Graffoto
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 […]
Atom Gallery 127 Green Lanes, Stoke Newington, London N16 9DA 18 May – 8 June 2019 Anti consumerism and anti advertising has been a street art staple street art since day dot. In 2017 black and white paste ups started to appear around Shoreditch with fully formed views on these subjects and they looked awesome. […]
Banksy street art hidden for many years has been brought out of limbo in Shoreditch, visible at last to the millions of street art fans new to Banksy’s art since it last doused itself under East London rain. Two images, a huge rat and a TV being chucked rock star style out of a window […]
Diane Arbus: In The Beginning Kader Attia: The Museum Of Emotion Hayward Gallery, London 13 Feb – 6th May 2019 I visited two exhibitions by accident recently. I wanted to see Diana Arbus at the Hayward but the admission price covered a second exhibition, The Museum Of Emotion by French artist Kader Attia. Kader Attia […]