Graffoto
Winter Lights Canary Wharf, London 16th – 25th January 2020 Dark nights and biting cold make classic ingredients for some light art so off to Winter Lights at Canary Wharf, selfie heaven in the form of 26 sculptures. Affinity, Amigo and Amigo & S1T2 Starting with our favourite, Constellation is part Dr Who theme tune […]
Time to reflect on another glorious year of street art. Time to make zero apologies for again revealing a disposition towards the small and the unexpected rather than the humongous blockbusting murals. Time to admit that this was written before all those other end-of-decade posts that have been pouring out of Graffoto over the past […]
As we slide through the holiday period, unsure of what day it is and absolutely no idea about the date, our only grasp on the sludge of events we are laying down and will call “history” is that something happened yesterday or 3 days ago, whatever day or date that was. The other evening we […]
At the beginning of the 2010 decade, a decade forever tainted by lack of a decent single word to define the period, the street art of Darius Downey, Ronzo and even the occasional Banksy sculpture (pickaxe phonebox) notwithstanding, there was not much sculptural street art to speak of. As a more benign accepting tolerance of […]
The second decade of the 21st century witnessed tumultuous political events. A web of local and international issues emerging from recent and historical influences with consequences for individuals and societal groupings have echoed in the street art spotted by Graffoto. Austerity, migration, foodbank poverty, ethnic oppression, democracy, corruption, patriarchy, nepotism, cronyism have all been the […]
Christmas Day 10 years ago the notorious Robbo vs Banksy spat went to another level. Robbo, RIP, headed out very early Christmas morning, crossed the Regents Canal at Camden directly under British Transport Police HQ and painted the perfect riposte to Banksy’s Wallpaperer. 25th December 2019 KING ROBBO! Early that Christmas morning I noticed a […]
Muralism is the painting of astounding pieces of street art on buildings, these days usually with permission. We’re talking daylight painting, accomplished artists and permission but not direct municipal involvement. In Shoreditch that’s generally how it operates. We are not talking about civic murals where artists pitch for council approval, arts council funding and perpetual […]
This month the 21st century ends its troublesome teenage years, the street art brat certainly matured and changed. In terms of becoming a phenomenon accepted by the public, the media and importantly the art market, the past decade actually makes up about half of street art’s life to date and Graffoto is delighted to have […]
CRYLONG Nelly Duff 156 Columbia Rd, London E2 7RG 8TH – 14TH Nov 2019 My Dog Sighs has a London solo show at Nelly Duff, well overdue after a long gap since his last London solo show. This photorealistic extraordinaire has steadily built up a broad array of impressive street art styles, most famous of […]
Gross Domestic Product Croydon 30 September – 13th October 2019 London Art Week was earlier this month and one thing we have come to rely upon is it getting trumped by a Banksy event. The big news that crossed over into the mainstream media from Art Week was a new Banksy Auction record of £10million […]
StolenSpace, Osborn St, London The Residency, Whitby St, London October 5th – October 31st Update: The Residency portion of the show has closed but a section of the art has been consolidated at StolenSpace and remains on show until the end of November. Shepard Fairey has visited London and a confetti of stickers, some major […]
Subdude Show Monty’s Bar, Brick Lane September 19th – October 10th (extended) In the politically fucked up dysfunctional times the UK finds itself in now, those days before the June 2016 Brexit Referendum seem like a period of almost benign stability. Well, apart from austerity, working family poverty, rising foodbank dependency, zero hours contracts, government […]
Banksy’s most spectacular painting to date is on display at Sotheby’s Bond St, London HQ and beautifully staged it is too. Banksy Devolved Parliament (photo 2019) Devolved Parliament is being auctioned this week when London opens its galleries, museums and park tents to its annual international art week. This painting first appeared in public in […]
Padova in Italy, also known as Padua, has serious fresco spots. The boy Giotto nailed it about 800 years ago with his chapel at Scrovegeni. A fine example of permissioned wall painting, supported by a rich patron and assisted by a cast of forty other painters over a period of two years. Parallels with the […]
ODDO, MCLN, Savant and DaddyStreetFox Monty’s Bar 49 Brick Lane; London 11th July – 25th July 2019 ODDO and fellow street artists Savant, MCLN and Daddy Street Fox have a group show at Monty’s Bar and it is fascinating to see what they get up to when freed of some of the “issues” or perhaps […]