Tag: Upfest

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.

763. Upfest 2016 (120)

Si2, operating as ‘Hull Graffiti’ is a creative artist whose work is full of cartoon style characters. Look no further than his Facebook page to see the prolific high standard work he consistently turns out.

Si2, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Si2, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

His upfest piece is full of fun and energy, something of a USP for Si2. His biography for Upfest 2017 (yes, the list of Upfest 2017 artists is now out) reads as follows (with grammatical corrections):

Hull based professional graff writer and member of long running Newcastle crew 3rd Teem Kingz. Apex predator character writer only paints original work for pleasure and profit. Lives and loves graff and prefers to let his vast body of work speak for him, although most will know him as ‘the guy who paints the bins’.

Si2, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Si2, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

762. Upfest 2016 (119)

A pair of great wheatpasters occupuying the same space at Upfest, which is often the case when there are only a limited number of ‘public’ utility boxes of one sort or another to choose from.

Face the Strange, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Face the Strange, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

The first of these excellent paste ups is by Losthills featuring his wonderful Jake the Dog, the second is a weird and wonderful pigeon headed gentleman by Face the Strange (I guess his name gives away his artistic direction).

Face the Strange and Losthills, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Face the Strange and Losthills, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

These two artists really brought some colour and fun to North Street, along with all the other wheatpasters. I fear it is an underrated form of street art, but I am a big fan.

761. Upfest 2016 (118)

It was great to meet Dice 67 at Upfest, as we had communicated by Instagram before the festival, and I had arranged to say hello. His piece for Upfest was more of a collection of stencils pulled together into one place, and they are all really good.

Dice67, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Dice67, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

In the first image, Dice 67 is touching up some of the breaks in the outline from the stencil with a pen.

Dice67, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Dice67, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

I love the ideas that he has brought to this eclectic gallery – a Victorian lady spraying, and a girl roller-skating, sporting a SSOSVA t-shirt.

 

Dice67, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Dice67, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

One of the things that Dice encouraged visitors to do was stick up a signature or small stencil on his wall. There are many artists who took him up on his offer. I also made my debut tag…in the picture below – can you see it?

Dice67, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Dice67, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

My first effort, and it could do with a bit of work, but not too bad. This was a really fun piece by Dice 67, getting into the spirit of the whole festival.

760. Upfest 2016 (117)

You really know you are at a street art festival, when the bins that are provided for used spray cans are themselves sprayed. In this case by the talented and humorous The Agent. These minions were sprayed on bins around the Upfest site and added to the overall spectacle.

The Agent, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
The Agent, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

I met The Agent a day or two after Upfest, when Inkie was finishing off his piece on Dean Lane. He corrected me about the post I wrote about a Bearpit piece on the 12 July, a short time before the festival. He most definitely is from Bristol, and indeed I have a recent piece by him lined up for posting soon. All good fun.

The Agent, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
The Agent, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

759. Upfest 2016 (116)

Pooka, from Brighton is a relatively new entrant to the street art scene and has been spraying his monochrome portraits only since 2015. This wonderful freehand piece is, I think, a portrait of Nina Simone.

Pooka, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Pooka, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Really striking and a great debut piece for Upfest.

753. Upfest 2016 (115)

I saw this magnificent piece at a couple of different stages in its genesis and what a masterpiece it turned in to. It is by Pikto, an artist who has been working on street art and graffiti art for some ten years. He has created pieces in London and all over the UK, in Poland and Denmark.

Pikto, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Pikto, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This is really eye-catching and different, combining a photorealist technique with a rather surreal image. I love this piece, it is one of the outstanding images of Upfest 2016 in my view.

Pikto, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Pikto, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Pikto, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Pikto, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

752. Upfest 2016 (114)

This is a beautiful wheatpaste by the wonderfully talented What Have I Done Now. The piece contains real pathos, and has resonance with Italian frescos…simply replace the police with Roman soldiers.

What have I done now, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
What have I done now, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This is similar in subject matter and style to one of his other Upfest pieces. Great work.

751. Upfest 2016 (113)

A really colourful collaboration by Bristol artists, DNT, Akarat and Sheva. It is great that as well as visiting artists from all over the world, space is made for some of the local street/graffiti artists who keep Bristolians happy year-round.

DNT, Akarat and Sheva, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

DNT, Akarat and Sheva, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

In this large piece, the stencils at each end are by Akarat, the writing and little angel at the bottom right hand side by DNT and the rest I assume is by Sheva. Sheva is a Bristol artist I have not posted about before, and although I am familiar with the name, I am not familiar with his work.

DNT, Akarat and Sheva, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
DNT, Akarat and Sheva, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

The whole thing, I think is entitled ‘War Baby’ but I am not too sure what the narrative, if there is one, is.

DNT, Akarat, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
DNT, Akarat, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This was definitely one of the brightest and most vibrant pieces of last year’s festival.

Akarat, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Akarat, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

750. Upfest 2016 (112)

I am feeling under a little pressure to get as many Upfest 2016 pieces posted before the end of July when the whole thing starts all over again. I think that the only way I will be able to achieve this is to shorten the narrative sections surrounding the images, which will be a Godsend for those who don’t like to read, but perhaps not so great for those who like to know a little more about the artists and the impression their work has made.

Braga Last1, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Braga Last1, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This is a wonderful piece by Braga Last1 whose owl in Dean Lane skate park I posted only a few days ago. This time he has created a beautiful rhinoceros in the school playground of Ashton Gate School.

Braga Last1, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Braga Last1, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

The use of monochrome accompanied with colours spilling from the horn/tree on the rhinoceros is skilfully done, and the slight reflection of green on the head and back of the animal has been well thought through. A lovely piece.