Tag: Upfest

849. Upfest 2016 (136)

I don’t know very much about Johnman, the artist who created this wonderful greyscale stencil set on such a colourful background.  I have seen from his Instagram account that the stencil has been used in a piece called ‘Hitching to London’, where the background is a map of London.

Johnman, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Johnman, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

It is funny, but I don’t very well recall this piece from Upfest, but on inspecting it closely now, from the comfort of my desk, I think this is an outstanding work. I look forward to paying a bit more attention this year when he returns for Upfest 2017.

842. Upfest 2016 (135)

OK…I will say that this, for me, is one of the most fantastic small pieces, not only at Upfest but anywhere, that I have seen. The portrait of Einstein by Yassen Nenov (Yasko) is kind of crazy, but beautifully sprayed. There is something about it that just ticks all my boxes.

Yassen Nenov, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Yassen Nenov, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

I’m not sure if it is the use of the space, the colours, the subject or the execution, but it just works for me.

Yassen Nenov, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Yassen Nenov, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Yassen Nenov, originally from Bulgaria (I think), is now based in Portsmouth. He specialises in bespoke pieces for cars and bonnets, helmets and walls and murals, and is making a name for himself for his custom work.

Yassen Nenov, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Yassen Nenov, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

I am less interested in his commissions (these things are always so ridiculously outside my price bracket) than I am in his public art, such as this piece. Great, great, great.

841. Upfest 2016 (134)

Let’s hear it for the local RAW (Read and Weep) artists…Ryder and T Rex. I think one of my favourite things about Upfest is that it combines high-end street art with local graffiti art, and bridges all the divides that may be out there in the world of street/graffiti art – at the very least for a few days.

Ryder and T Rex, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Ryder and T Rex, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Ryder and T Rex often paint together, and their collaborations can be seen plastered all over Bristol. They have a particular penchant for spraying vans and caravans. I fear they are rather too under represented on this blog, something I will have to rectify.

Ryder and T Rex, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Ryder and T Rex, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

For now though , take time to appreciate the magnificent ‘fairground influenced’ writing of Ryder and the cheeky, possibly clumsy, dinosaur from T Rex. A popular combo from the Bristol

840. Upfest 2016 (133)

At Upfest 2016 there was one site where there were about thirty or so of these smaller (metre square) boards. I rather like seeing some of this smaller street art, which tends to have a bit of a crossover with fine art, perhaps exemplified by this portrait by Lauren Maria Hill.

Lauren Maria Hill, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Lauren Maria Hill, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

This young Bristol artist appears to focus on portrait work and seeks out commissions and freelance work on her website. Her images, including this one seem to concentrate on the face itself with great detail, leaving the surrounding hair as a complementary feature, but somehow separate from the face. I like her work, and hope to see more of it around Bristol.

839. Upfest 2016 (132)

An interesting abstractish sort of piece in one of the prime window slots on North Street, currently occupied by a Copyright and Paul Monsters collaboration. This piece is by Age Age, an artist I am struggling to find out much about.

Age Age, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Age Age, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

His piece here is next to the Upfest work of Caro Pepe, which is interesting, because in my trawl of the Interweb, I have found several collaborations between these two artists. A quick look on his Facebook page confirms this.

Age Age, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Age Age, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Age Age, Hannes Höhlig, is an illustrator and graphic designer from Berlin who, it would appear, likes to get out and spray the streets from time to time. His work is a little surreal and attractive – there are stories going on here. This was a nice festival piece which sadly was defaced not too long after the festival, along with several other pieces in the area. My understanding is that some of the Bedminster locals spray the pieces they don’t like or don’t respect. Oh dear.

Age Age, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Age Age, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

838. Upfest 2016 (131)

This is a stunning piece by Naskool that was situated on hoardings just off North Street, next to the Green. Naskool is an Austrian artist who started spraying in 2004 and now specialises in photorealistic street art.

Naskool, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Naskool, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

I managed to take pictures while he was still creating this piece, and it is interesting to see how he built the layers. It seems different artists adopt different techniques.

Naskool, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Naskool, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This is one of the great works of the 2016 festival in my view – the expression and character that oozes from this piece is quite captivating. Alas, it didn’t last very long, as these hoardings were fairly swiftly ‘corporatised’ by the construction firm who are developing the site.

799. Upfest 2016 (130)

Recently, I have posted quite a few pieces from the magnificent Georgie (artist), including a wonderful Michael Caine portrait in The Bearpit. However, when I took these pictures back in July 2016, I don’t think I really knew too much about her.

Georgie, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Georgie, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

This is a fabulous stencil, impactful and eye-grabbing. The contrast of the grayscale stencil and the bright and colourful background work really effectively for the subject matter of the piece. I am too lazy to find out what it is called, but it seems many of her works have an obvious name. I like this very much.

798. Upfest 2016 (129)

I met Annika Wilkinson, who paints under the name of Annika Pixie, for the first time a couple of weeks ago at a local festival in Bedminster. She is a lovely, chatty and talented artist who is from Sweden (although I have to confess I thought her accent Scottish) but is now based in Bristol.

Annika Pixie, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Annika Pixie, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

She tends to paint portraits that have a mysticism or dreaminess about them, which I rather like. I have found several of her pieces around Bristol, so it was lovely to finally meet her. Great news is that she will be back at this year’s festival,. which is easy for her, as she lives very locally.

797. Upfest 2016 (128)

This piece was one of the most mysterious and moving of the whole festival. It depicts, in a stained glass window style, a mother and child wrapped in a blanket. On first glance it looks like a Virgin Mary and Jesus depiction, and the mother has a halo effect around her head. Look closer and for a little longer and the horror of the image becomes clear. This is a contemporary study of the terrible refugee crisis of people from many of the world’s most troubled regions desperately crossing the Mediterranean Sea to get to mainland Europe.

Unknown artist, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Unknown artist, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

The child is not dressed in swaddling clothes as one so young should be, but strapped into a life jacket and the pair of them are enveloped in a silver sheet to keep them warm. This is both distressing and compelling, and pretty much my favourite piece of the whole festival. One big hitch…The picture was not there on the second day, and I never got to find out who it was by. I scoured the Interweb but drew a blank. If anyone might know, I’d love to find out. I am still really moved by this piece. Brilliant. Bravo.

796. Upfest 2016 (127)

There is only one downside to Upfest, in my eyes, and that is that there is so much art on display, it can be difficult to take it all in. The senses are bombarded around every corner, and in every green space in Bedminster. Sometimes it takes a while…maybe months…for all the images to bed down. This is a case in point, where it is only now when sifting through all my photographs that I am reminded of it.

Steve Pinchess, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Steve Pinchess, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

The artist Steve Pinchess was born in Leicester and brought up through the care system. He loved his art, and meagre resources led him to use the streets as a canvass (I paraphrase from his biography notes in the Upfest programme). He now lives in Bude in Cornwall (very nice too) and shares a gallery with his wife.

Steve Pinchess, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Steve Pinchess, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a clean picture of the whole piece, so am unable to commentate too much on it. Maybe I’ll do a better job this year.