis that joins them. The subject matter is the same, but the techniques quite different.

Stephen Quick and Hannah Adamaszek, Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2017
Stephen Quick and Hannah Adamaszek, Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2017

Stephen Quick works mostly with stencils and Hannah with freestyle paints and spray. It was interesting watching them concentrating on their respective halves of the collaboration.

Stephen Quick and Hannah Adamaszek, Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2017
Stephen Quick and Hannah Adamaszek, Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2017

It is possible to see that some elements of the original piece obviously didn’t work too well for the artists, so they were removed, for example the purple birds in the background.

Stephen Quick and Hannah Adamaszek, Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2017
Stephen Quick and Hannah Adamaszek, Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2017

I love the work of both of these artists, and I love the way they have collaborated on this piece. Does it work? I am not sure. Has it enhanced their styles or cramped them? On balance, I consider it a triumph, but it brings into sharp perspective the difficulties of working together. A bit like being married I guess…different styles, a collaboration.

Stephen Quick and Hannah Adamaszek, Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2017
Stephen Quick and Hannah Adamaszek, Tobacco Factory, Bristol, May 2017

777. Upfest 2016 (121)

This piece is tucked away in one of the parking bays in the Tobacco Factory car park, and is by Fats. Fats is an artist, so her Upfest biography goes, who is based between Dubai and Toronto and whose heavy black line work is in part influenced by Inuit art and Arabic calligraphy resulting in a hybrid style reflecting her own cultural confusion and ambiguity.

Fats, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Fats, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

You can see more of her excellent work on her Instagram feed, and she also has an active Facebook page. It looks like she’ll be paying us another visit for the 2017 Upfest event, according to the Upfest artists page. Something to look forward to.

Fats, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Fats, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Based on this one piece, I think that I rather like her work. More so when I have checked out her stuff online. The colours, of course, are familiar to me through Decay’s fabulous work, and the abstract style is not too different either. Perhaps the two should collaborate…that could be pretty fun.

739. Raleigh Road, Tobacco Factory (6)

This is a subtle piece that I photographed in August 2016, and so I am guessing must have been part of Upfest 2016. It is by Lost Monkeys who produced this wonderful tiger at the same time. I hadn’t been aware that he did two pieces for Upfest.

Lost Monkey, Raleigh Road, Bristol, August 2016
Lost Monkey, Raleigh Road, Bristol, August 2016

I love the use of colour in what appears to be a black and white piece, and it has the appearance of having been drawn with charcoal…beautifully done. I couldn’t get a great shot of it, because it was stuck behind a parked car when I saw it.

Lost Monkey, Raleigh Road, Bristol, August 2016
Lost Monkey, Raleigh Road, Bristol, August 2016

There is a story going on here, but I am not too sure what. The figures and lines remind me a little of Bristol’s own Shab. This is a fabulous understated piece by a very accomplished artist.