Graffoto
Three days ago Russia invaded Ukraine. Street artists in Shoreditch have united with the rest of the world in putting out street art with messages of solidarity with Ukraine and revulsion at war breaking out on the European continent. This afternoon (Sunday 27th February, 2022) these pro Ukraine messages were seen in Shoreditch, shown dovetailed […]
Just suppose someone decided the missing ingredient in street art was monochromatic medieval woodcut images of public hangings or fantasy horror representations of bizarre sea creatures attacking intrepid seafarers venturing beyond the realm of worldly knowledge. Japanese street artist Enigma has stepped up to fix this obvious void in Shoreditch’s globally acclaimed street art scene. […]
Should this Shoreditch Street Art Tours post start with an apology to the spraycan virtuoso Jim Vision? Perhaps. Last night [31 Dec 2020, new Years Eve] we held a short notice online virtual ramble through some of the art that provided great food for thought on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour in 2021. With the […]
The history of street art is a complex story whose content varies depending upon author, location, editorial preferences for a “creation” date and people’s differing actual lived experiences. The early phase of its ripping away from graffiti was for many reasons dominated by stencilism and the significant role of the paste-up technique is easily overlooked. […]
London International Pasteup Festival sneaky peek feat Shuby, Uberfubs, Art.tits and Whatifier Street Art has many forms, different techniques have evolved to suit different artistic strategies and different environments. Stencilism is most closely associated with street art’s emergence in the early to mid 2000s thanks mainly to Banksy and the many artists he influenced and […]
Subway Art 25th anniversary hardback cover A bit of context to begin with. All over the world there are graffiti writers who will testify that their introduction to graffiti began with one book, Subway Art written by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant. In 2009 I queued with literally hundreds of other graffiti fans and graffiti […]
After the Sunday tour this weekend I cycled over to the Whitecross Street Party, always a reliable live street art/music/food fest. Here are some mainly work-in-progress highlights. Most of the ground level art, particularly those pieces on hoardings were only on temporary display so I regret not being able to hang around to see the […]
East Anglia has in the past week or so became home to a spectacular trove of street art that finally this afternoon was verified as genuine Banksy. Banksy has verified a grand total of 10 new pieces of street art and to put this in context, there were only 5 outdoor Banksy artworks at his […]
It’s back! Eine’s SCARY on Rivington Street, familiar to many many Shoreditch Street Art tour guests as the penultimate piece of art on the tour has been restored to its original colour scheme. EINE SCARY 2021 Repaint Painted in 2007, back in the days when if a street artist wanted a wall they had to […]
“It was 30 years ago today” that Nirvana released Nevermind, with apologies for that inept abuse of the Beatles’ lyrical mastery and the actual facts (release date Sep 24th 1991). One of the standout tracks on a standout album is “In Bloom”, Kurt Cobain’s lament on the impact of their growing success and within the […]
Why does a street art tour guide snap adverts? The answer is simply for love of the graphic response adverts provoke. The way people subvert, augment and modify adverts is pretty much an artform in itself. The printed advert becomes a host for forced artistic collaboration and capturing the “before and after” timeline yields […]
As we enjoyed a rare hot late May bank holiday in the UK, the Bank holiday Monday Shoreditch Street Art Tour discovered a fascinating range of new street art that had been put up since just the day before. One curious aspect was the number of gorgeous collaborations, in fact just for fun we could […]
A street art stencil has appeared on the wall of the former Reading nick and after making us wait a little while, Banksy has just this afternoon confirmed it as his, the tease. As usual the confirmation comes simultaneously via his website and his Instagram and for the second time in less than a […]
One of the biggest feuds in art-world history, street artist Banksy v graffiti writer Robbo rumbled on much longer than fans and art historians previously thought. In December 2009 street artist Banksy created 4 illegal pieces of stencil art on the sides of a canal in Camden, London. One of the pieces, the Banksy Wallpaperer […]
Shoreditch is full of little corners where street art survives and accumulates in layers, like a busy kitchen pinboard. Last week one such canvas near Columbia road was transformed by, in no particular order, Donk, Skeleton Cardboard, Rider and Tommy Fiendish into this beautiful paste up collage. Donk, Rider, Tommy Fiendish, Skeleton Cardboard […]