Andrew Clark Exhibition at 55DSL

Studio 55 is a working creative space in the heart of London’s media hub, Soho. After working with, collaborating and supporting artists and musicians for the past 15 years and gaining much respect within the media world, Italian streetwear brand 55DSL wanted to create a space that complimented the store and that could be used by creative types looking for somewhere to either work, play or exhibit.

Already with two very successful shows under its belt, with renowned artists Mitchy Bwoy and Rabodiga (blogged here), Studio55 is now gathering up momentum for the next show, this time with emerging illustrator Andrew Clark.

Inspired by the nostalgia of 55DSL’s fifteenth birthday, ‘The Learning’ gives a nod to the past in its resurrecting of the old. The work is new, but the delivery is traditional. Over-head projectors, slides and frames give the viewer a chance to interact and be educated in Andrew’s first solo exhibition that won him so many admirers in 2009, with this latest showcase of work.

Thursday 1st of October from 6pm - 9pm
Studio55 | 10A Newburgh Street | London W1F 7RN

One Foot in the Grove Promo

Another promo from Mutate Britain for One Foot in the Grove. They now have an official council license for 1250 people per day for a month, the official public lauch of the event is 09 October.

They will be showing GIANT works from the likes of Best Ever, Part2ism, Dr. D, The Krah, Dotmaster, Teddy Baden, Paul Insect and there'll be massive sculpture on a Joe Rush and Mutoid Waste Company scale, helicopters, MIG jets, you know... Not to be missed. More info when we have it.

MISS VANS Solo Showat StolenSpace Gallery

StolenSpace present 'Lovestain' a UK premier solo show from world renowned female street artist, Miss Van. A retrospective as well as a new body of work and taking over two exhibition spaces at StolenSpace, this will be her largest solo show to date.

Toulouse native and current Barcelona resident Miss Van started to paint her graffiti on the streets during the 90s, at the age of 18. Her overtly feminine street art was a breath of fresh air in a traditionally masculine movement of urban art and paved the way for many contemporaries. Now her infamous sultry female characters, known as her ‘Poupes’, are seen on the streets and in galleries alike all over the world.

Over the years, Miss Van’s characters keep evolving. They have become less cute and more dangerously alluring, edgier - their sexy aura made all the more complex by their increasingly ambiguous facial expressions. The more she has moved into gallery work and can work with the nuances of more fragile media than the streets allow (pencil, for one), her characters have grown even more sensitive, subtle, and delicately rendered.

Featuring a retrospective of her work & new paintings this show will also see the release of a rare exclusive hand pulled limited edition screen print from Miss Van.The show opens on the 01 October and will run until the 18 October.

STOLENSPACE | The Old Truman Brewery | 91 Brick Lane | London

Waleska - Moving On Show

We are delighted to see long time friend and super talented artist/street artist/graffiti artist Waleska is returning to the UK for a solo show in London solo.

From the 29th September until 4th October the Brick Lane Gallery will play host to a colletion of new original artworks and prints from Waleska. The ground floor will showcase new acrylic works, moving on from her five year long "Spreading the Love and Positive Energies to the World" project. Waleska explores the various human emotions within modern life and it's varied environments and translates them onto canvas with her own unique style and humour.

There will be a private view on the 29 September.
RSVP to preview@edgeart.co.uk

Brick Lane Gallery | 196 Brick Lane | London | E1 6SA

Swoon Book

We have been meaning to post this for a week or two now and have just got around around to taking some pictures.

We are massive fans of Swoons work and don't know why we haven't come across this book before. While not exactly new, the book was published in October 2008 by Deitch Projects to accompany Swoons "Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea" fall 2008 exhibition at Deitch's Long Island City project space. We have only stumbled upon it recently on Amazon. Featuring over 64 pages, this first monograph documents the artists exhibitions from 2005 to 2007 including her 2005 show at Deitch and 11 Spring Street, as well as collaborations created in Russia, Ukraine and throughout the United States.

While the main focus of the photography in the book is Swoons gallery work, it does feature a small section of street work including some of Swoons very early street work before she began creating the beautifully elaborate cut-out pieces that we now know her for. Also in the book is a short eassy written by Swoon about how and why she started to work on the streets.
This book is a great addition to any bookshelf and essential if you are a Swoon / Street Art fan.

Blek Le Rat in London

Blek Le Rat, by invisiblemadevisible

We snapped what looks like a new Blek Le Rat piece this morning in the yard of an abonded building in East London. I believe the piece was painted for a Channel 4's '3 minute wonder' and expect it will be aired on TV soon.

Sickboy's Toy Temples Released

Sickboy has finally released his iconic Temple models.

"Ten years from the day I first decided to spray a red and yellow temple instead of my name on walls from here to Bangkok, I have immortalised the temple as a 3D resin hand-painted model.”

Hand-Cast Resin Temple Models which have been produced as a four-strong series representing Love, Peace, Happiness and Death. Each edition is a super-exclusive run of 25 and features an emblem of one of Sickboy’s signature symbols: a heart, a peace sign, an acid face or a skull. The highly-anticipated 3D Temples are produced in the red and yellow Sickboy colour palette (painted red with a yellow resin), are hand-signed and numbered, and are presented in a special screen-printed box.

Size: 140 (w) x 120 (d) x 110mm (h) Weight: 800g +
Editions: Love = Edition of 25, Peace= Edition of 25, Happiness= Edition of 25 and Death = Edition of 25
Authenticity: Signed and numbered by the artist.

The Love edition is already sold out, but the other 3 are still available for £150.00 each + P&P over on Sickboys website here.

Pirate Press Graffiti Fanzine

The Pirate Press have just released the third issue of their Graffiti fanzine. A collection of photos, from a collection of graffiti writers. Focussing on train painting in the UK and the rest of Europe.

The newest issue featuring photos from London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Bristol, Manchester, Yorkshire, Prague, Belgium, Germany, New York, Slovakia, Holland and more...
Grab it quick as it's limited to just 100 copies each of which comes with some free Stickers. The zine is available to buy online from Tangent Books here.

Blu and David Ellis Combo Animation

Some of you may remember last years fantastic short animation Muto, created by Italian Street Artist Blu. The animation was heavily blogged and has had over 5 million views on Youtube.

We have just returned from a short break in the South of Italy where Blu has been working on a new project in collaboration with American artist David Ellis. The new animation was released online earlier this week and was painted as part of this years Fame Festival. The collaborative animation was created over the period of of week in an abandoned monastery just outside the southern Italian town of Grottaglie. Fantastic work, check it out below.

POW Opens Factory Outlet Store

Pictures on Walls moved offices recently and today they announced the opening of their new POW Factory Outlet Store.

You can now walk off the street and check out new releases in person, purchase special customised prints that aren’t available anywhere else and gaze upon original art and sculptures by some top name talent. We thought of describing it as London’s most exciting new gallery, but in reality it’s a print factory with paintings on the walls, a few sofas and a drinks dispenser (not yet installed).
To mark the opening of this new space they have released two tasty new prints. These new releases are something a bit different - they're digital offset (meaning printed entirely by machine) and then hand screen printed with spot varnishes for added emphasis and real texture. Each is signed by the artist, limited in edition. Gee Vaucher (pictured on the right) seems to have something to say about the true nature of beauty and body image, whilst China Mike (pictured on the left) really likes dogs.

The China Mike print is available here and the Gee Vaucher is here

Open from 11 - 5pm Monday to Friday, 11 - 4 Sunday.
POW | Ground Floor | 46/48 Commercial Street | London E1 6LT

Banksy's "No Ball Games"

Banksy, originally uploaded by Hookedblog.

Checked out this new Banksy piece yesterday. Fantastic work and great to see everyone enjoying the piece, had three long conversations with random locals about the pieces while I was taking some pictures. Lots of others kept stopping and asking if we knew who did it or if we were Banksy! Good to see it is getting people to stop and chat to each other.

Also had a long chat with the guy who turned out to be the owner of the building, he had never heard of Banksy until Monday morning when one of his tenants in the building called him to say it had graffiti on it. Was asking me loads of questions , asking me if I was a journalist and if I knew weather it was a Banksy or not as it wasnt signed. He then pulled out a print out from the web about the sale of the Banksy wall in Portobello Road!! He had also been doing his research as he was showing me a post on the Slam Hype website on his Blackberry which had some of Romanywg pictures featured in it.

Another girl I spoke to was from some local community thing and had some dealing with the council. She said the local council have already been out to see the piece and she is pushing them to keep it and not remove it as she thought it was a fantastic piece and wanted it to stay for all to enjoy.

Will be interesting to see what happens to the piece.
The new work is located in North London, at the corner of Tottenham High Road and Philip Lane.

Antony Micallef Becoming Animal Exhibition

Lazarides introduces Becoming Animal. Antony Micallef's first solo show since the sell out, 'Impure Idols' in LA three years ago.

Micallef has spent the last year working hard in his studio, developing his mark making and subject matter. Becoming Animal is a sophisticated, smooth body of work. Simultaneously sickly sweet and sour. The work is as much about the act of painting as it is about animalistic tendencies that are innate to every human being.

This show has been greatly anticipated and won't disappoint. The exhibition will run from 25 September - 22 October.

Lazarides Gallery | 11 Rathbone Place | London W1T 1HR

The guys over on Arrested Motion have a great interview with Anthony and a sneak peak at some of the work from the show. You can read the interview here.

STREET ARTISTS: The Complete Guide Book

Tonight sees the launch of a new Street Art book by Graffito Books at The Pure Evil Gallery.

STREET ARTISTS: Complete Guide aims to be a comprehensive guide to the world’s 50 best street artists.

It includes the up-and-coming as well as the established greats – Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Blek le Rat – from the world’s major Street Art locations: New York, LA, London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, San Francisco and Melbourne.

Printed in brilliant colour throughout, with authoritative biographies of every artist, this is essential and great value reference for anyone into contemporary art.The book will be available on the night and you can also buy it online here.

Pure Evil Gallery | 108 Leonard Street | London

Thursday 24 September, 6 -9.30pm

JR PRINT RELEASED

The JR print pictured was released earlier in the week as part of this years Fame Festival. This Self Portrait print is a one colour screen print on cotton rag, in an edition of just 150. The print is massive at 70x93cm.

Available HERE from Studio Cromie at 300 euros each.

Sclater Street RIP

So we have just got back to London after a few days away at this years Fame Festival (more on that soon), and we spotted that the Sclater Street wall off Brick Lane in East London had been repainted by Telford Homes the construction company that own the hoardings.

With the exception of some pieces, a lot of the stuff on the hoarding post meeting of styles, consisted of bored teenage kids with not enough paint to fill in the letters they were attempting to paint and it wasn't long before this spot became another Leake Street, with stuff getting dogged within hours of being painted.

The gangs of kids hanging about the last few weeks had little or no respect for these walls and the surround shops, with everything in sight subject to their toy tags. This combined with an assult on one of the business owners who confronted one gang as they were tagging her window may have been factors in the death of this spot. And while a newly painted wall could have been a fresh start for Sclater Street, today saw the final nail hammered into the spot with the instalation of CCTV cameras around the entire site and signage now making this an illegal spot.

Fame Festival Update

DSCN0127.JPG, by Giacomo Moleri

Apologies for the lack of updates on the blog, we are still in the South Of Italy at this years Fame Festival, in Grottaglie.

We have had limited internet access the last few day and gave up trying to upload photos. Normal service will resume later in the week and we will have a full report from Fame with lots of photos.

Blam At Upper Playground

Graffiti artist Blam has an in-store exhibition opening tonight at Upper Playground's London store.

Known for his Oscar Grouch piece in Shoreditch, East London and being asked to paint the outside of a police station, by the police, Blam is always pushing the boundaries of graffiti. Starting years ago, hand drawings have helped Blam create some of the best photo - realistic graffiti and explore a wide range of different styles of this art form.

As an artist, Blam is always going above and beyond the style and format of stereotyped graffiti, and this has seen him exhibiting at The Royal Albert Hall as well as challenging himself with the use of different mediums including acrylic and oil paints as well as spray. The resulting work has been exhibited throughout London.

Thursday 17 September from 6.30pm

Upper Playground | 31 Kingly Street | London

BOMB IT Available Online at Babelgum

Independent web and mobile video content platform Babelgum is offering director John Reiss’ film documentary about the history of the international graffiti scene, BOMB IT, free-to-view online exclusively on Babelgum’s site. The full-length documentary, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and has screened at over 20 other festivals including Full Frame Doc Fest.

Named one of Daily Variety’s “Ten Digital Directors To Watch” John Reiss’s BOMB IT tells the story of graffiti through interviews and guerilla footage of graffiti writers in action following the movement as it paints the globe from Paris to Sao Paolo and Los Angeles to Cape Town.

Featuring old school legends and current favorites such as Taki 183, Cornbread, Stay High 149, T-Kid, Cope 2, Zephyr, Revs, Os Gemeos, KET, Chino, Shepard Fairey, Revok, and Mear One. This cutting edge documentary tracks down today's most innovative and pervasive street artists as they battle for control over the urban visual landscape.

Nick White At Concrete Hermit

Tonight sees the the launch of Nick White’s new book 'People I've Never Met & Conversations I've Never Had" at Concrete Hermit. The book has been published by Nobrow Monobrow publications.

The hard back monograph features 32 pages of Nick’s work, and is the first in a new series of Nobrow Monobrow publications. The book will be available to purchase both at the launch and from their website. To tie in with the launch an exhibition at the space will feature original artwork used in the book plus new limited edition screen prints. All artwork will be available to buy on a first come first serve basis. Nick will also be available to sign copies of his new book on the launch night.
Book Launch Private View: Thursday 17th September, Concrete Hermit 6.30pm - 9pm

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

Nuart Festival Photos

Martyn from Nuart sent us over a few more pictures featuring some of the outdoor work created at this years Nuart Festival (blogged).
Pictured above is work from Swoon, David Choe, Chris Stains and Skewville. All the photos were all taken by Ian Cox from Wallkandy who has been documenting the entire festival this year.

Head over to Ian's flickr and check his entire set of fantastic photographs featuring New York's finest Street Artist's at the festival.

David Choe Nuart Timelapse

Logan Hicks has just uploaded this great little timelapse video that he filmed of David Choe doing his piece at this years Nuart Festival.(blogged)

CopyRight Solo Show At Urban Angel

Thursday 17 September will see the opening of "Never Forever", the first major London solo exhibition from Street Artist Copyright, at Urban Angels ' Art Lounge on Red Church Street.The main gallery space will feature a new body of work from Copyright on paper, wood and canvas, with the basement gallery space featuring a selection of other works by Copyright.

Please RSVP: russ@urbanangel.com to attend the preview night.

The Art Lounge | 41 -43 Redchurch Street | London E2

Blu at Fame Festival 2009

A short time-lapse video of the massive wall painted by BLU for this years Fame Festival which opens next week in Grottaglie (Italy). You can view some photos of the finished wall here.

The Battle of the Cartoonists

Twelve of the UK's top cartoonists from The Independent, Private Eye, Professional Cartoonists Organisation and The Sun cross pencils to complete huge cartoons in a race against time. The annual Campaign for Drawing 'draw-off' takes place this year outside Idea Generation Gallery with live commentary from Andrew Marr, TV film crews and FREE WORKSHOPS for all ages.

Visitors will also be treated to live drawing and instruction from Id-iom (Sholto and Hugo Brown) who will bring the ultimate in urban street art to Shoreditch including spectacular graffiti, interactive labelling and a few tricks certain to please the crowds.

Children always love the excitement of the event and will be inspired to join in the fun as we get everyone drawing. The Battle of the Cartoonists is a completely free event, everyone is welcome and there is the added bonus of free Magners to keep the adults entertained.

The Battle is taking place outside Idea Generation Gallery, located on Chance Street in the heart of Shoreditch (10min walk from both Old St and Liverpool St stations). Throughout the Battle Idea Generation Gallery will open to the public and will be showing Now We Are Ten – a huge selection of donated works from both well established and aspiring illustrators including Quentin Blake, Paula Rego, Lord Foster, David Mach and Kiki Smith.

Today Saturday 12th September, 2 – 5pm.
Idea Generation Gallery | Chance Street | E2 7JB

Nuart's 'Eloquent Vandals'

With this years Nuart Festival (blogged) set to kick off tomorrow 10 September, the Nuart team have somehow found time to get together the first trailer release for the documentary "Eloquent Vandals", which was shot at last years Nuart Festival.

The documentary looks like it's gonna be fantastic and we are looking forward to seeing the finished film. It is set to feature work and interviews from D*face, Nick Walker, Dolk, Pøbel, Herakut, Jimmy Cauty, Blek Le Rat, Sten & Lex, Wordtomother, Zeus, Know Hope, Graffiti Research Lab & Chris Stain.

Those of you lucky enough to be attending this years fesitval will get to see a test screening of the film.

LOMO London Store

Good news for all you Lomographers out there, news comes are way that a new Lomography Gallery Store is set to open in central London, tomorrow 10 September. Some of you might remember the long closed and missed Lomo Embassy on Roseberry Avenue, so this new venue will be the biggest and most exciting destination for all your Lomographic needs and a place where you’ll be able to check the full range of Lomography products.

Aside from the store the Lomography Embassy London will also be permanently based within the store. This will not only mean that there’s a place for the UK community (and visiting Lomographers from around the world) to hang out, but it will also be somewhere to take part in one of the many workshops scheduled each month and other events

Please do not forget to RSVP!! Space is limited so you must email lomographyuk@lomography.com to make sure your name is on the list for tomorrows opening party.

Lomography Gallery Store | 3 Newburgh Street | London, W1

NUART - NUYORK

The count down has begun to this years annual international street art festival Nuart, in Stravanger, Norway. Openig on 10 September, this year is set to be their most audacious show yet with some of New York's leading Street Artists beautifying the gallery walls and the streets of Stavanger.

This years line-up is most impressive with artist David Choe, Swoon, Skewville, Brad Downey, Leon Reid aka Darius and Downey, Chris Stain, Judith Supine, Logan Hicks, Graffiti Research Lab, and Benjamin Wolf in attendance.

Swoon at work

We are fortunate that Ian Cox from Wallkandy is in attendance for his third year running and will be documenting the entire event. He has began to email us some sneak peak photos of some of the street work and the artists at work in the gallery. We will continue to post more photos later in the week as we get them from him.

Logan Hicks at work

You can see Ian's entire set of photos over on his flickr here.

NUART 2009
September 10 - October 11. Opening night : 1900-2100
Skur 2 Gallery and the city streets.

Images by: Ian Cox

Typographica At Kemistry Gallery

As part of this years London Design Festival and the Icon Design Trail, Kemistry Gallery presents Typographica, an exhibition dedicated to the eponymous groundbreaking and now legendary graphic design journal.

Typographica was first published in 1949 and showcased the very best in worldwide visual arts. The journal was founded by a 25 year-old Herbert Spenser, who went on to become the most influential British communication designers and typographers.

The exhibition has been curated by Rick Poyner, founder of Eye Magazine and author of the book, Typographica, published in 2002. The show opens with a private view on the 10 September, 18.00 - 21.00 and will then run until the 31 October.

Kemistry Gallery | 43 Charlotte Road | London | EC2A 3PD

Dr.D - Short Documentary

A short documentary following London Street Artist Dr D around the time of the expenses scandal.

Producer: Jack Lomax - Director: Colin O'Toole.

Mujuworld Prints

Our Brigton based friend Mr Muju has two new Mujuworld Art prints available, ‘Muju Cloud City’ and ‘Electric Mujuworld’. Above is a detailed shot of our favourite of the two, Electric Mujuworld. Both editions are Giclee Print and have been printed on 310gsm Hahnemuhle German Etching Paper. Print size is 12 x 16 inches. The prints pictured are edition of just 50 and are available over at Mujuworld for just £45 each.

Cept Exhibition At The Writers Bench

The Cult Of Explosion detail, uploaded by Hookedblog.

We checked out the Cept show, "A Frozen Explosion" yesterday in the newly opened gallery space, The Writers Bench. Some fantastic work on show from Cept, go see it in person if you can.

We have uploaded some photos from the show for those of you not in London. The set can be viewed here.The show runs until the 25 September and the gallery is open Thursday - Friday 1.30 - 6pm

The Writers Bench | 26 Argyle Square | London | Kings Cross.

THE LONDON POLICE At The Carmichael Gallery, LA

Check out this great video featuring The London Police, promoting their upcoming LA show "Brothers in Arms", which opens Thursday 10 September at The Carmichael Galley.

“Brothers in Arms” is a celebration of The London Police’s ten year anniversary. The show will feature works on canvases, a photographic montage, a site-specific installation and a short film documenting the artists’ creative process. The show’s title reflects both the film (a social experiment about personal space and the artistic and private challenges presented while handcuffed to another person) and the brotherly friendship of partners Chaz and Bob, who have withstood a decade of adventures around the world to present their most focused and exciting body of work yet.

This new series of boldly monochromatic pieces pay homage to the city of angels and the classic films of their childhood, such as “Back to the Future” and “Star Wars”. Recognizable imagery is integrated into the symbolic London Police world of smiling characters and futuristic cityscapes. Building upon successful shows in London and Amsterdam during the spring, the collective’s synthesis of high and low culture in “Brothers in Arms” allows for a greater conversation of aesthetics, psychology and globalization.

The London Police, by Carmichael Gallery

The Carmichael Galley have uploaded some sneak preview images from the forthcoming show over on the gallery flickr site.

Banksy vsBristol Museum - Postcard Pack

Picture on Walls have been busy with two new print releases yesterday from Might Mo(now sold out) and Nomad and we have just spotted they have released a Banksy Museum Postcard Pack containing twelve works from the Banksy vs Bristol Museum Show. The pack measure 15 x 10.5 cm and are available via the POW website for just £5.Get 'em quick before they sell out!

Sylvia Ji Exhibition Photos

Sylvia Ji, by s.butterfly

S.Butterffly has uploaded some photos over on their flickr from last night's Sylvia Ji show at StolenSpace (blogged)

Check the full set here and visit the show if you are in London as it runs until the 27 September at StolenSpace.

BEST SHOP EVER PRINTS

If you cast your minds way back, some of you may remember the galley/ shop in Clerkenwell know as Best. Niki opened Best back in 2004 and it housed the best of everything; the best in design, art, clothing and books. The gallery in it's day, hosted some fantastic exhibitions featuring the likes of Mike Giant, Dalek, INSA, ASTEK, Danny Sangra, Pinky and Matt Sewell, lots of good times!

When her gallery closed she took time out to relocate to Brighton, recuperate, and raise her son. Always ahead of the game, she was promoting and collecting the work of up-coming artists when some of them were barely out of nappies themselves. Her eye for vibrant, relevant talent has been proved again and again by the quality of the commissions and reputation that many of them have continued to make. We bumped into Niki recently at the preview of the Dalek Delta show at Elms Lester (blogged)and have just spotted she has updated her blog with news of a "soft" launch of their online shop.

The shop features a selection of classic Limited Edition screenprints for sale from Best's archive, some dating back to 2002! Prints from Mike Giant, Obey and Frank Kozik (all pictured) as well as works from Pinky and Claire Skully are now available from the online shop. Go check the other prints on sale and be sure and bookmark the site as this is the soft launch!!