BLAM SOLO EXHIBITION

New Cross Gallery present a new show featuring the work London based artist BLAM. Widely know for his classic Oscar the Grouch in Old Street, which has survived the council buff on a number of occasions. Blams style has since evolved into photorealistic images with a twist.

The very nature of graffiti art is a snapshot of an image captured in time before the wall is reclaimed by another artist. This is an opportunity to see new works in real life a visual feast of colour and creativity that will bring to life the exciting range of styles that Blam has developed over the years of painting.

The opening party will be this Thursday from 18:30 - 22:00. All are welcome to come and celebrate the opening with drinks and music! Prints / Originals will be available to buy on the night.

New Cross Gallery | 3 Lewisham Way | New Cross | SE14 6PP

THE CANS FESTIVAL

The forthcoming May bank holiday weekend is looking set to be a good one. Posters for "The Cans Festival" have popped up around shoreditch and Pictures On Walls have also announced the event on their website.

It promises to be the largest mass gathering of stencil artists the UK has ever seen and is gonna span an entire London street. Being billed as a street party of stencil art, the event will take place in a yet to be announced location/ street over three days, starting on the 3rd of May and finishing on the 5th May. Admission to the festival will be free and the event location will be announced on Friday morning. There is already an impressive line up of artists confirmed for the event including Banksy, Pure Evil, Faile, Logan Hicks, DOt Masters, Blek,Eelus, M-City, Roadsworth and Dolk to name a few. THis event is not to be missed if you are in London.

VERYNEARLYALMOST ISSUE 5

The newest issue of Verynearlyalmost arrived in the post this morning. Verynearlyalmost continues to document the ever changing London street art scene, and this their 5th issue is the best one yet. The full colour zine covers all form of art and vandalism from tags to paste-ups, stickers, stencils and everything else in between.

This month features work by... Amongst others...Sickboy, Banksy, Swoon, ACE, Faile, Pure Evil, Dave the chimp, Toasters, Obey Giant, D*face, Elbow toe, Invader, Sweet toof, Hush, Mighty Monkey, Mjar and many many more

Unfortunately its not available online yet until they sort out Paypal and updated the website. But for now its available from...

MOST Borders Bookshops in the UK
All City Records Dublin
Athenaeum Boekhandel Amsterdamn
Basheer Graphic Books Singapore
Fruitmarket Gallery Edinburgh
Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt Berlin
Ikon Shop Birmingham
La Librairie Du Palais De Tokyo PARIS
Librairie Artcurial PARIS

There are also a number of copies left of issue 3 and issue 4 both of which can be bought directly from the website here.

CANCER SELL GRAFFITI WALK REMINDER

Just a quick reminder the Cancer Sell Graffiti walk takes place today in East London. Those wishing to turn up last minute today then please arrive at EXIT #1 at Old Street tube station for 3pm. HowAboutNo and NoLionsInEngland who are organsing the tour will wait around until approx 3.05pm and then make their way around. All in all they expect the tour to take 2-2.5 hours, finishing in Brick Lane area for a beer.

Its £10 per head, all proceeds going directly to Cancer Sell. Goodie bags and Banksy books up for grabs.

More details in out last post here

EINE INTERVIEW

Interview with East London based artist Eine over on Swindle Magazine's online version of the magazine. Read the interview here.

Via

STREET ART CHILE - Book Launch

Anyone with a passing interest in street art will be well aware of Brasilian Street Art. Tristan Manco, Caleb Neelon, and Lost Art showcased a number of Brazilian artists in their book on the subject Graffiti Brasil. It was only a matter of time before someone looked beyond Brasil and explored other areas in South America. I was lucky enough to get a sneak peak at a preview copy of this fantastic new book a few weeks ago when I met the publisher and designer from 8books.

"Street Art Chile" has been written by Dr Rodney Palmer an art historian, writer and critic who has worked on Latin American art since the 1980s when he wrote his Courtauld Institute MA report on ‘René Portocarrero and Cuban Painting 1937–67’.

His new book covers all parts of Chile, from Arica to Punta Arenas, with special focus on Santiago and Valparaíso, both key centres of Latin American street art. Distinctive cities such as Iquique, Chillán, Concepción and Puerto Montt, and areas of the country rarely seen,are featured. The book includes an introduction to the history and flavour of Chilean street art; a glossary of graffiti terms; manifestos; and translations of all the graffiti shown.


The contemporary artists and graffiteros shown in the pages have their roots in Latin American propagandistic murals, but look forward. Artists such as Bomber West, Charqui Punk, Dana Pink, Elodio, Inti, Piguan, Pussyz Soul Food, Ritalin Crew, Vazko and Yisa are informed by Latin American, European and North American (especially West Coast) art and music, but have their own Chilean slant.

A launch party for the book will be held at Nelly Duff on Thursday May 8th, 2008. The author will be signing copies on the night.

Nelly Duff | 156 Columbia Road | London E2 7RG

HEARTSREVOLUTION EP

Some great packaging for the new EP "Switchblade" from Hearts Revolution. It's a limited edition of 500, hand numbered copies with a Holographic foil sleeve and a candy pink 10" vinyl. The EP was designed byKate Moross in collaboration with Heartschallenger and was released on Isomorph Records. It's available via the Hearts Revolution Myspace where you can also check the bands music and is also available directly from Isomorph Records

Also check out the excellent video for their last single "C.Y.O.A ! CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE" directed by JEAN DEMERY & BASTIEN LATTANZIO.

STREET BLITZ LONDON

The corporate image factory spends a huge amount of money on billboards, posters, flyers or ‘guerrilla’ marketing campaigns masquerading as street art. They fill your lives with an unrelenting barrage of preposterous ideals, numb values and false icons. No one asks for your permission before they push these images in your face so neither should we seek consent in order to leave our own mark on the city.

Street Blitz propose a 2 week blitz of street art in London between 1-15 May 2008. Whether you make murals, stencils, stickers, posters, sculptures, street projections, sign modification/removal/additions, billboard subverting/defacing/destruction etc; whether creative or destructive; whether to convey a message, brighten up a dull spot, rewire some corporate brainwashing tactics; whether to leave your mark, remove a stain, express yourself or simply to show your disgust – it’s all valid and all adds to The Blitz!

Use London as an open gallery, and there will be a map of the city primed and ready for Blitzers to post their activities, no matter how big or small, onto a map overlay. Install your art or anything which changes the perspective on our city then get online and post it onto the empty map on the Street Blitz website.

ROBERT RYAN & TATTY DEVINE

Rob Ryan is a London based artist who creates beautiful paper cuts and screen prints and was mentioned on our blog back in January.

Tatty Devine is famous for unique and quirky accessories, which elevate jewellery to art status. The pair behind it all, Harriet Vine and Rosie Wolfenden, have no formal training as jewellers. They met studying Fine Art at Chelsea School of Art in 1996, and had planned to become artists until Harriet found some bags of leather samples on the way home from the pub one night. The duo made some leather cuffs to sell at Portobello and Spitalfields markets, and Tatty Devine was born!

Rob Ryan and Tatty Devine have come together to produce several pieces of limited edition jewellery based on themes from Rob's work. The jewellery and a selection of Rob's unique paper cuts will be showing in an exhibition at Tatty Devine's Brick Lane shop.

25th April - 21st June 2008

Tatty Devine | 236 Brick Lane | London | E2

CONCRETE HERMIT UPDATE

We have just been checking out the Concrete Hermit website and they appear to have had an update. The website now features an online shop selling some fantastic stuff including T-shirts, Books,Badges, Prints and original artworks from artists such as Kate Moross, Jon Burgerman, Eboy, Neasden Control Centre and Jeremyville to name a few.

JAMES JOYCE @ KEMISTRY

One to put in the diaries for the 2nd May. Kemistry Gallery has announced their latest exhibition "Drawings and Other Objects" which will feature work of James Joyce.

James Joyce is a London-based artist and designer. At the start of 2006 he founded his own studio One Fine Day where he produces limited edition prints of his work as well as taking on commissions from a raft of international clients including Nike, Levi’s, Wallpaper*, Faber & Faber, Penguin books, The New York Times, Orange, Kiehl’s and Carhartt.

His work uses bold hand-drawn lines with graphic shapes and often includes typography and strong colour to produce powerful images. Ideas are central to his approach where the humour and initial simplicity of his work often belies a more serious and sometimes darker underlying message.

This is his first solo gallery exhibition and Drawings and Other Objects will showcase a selection of personal and commissioned images presenting them in a new context.

Kemistry Gallery | 43 Charlotte Road | London | EC2A 3PD
02/05/08 — 14/06/08

INVISIBLEMADEVISIBLE UPDATE

Had a stroll around East London this morning and took a bunch of new pictures. Check them over on our Invisiblemadevisible Flickr.

Nick Walker :V for Vandalism

In the remarkable few months since this year's famous Urban Art auction at Bonhams, with art fans from all corners of the art world clamouring for his work, Nick Walker has had a sell-out show at the Carmichael Gallery in LA, been inundated with requests for commissions and somehow found time to create a new collection of works for The Black Rat Gallery in Shoreditch.
And instead of getting drunk on power, or cider, Nick has created some of his strongest work to date.

This eagerly anticipated BRP Nick Walker solo show " V for Vandalism" will be at the front of a very long, slightly merry queue on Thursday, April 17th from 6pm

Black Rat Press Gallery | thru Cargo Garden | Arch 461 | 83 Rivington Street | London

CANCER SELL GRAFFITI WALK

Flickr member BeautifullyUrban is organsing a cancer charity auction this summer to be held at the Leonard Street Gallery in London. "Cancer Sell" is raising funds primarily from the contribution of art works donated by various artists

Two guys with no artistic talent, HowAboutNo and NoLionsInEngland, both of whom have a penchant for clocking street art, will do their bit for this good cause by organising a graffiti tour of the streets around Shoreditch, Hackney, Brick Lane and various dubious but possibly interesting spots in between.

They plan to guide a group of 20 or so people up and down the streets providing a commentary on the art there and possibly art that used to be there – depending on whether the council buffer squads have been particularly vigilant the night before. They hope to describe some of the different approaches to getting up used by different artists and describe from second hand knowledge some of the issues faced by graffiti artists in going about the clandestine activities.

The tours will take place whatever the weather is like.

First - pick your date – Sunday April 20 or Sunday April27. Walks will commence 3pm and probably last about 2 - 2.5hours
Then email your name, preferred dates and how many places you want to nolionsinengland *at* gmail.com

When lists fill they will email you requesting payment. Payment will be by paypal to a paypal account set up for the Cancer Sell fundraising monies. They will confirm the meeting point about 2 or 3 days prior to the walk. This gives them some flexibility to customise the route according to what's around.

Cost will be £10 per person, all of which goes to Cancer Sell fundraiser.

A good cause and you get to see some fantastic work. Not to be missed.

THE ALTERNATIVE PHILOSOPHY

Leonard Street Gallery opens with a new exhibition "The Alternative Philosophy" this week on the 18th April 2008. This vibrant group exhibition brings together recent and newly commissioned works by 12 international and emerging artists.

Underground art has since spread around the world, from the East End of London to Tokyo, Berlin, Melbourne, Australia, to São Paulo, Brazil, and because of the movement's underground nature, the work of today's most prominent street artists are still waiting to be seen. This unique exhibition showcases various exceptional examples of works new-found to the London scene continuing to celebrate and showcase the various degrees of talent this genre has to offer.

Artist showing include: Anton Unai, Marok, Jaybo, Andy Howell, Daniel Tagno, Ala Ebtekar, KILL PIXIE, Bortusk Leer and Antonio Diaz.

LEONARD STREET GALLERY | 73 A LEONARD STREET | LONDON

18 APRIL 2008 – 22 MAY 2008
PREVIEW: THURSDAY 17 APRIL 2008, 6:00 – 9:00 PM

NEW INKFETISH WEBSITE

Illustrator / Graffit artist Tom ‘Inkfetish’ Blackford has just redesigned his website. Check the new site and his work here.

Inkfetish also has a limited edition screenprint for sale over on The Little Art Book website.

IN MY MIND I'M CLAPPING

Tonight sees a new exhibition at the Old Shoreditch Station and will feature work from one of Londons most exciting emerging talents, illustrator and artist Chrissie Abbott.

This will be her first solo show and it is set to be a multicoloured explosion of greatness. Her 2D work combines the use of found bitmap images and psychedelic hand-drawn illustrations, which simultaneously manages to evoke nostalgic feelings of a bygone era while remaining impossibly modern and fresh.

PV: Thursday 10th April, 2008
7pm till late
Free zines for the first arrivals, so don't miss out!

Old Shoreditch Station | 1 Kingsland Road | London

In Conversation: Mohammed Ali

Internationally acclaimed artist Mohammed Ali speaks about his style and message tonight the 8th of April at Rich Mix.

Mohammed Ali (Aerosol Arabic) will be giving a visual slideshow/presentation on graffiti and Islamic art, followed by the screening of the Bronx film, documenting the mural he created in New York, commissioned by the Arts Council of England.

In Conversation provides an opportune time to explore the relationship between Islam and the arts and provide an insight into the work and mind of a leading British Muslim artist.

This is a free event at Rich Mix. The Conference will be followed by Questions & Answers session with the audience.
Tuesday 8th April, 7.30 - 9 pm.


Rich Mix | 35-47 Bethnal Green Road | E1 6LA London

DAVE THE CHIMP - WEBSITE

Dave The Chimp has been hitting the streets of East London for as long as I remember, way back when there was no Wooster, no flickr and no Street Art / Urban galleries. You saw his work in the street - often in the most unlikely places and it nearly always brought a smile to my face. Great to see Dave has finally launched a website with a huge collection of work for you to flick though. Get yourself a tea, sit back and enjoy all the work here.

STREET ART BRAZIL — Tinho | Pato | Flip

In a bold new move the Embassy of Brazil is giving three of Brazil’s most popular street artists an exciting platform in the UK, with Street Art Brazil, a one-off exhibition at Gallery 32.

Having long boasted a particularly rich and diverse urban art scene, Brazil’s uniquely colourful and exciting approach to this branch of painting has, in a short time, propelled it to the very forefront of the global graffiti movement. The exhibition has come about due to a shared commitment by the Embassy of Brazil and ocontemporary to bring the thriving spirit of Brazilian street art to a wider audience in the UK.

Celebrated São Paulo street artists Tinho, Pato and Flip will be making a special visit to the UK for what will be their first ever exhibition in London. Their canvas will be the white walls of Gallery 32, on which they are being given free rein to create the kind of extraordinary murals for which they have become famous in Brazil. A selection of their artworks will then be hung on the graffitied walls.

According to Olivia Connelly, Director of ocontemporary, 'Urban Art is by far the most significant global movement since Pop Art, and Brazil is now considered by many to be the most important root of this movement. It shows great understanding on the part of the Embassy of Brazil that, as a government body, they are willing to open themselves to this exciting new style of art and demonstrate some of the fantastic living artists they have in their country.'

9 - 30 April 2008
Gallery 32 | Embassy Of Brazil | Green Street | W1

JON BUGERMAN @ CONCRETE HERMIT

Jon Burgerman launches new work, including large sculptural pieces, at Concrete Hermit Gallery tonight.

The exhibition will see new work including large sculptural pieces as well as prints and original pieces. The work featured will offer visitors a chance to worship and share private prayers with the idle Idols. Redemption, salvation and salivation are all promised.

The show will also see the UK launch of his new 160 page monograph book entitled Gribba Grub published by Rojo.

4th - 30th April 2008
Private View is tonight, 6-9pm

Concrete Hermit | 5a Club Row | London | E1 6JX

Mode 2 : NEVER TOO LATE

Tonight see Lazarides Gallery present a new series of paintings, Never Too Late…, by leading graffiti artist, Mode 2. This will be Mode 2’s first solo show at the gallery.

Never Too Late… sees Mode in a more politically reflective mood, whether it be his take on the end of communism in A Farewell To Grand Ideals, 2008 (pictured), or his views on religion or the environment. Mode’s work is always supported by his trademark draughtsmanship, self-taught from his days reading 2000 AD comics or drawing posters for b-boying dance competitions. These new works capture movement and energy, freezing the action at its most crucial stage.

Lazarides Gallery | 8 Greek Street | Soho | London

4 April – 2 May 2008

PHIL FROST : ELMS LESTERS PAINTING ROOMS

ELMS LESTERS PAINTING ROOMS has invited New York legend PHIL FROST over to London to to commemorate the release of his first book. Phil Frost will be at the gallery this Thursday evening between 6-9pm signing copies of his new book. An accompanying exhibition of new original work which will include small drawings on paper through to major paintings will be on show. The exhibition continues until Saturday 12th April.

PRIVATE VIEW: Thursday 3rd April 2008 between 6-9pm
Opening hours Tuesday - Saturday 12 - 6.00pm

The new book has been published by DAMIANI Editore, with text by Carlo McCormick and Pushead and will be available to purchase at the gallery on the night.

LMS LESTERS PAINTING ROOMS | Flitcroft Street | WC2H 8DH

THE KRAH INTERVIEW

The Krah gets interviewed over on The Little Art Book blog, check it here.

Mudwig Solo Exhibition

Mudwig's style and attitude to his work have gained him a very separated reputation. Priding himself on a nonconformist secratarian approach, his distinctive art exists in a realm of its own, spanning media ranging from painting, animation, billboard subversion, sculpture, and performance.

Inspiration is drawn heavily from the 20th century historic propergander iconography; fusing these elements with fragmented 'Seussian' inspired comic forms; the artist constructs an alternate reality reactive to his unique, off-centred vision of the world around him.

A show that must be seen to get an insight into Mudwig's visual state.

Mudwig Dans Solo Exhibition at New Cross Gallery. Opening 3rd April (18:30 - 22:00)

New Cross Gallery | 3 Lewisham Way | New Cross | London SE14 6PP

MR PINKS ETSY SHOP

Right lots to catch up on, so for the first post we will kick off with Mr. Pinks who has now opened an Etsy shop selling lots of handmade goddies. Hand cut freestyle paper magic, original paintings, Screen prints and Zines. Check them here. And if you haven't already done so have a look at Mr Pinks newly launched website.

RIP

Apologies to any of my regular readers for the lack of posts over the last week or so, been out of the country at my Grandmother's funeral in Ireland.

The Irish poet SEAMUS HEANEY once described my Grandmother as "the Madonna of the Manuscripts", an accurate description for a woman who devoted most of her life to the promotion of new Irish writers and artists.

At the height of World War II with little money around for luxuries like books, my Grandmother and Grandad opened a bookshop in 1940, which went on to become one of the world’s great independent bookshops. In 1968 they took another risk and opened the first art gallery in the West of Ireland. The first exhibition was by Irish artist Sean Keating and the gallery has hosted several hundred since.

My Grandparents passion for books, art and culture will be carried on by their six children, 21 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren. My Grandmother was an amazing woman and may she rest in peace.