Tag: Urban

1427. Dean Lane skate park (117)

Ugar is a promising young artist, originally from Budapest but now living in Bristol, whose unique style of writing is getting better and better. It is the organic nature of his letters and the kind of marbelling effect he uses to fill them that stands out in his work.

Ugar, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2018
Ugar, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2018

This piece , which is really rather beautiful, is on the curved wall at Dean Lane and has been well prepped and uses the wall to its full potential – not all work here is afforded the same thoughtful approach. I am enjoying watching Ugar develop.

1426. The Bearpit (131)

Well this rather ‘charming’ installation appeared only a couple of weeks ago in The Bearpit, on the inner wall of the ‘Debenhams’ tunnel. It is of course by Will Coles, whose work often has the capacity to lampoon and also to offend. I don’t think there will be too many people offended by this particular piece.

Will Coles, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2018
Will Coles, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2018

President Trumpety Dumpety throwing up the Stars and Stripes laced with warheads pretty much says all it needs to really. Another provocative piece by this interesting artist. Sadly, I visited The Bearpit a few days ago, and somebody had removed the piece in its entirety. May I recommedn stronger glue? Great stuff from Will Coles.

1425. The Bearpit (130)

This is a really terrible picture of a quickie from Decay on the left and trademark ‘SEISMIC’ from Jee See on the right. It is always geat to see work from both of these two artists, whose work is stylistically quite different. I am really enjoying these small character type pieced from Decay at the moment.

Decay, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2018
Decay, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2018

This board in The Bearpit has since been prepped and replaced with new work sprayed during a paint jam on 14 April 2018 – more on this to follow.

1424. Moon Street (42)

Moon Street remains one of my favourite street art/graffiti hunting grounds, because it still has that ‘illegal’ wall feel about it. I find the ‘legal wall’ concept a difficult one to get my head round. This is a nice straight forward piece by Smak, certainly nothing fancy like he is capable of, but nonetheless it is clean and tidy.

Smak, Moon Street, Bristol, March 2018
Smak, Moon Street, Bristol, March 2018

When I spoke with him a little while back he told me that he likes to find different walls in new places. I’m not sure this qualifies in that category, but I am pleased he still chooses to return to walls he has sprayed before.

1423. Stokes Croft, the Carriageworks (37)

You can’t turn your back for one minute in Stokes Croft. If you do, you run the risk of missing out on a clean piece of artwork. This wonderful surreal piece by Tom Miller had only been up a day or two before being tagged over. I find it strange that the perpetraters respected the work enough to tag the black surround, but left the central part largely untouched. Either respect the piece or don’t, but this faux politeness is a joke.

Tom Miller, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March 2018
Tom Miller, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March 2018

Once again Tom Miller challenges our conventional world with a burst of colour and a figure whose head appears to be exploding off its body. I think that Miller has an unbelievable talent and extraordinary imagination. Best of all, I like it that he uses the streets as a gallery so that Bristol citizens have free access to his talents.

Tom Miller, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March 2018
Tom Miller, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March 2018

Although his subject matter might not be to everyone’s taste, it is clear that we are witnessing the emergence and development of a very special talent.

1422. Stokes Croft, No111 (2)

Shutter pieces are always difficult to photograph, and I understand they are a devil to paint too. There is always quite a lot of glare from the curves on each panel of the shutter, and they are usually best seen with the naked eye which somehow accommodated for the glare and gives you a better image.

Kin Dose, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March 2018
Kin Dose, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March 2018

The chimp here is a beautiful creation by the versatile Kin Dose. He had a piece on this exact same shutter before, but it had recently been vandalised. I am a big fan of his work, and he produces it infrequently enough to always make you want more.

Kin Dose, Stokes Croft, Bristol, September 2016
Kin Dose, Stokes Croft, Bristol, September 2016

1421. M32 roundabout J3 (73)

You can see that I am having yet another trawl through my archives, bringing out some real gems that have been left behind. Part of the reason is that due to the Easter break and a bereavement, I haven’t been around to take many pictures and so don’t have too much contemporary Bristol street art to show you.

Jaksta, M32, Bristol, March 2016
Jaksta, M32, Bristol, March 2016

This is a wonderful piece by Jaksta, a member of the Read and Weep (RAW) crew (and several other crews too). I seem to remember this piece, at one of the tunnel entrances to the M32 roundabout was there for quite a while.

Jaksta, M32, Bristol, March 2016
Jaksta, M32, Bristol, March 2016

At the time I took the picture, I didn’t know who the artist was which is probably why it ended up in my archive in the first place. I think that this is a really masterful piece, splitting the character into two colours is a fairly radical treatment, but somehow when you look at the piece, you barely notice the colour seprartion and see the character as a whole. Beautifully sprayed…big respect to Jaksta.

1420. Old Bread Street (12)

This is one from the archive that I can release, because I recently posted my first work from Amoe which he sprayed at the M32 roundabout. The reason it took me so long to identify thisartist is that he is only an occasional visitor from Cardiff, and my knowledge of artists is pretty much confined to Bristol.

Amoe, Old Bread Street, Bristol, March 2016
Amoe, Old Bread Street, Bristol, March 2016

There is something very forgiving about his writing style, the curves create a softness that is very easy on the eye. Some writing can be much more challenging than this. It feels good to liberate this picture after a little over two years. The wall however has not fared so well and there is now only a small stretch of hoarding left at this spot.

Amoe, M32, Bristol, March 2018
Amoe, M32, Bristol, March 2018

1419. Shoreditch, London (5)

The first time I saw work by Unify was when my wife had spotted a piece in Cotham, Bristol next to a Nick Walker ‘Vandal’ piece on the wall of the Highbury Vaults. At that time I had no idea the artist was based in London. How much I wish he would return to Bristol and leave us some of his spectacular stencil pieces.

Unify, Shoreditch, London, February 2018
Unify, Shoreditch, London, February 2018

His pieces tend to be quite small, and often in a portrait orientation…maybe it is the way he likes to cut his stencils. I love this teddy with a balloon composed of ‘unify’ tags, something a little sad and also happy occurring. Another thing about tjhis artist is his eye for selectingh great walls. This one is pretty much perfect.

1418. Shoreditch, London (4)

On a trip to Shoreditch a little while back I came across this unusual and very attractive piece by Raphael Gindt, a young artist from Luxembourg. This is the first time I have seen any of his work and I know precious little about him.

Raphael Gindt, Shoreditch, London, February 2018
Raphael Gindt, Shoreditch, London, February 2018

I took a look on Instagram, and found his feed where he actually has a video of him painting this piece. What is interesting is that he uses palette knives which he loads up with spray paint and then smears onto the wall, a technique I’ve not seen before.

Raphael Gindt, Shoreditch, London, February 2018
Raphael Gindt, Shoreditch, London, February 2018

On his website, Raphael Gindt describes himself as an urban artist, street artist, muralist, surrealist, painter. A quick look at his street work demonstrated the obvious talent he has and the range of his artwork. This particular piece has a soulful quality and is eye-grabbing. I’d like to see more of his work but I’m not sure if Bristol is on his radar.