Street artist Dr.D (Previously on Hookedblog) has been hitting the east London streets again over the May bank holiday weekend. Known for his billboard cut n paste modifications and subversive poster takeovers the artist installed two new works over the weekend.

As with most of the artists work it often has a very short lifespan as the media companies tend to replace the adverts on a regular basis, so you need to keep your eyes peeled if you are to catch his work in person on the street. We were fortunate to catch both of these new pieces from the artist, one a billboard takeover on Hackney Road and the second a paste up/ installation on Shoreditch High Street.

  Dr.D Billboard takeover located on Hackney Road, London.
Dr.D's paste up/ installation located on Shoreditch High Street, London opposite the ACE Hotel.



Both works feature media tycoon Rupert Murdock with Dr.D changing the wording of Sky, the satellite broadcasting company to Sly as well as altering their tag line from 'Believe In Better' to ' Believe in Bitter'. The Shoreditch High Street work also saw the the artist install a satellite dish spray with the altered 'Sly' logo. Dr.D has created a SLY TV website, which suggests that 'At Sly, we listen to you. All the time.'! The tumblr page has been set up to tie in with the project on which he has shared the below short video of him installing the two works pictured here. The site also suggested that as he may or may not have have manipulated and ‘hacked’ advertising space online as well as in real life which may have brought you to the Sly site.

Of the project Dr.D has said; "This intervention was brought to you by Sly Television. You may have come here by clicking through an ad for Sky Television or any of its affiliates. This site and this project has no formal connection with Sky Television, Sky News, BSkyB or any of its entities. But we do think that Rupert Murdoch is the closest real life thing we have to Gargamel or an evil Bond villain." You can see the installation of the works in the film below:

Those of your following Hookedblog on twitter may have seen us tweeting about reaching the final stages of the UK Blog Awards 2016. There were 2,000 blogs selected this year and the #UKBA16 team counted 73,352 votes that were cast during the public voting round in January. Thanks to everyone who voted for us in this round and helped us get shortlisted for not one but two categories this year, Best Art & Culture Blog and Best Photography Blog. 

It's now the second year that we have been nominated for the UK Blog Awards. Our 2015 nomination for the Art & Culture Blog category saw us make it through the public vote and Hookedblog was one of ten blogs in the category shortlisted for the award. On the night we unfortunately didn't win the top spot but we were Highly Commended by the judges in this category alongside Natasha Nutall's blog Graphique Fantastique.

With less than 48 hours to go the excitement is beginning to build at Hookedblog HQ, the #UKBA16 invite has finally arrived in the post, new suit and shoes have been bought and we have taken delivery of a box of business cards! All ready to go for Friday nights award ceremony where the winners of the 2016 UK Blog Awards will be announced. The award ceremony will take on Friday 29th April at the Park Plaza Hotel in Westminster, London and we will be live tweeting from the event for those of you on Twitter. You can also follow our evening on Snapchat at Hookedblog Snapchat. You can connect with us on Twitter at @Hookedblog and follow the hashtag #UKBA16 to find out what happens next…

Below are the other finalists who have been shortlisted for the 2016 UK blog Awards – Arts & Culture category as well as the photography category, have a look you might another blog of interest to follow.

Arts & Culture Individual Shortlist
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Audit's Pen - http://www.aditispen.com
Blazing Minds — http://blazingminds.co.uk
Film Doctor — http://filmdoctor.co.uk
HCMovieReviews - https://hcmoviereviews.wordpress.com
Hello Emma Kay — http://helloemmakay.com
Shelley Makes - https://shelleymakes.wordpress.com
Making A Scene - http://www.makingascene.net
Slmpickings - http://www.slmpickings.com
Urban Kultur Blog - https://urbankulturblog.com

Photography Individual Shortlist
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Bea's Cookbook - http://beascookbook.com
Lifestyle District - http://www.lifestyledistrict.co.uk
GEM BOY - http://gemboy.co.uk
Feather & Film - http://featherandfilm.com
Year of Nature - http://yearofnature.blogspot.co.uk
Creepers and Cupcakes - http://www.creepersandcupcakes.com
Explore With Ed - http://www.explorewithed.co.uk
The Urban Explorer - http://www.theurbanexplorer.co.uk
SR Photography - http://stephaniersphotography.blogspot.co.uk

Hookedblog would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all who made it through to the final stage of the process, not just in the Arts & Culture / Photography categories but everyone else too and we look forward to meeting you all there. Once again we want to thank you guys our readers who voted for us, we hope you continue to enjoy reading the blog. And don't forget to follow us on Twitter at @Hookedblog for all the news live on Friday night.

East London — Woodstreet Walls have been giving their neighbourhood a fresh lick of paint throughout their month long Paint Your London event (Previously on Hookedblog),  an initiative to provide affordable work spaces for artist in East London.  The festival has seen them transform a number of bland and dreary buildings across Walthamstow, Leytonstone, Leyton & Chingford into colourful works of art. They have been achieving this with the help of some of the best local and international street artists, 20 in total who they have enlisted to help transform multiple locations over the duration of the event.

Hookedblog have already featured a number of the artists who have worked with Woodstreet Walls painting murals in the neighbourhood for their Paint Your London event including Louis Massai (Previously on Hookedblog), Remi Rough (Previously on Hookedblog) and most recently Maser (Previously on Hookedblog).

Artist and longtime friend of Hookedblog,  Ronzo was also among those invited by WoodStreet Walls to contribute to the event. Well known for his character design, Ronzo's monster characters and urban pigeon sculptures (Previously on Hookedblog) can still be seen hanging around Shoreditch. The artist worked on a number of ideas for his E17 mural located just a few minutes walk from the Wood Street train station next to The Duke pub. For his finished mural he chose to paint this fun masked urban fox character wielding a spray can, perhaps taking inspiration from the urban foxes that are now common sight here in London. Ronzo sent us over some of his initial sketches along with a making of video of him at work on the mural which you can check out below.

Some of Ronzo's initial rough sketches for his E17 urban fox character. (Image — ©Ronzo)

Following the opening of his debut UK solo show 'Orbiting on the Periphery' at Lazarides Gallery currently on show until the 5th May, Irish artist Maser teamed up with Walthamstow art collective Woodstreet Walls to take part in their Paint Your London project in Waltham Forest.

Woodstreet Walls have been giving the neighbourhood a fresh lick of paint throughout their month long event which has seen them transform a number of bland and dreary buildings across Walthamstow, Leytonstone, Leyton & Chingford into colourful works of art. They have been achieving this with the help of some of the best local and international street artists, 20 in total who they have enlisted to help transform multiple locations over the duration of the event. We have already featured a number of other artists who have taken part in the event including Louis Massai (Previously on Hookedblog) and Remi Rough (Previously on Hookedblog) amongst others.

Maser is the latest artist invited by the collective to create work in E17, spending the last few days redecorating the exterior of a disused two story building located opposite Blackhorse Road Underground station. The bold vibrant work is part of the artists ongoing 'Interrupting Landscapes' series and his first painted here in London.

 

Maser's newest street work can be seen on the exterior of the former Standard Music Venue located directly opposite Blackhorse Road Underground station on the Victoria Line at 1 Blackhorse Ln, London E17 6DS. His 'Orbiting on the Periphery' exhibition continues at Lazarides Gallery until May 5th. Lazarides, 11 Rathbone Pl, London W1T 1HR.

Hookedblog have been away the last week in Oostende, Belgium and missed the private view but made a point today on our return to get over to Old Street, London to check out 'It's Only a Dream', an exhibition of new works by renowned British street and contemporary artist Paul Insect (Previously on Hookedblog).

We are huge fans of Insect's work and spent some time today checking out this exhibition which features his signature style of painting and abstracted figures all presented by New York based Allouche Gallery at their first pop up location in London. The show also sees a series of new sculptural works constructed from spray paint chip's collected from various degrading and flaking painted walls over the past seven years alongside a selection of fun puppets Insect has been creating with New York street artist Bast.

We were blown away by the work on show at this exhibition and tomorrow, Thursday 14th is the last day of this pop-up which you do not want to miss. We have shared a section of close up images below along with some of the puppet characters but really if you are in London we suggest calling in sick and getting yourselves along to this show if you have not already been in person!!

 

Allouche Gallery London Pop-Up
Location: 347-349 Old Street.

Exhibition closes Thursday, April 14th, 2016.

Hookedblog have been back and forth to Walthamstow, London the last few days checking in on the the progress of the first Paint Your London event launched last weekend by local art based collective Wood Street Walls (Previously on Hookedblog).

Paint Your London is a local street art festival which is also part of the Mayor of London’s 11 day festival “Find Your London”, which celebrates London’s outdoor spaces. The collective are giving the Waltham Forest neighbourhood a fresh lick of paint throughout their month long event that will see them transform bland and dreary buildings across Walthamstow, Leytonstone, Leyton & Chingford into colourful works of art. They are achieving this with the help of some of the best local and international street artists, 20 in total who they have enlisted to help transform multiple locations over the duration of the event.



Vibrant typographic mural in progress from artist and designer I am Lilly Lou which is located on West Avenue Bridge, E17 9QN.



Remi Rough working on his large scale mural located on just off Wood Street on the corner of Brandon Road.



Frankie Strand putting the finishing touches to her Wood Street mural which she has now completed, just off Wood Street on Cuthbert Road.



Street Artist Louis Masai going large with his mural on a gable end wall of a terrace house on Lancaster Road where he has painted an endangered Red-shanked doc monkey in collaboration with the Body Shop. Masai spend three days working on his mural which was completed on Monday 21st March. You can check out the finished mural in person or have a look at our coverage on the blog of the completed Masai work here.



We caught up with Artist / Designer and E17 resident Mark McClure on Tuesday 22nd March, putting the finishing touches to his mural located on the side of Forest Pharmacy, 615 Forest Rd, London E17 4PP.


Interactive Map and Mural Schedule 
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Wood Street Walls have created an interactive map with MapJam below and a schedule with the full line up of artist taking part in the event, allowing residents and visitors the chance to pop along and watch the artworks being created in person. It also provides a selection of local highlights close to each of the murals with suggestions on where to Eat, Drink and Visit

You can see the schedule on the Paint Your London website.




Upcoming Murals
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With close to 20 artists taking part in the event some have already completed work on their murals since our last visit to the area, stay tuned as we will be bringing you coverage of all the finished works from the event soon. If you want to watch some of these works in progress for yourself there are still plenty of oppertunities to do so.

Other street artists taking part in Paint your London and set to paint over the coming month include world renowned Irish street artist Maser (Previously on Hookedblog), who will be using the disused music venue The Standard on Blackhorse Road as his canvas, wallpapering the entire building on 11th April. Street art / grafitti legend and Walthamstow resident Shok-1 (Previously on Hookedblog) will be painting at The Bell Pub on Forest Road, E17. What with busy schedules some artists have yet to confirm dates they are free so keep an eye on the Paint Your London schedule for updates.

Hookedblog has been spending some time further east in Walthamstow over the past weekend (19-20 March), catching up with our friends at Wood Street Walls (Previously on Hookedblog) and to capture some photographs to share here on the blog of the some of the artists who started painting murals across the Waltham Forest Borough. One of the invited artists was London-based street artist Louis Masai who made a start early Saturday morning on his large scale mural on the gable end of a terrace house, working over three days to complete the mural on Monday afternoon.

For his mural Louis Masai has created a red-shanked douc monkey which has been painted for The Body Shop to promote their upcoming Bio-Bridges campaign. With this new campaign, The Body Shop aims to protect 75 million square metres of endangered forest in some of the most biodiverse areas of the world, starting in Vietnam this summer. The red-shanked douc, found in North and Central areas of Vietnam, is on the IUCN red list of endangered species and is poached for food and fur.



As well as promoting their Bio-Bridges campaign Masai's mural of the endangered monkey also brings to light The Body Shops new Enrich Not Exploit Commitment which is dedicated to enriching their people and products as well as the planet, working fairly with farmers and suppliers and helping communities thrive through their Community Trade programme. Their aim is to be the world’s most ethical and truly sustainable global business, and their Commitment is the first step on their journey to achieving that aim.

For The Body Shop, Masai was the ideal artist to work with on this project. The street artist is well known for his efforts to raise awareness through his art of the plight of some of the World’s most endangered animals. Previous outdoor murals have seen him focus on the African Rhino and the Bees, some of which are still visible around East London. The Body Shop secured the wall for Masai with local arts collective Wood Street Walls, coinciding with their event Paint Your London campaigning for affordable artist workspace in London.



Louis Masai's Red-shanked douc mural for The Body Shop can be seen at 2 Lancaster Road, E17 6AJ. The wall is about a 15 minute walk from Blackhorse Road underground station.

Hookedblog last caught up with Polish artist Bartek Świątecki AKA Pener's back in 2013 when we were invited up to a secret Cambridge countryside location, to hang out and take some photographs. The event organised by Propa Stuff (Previously on Hookedblog) saw Pener and 14 other street artists from six different countries invited to UK to spend the weekend creating, collaborating and hanging out in the countryside location.

Some three years later Pener is returning to the UK for debut London exhibition, ‘Balance’, which is set to open on Wednesday 23rd of March. The exhibition will feature a collection of Pener’s new series of conceptual abstract and deconstructive canvas, showcasing hyper-bright works based on geo-elements with details, colour transitions and fluid compositions. Underpinned by a constant futuristic movement, harmony and transparent shapes combine to dramatic effect including a large mural due to be painted both inside and outside the venue.




"After years of being a graffiti artist, and limited to lettering, Pener built his visual language into something universally communicative. Developing the alphabet into surfaces, words became unpredictable shapes created with bright colors and sharp lines. While his work can be seen as a magnified element of wild style graffiti, upon closer examination they are much more than that. Through use of clean lines, transparency of spray paint, drips and splatters, his works are focusing the energy and rawness of graffiti onto a smaller format. The new genre under which his work fits is ‘Graffuturism’, and this series of work titled ‘Cosmogramma’ refers to the very moment when Bartek abandoned classical graffiti and started his individual search for the essence of style."

balance - grafuturism exhibition By Bartek Świątecki AKA Pener at The Book Club launches Wednesday 23rd March 2016 at 6pm and will run until May 22nd 2016.

The Book Club, 100-106 Leonard Street, London, EC2A 4RH.

Photographs featured in this post were taken in July 2013. The balance - grafuturism exhibition has been directed and curated by Liat Chen.

East London based street artist Mobstr has stepped us his output of street works of late, we have seen a number of of hijacked billboard takeovers from the artist already this year. Back in February the artist replaced not one but four billboard sites next to each other in West London with the message 'BUY MORE POINTLESS STUFF' as pictured below. Mobstr also hit up some sites in East London with a poster that appeared to be mocking the Hollywood movie industry with his 'LOADS OF ACTION, PREDICTABLE STORYLINE' hijacked movie billboard (Previously on Hookedblog).

A photo posted by Hookedblog (@hookedblog) on Feb 16, 2016 at 5:34am PST

A photo posted by Hookedblog (@hookedblog) on Feb 16, 2016 at 5:34am PST

Yesterday we discovered a second hijacked East London billboard site from Mobstr who is know for these sorts of text based interventions. Following on from the previous fake Action movie poster this new text based work sees him focus his attention to the Hollywood Love Story. This new poster from the artist, a combination of stencil and handprinted letters reads 'SAME OLD STEROTYPES IN A CLICHÉ LOVE STORY', OUT IN CINEMA SOON'.



The small print - CO-PRODUCED BY: BORED PEOPLE.
As with the previous poster Mobstr has ensured his hijacked billboard posters have that authentic vibe, this 'SAME OLD STEROTYPES IN A CLICHÉ LOVE STORY' movie poster includes reviews with over the top captions that read "Mind Blowing" — Total Fiction, "Heart-Stopping" — Unreal Reviews "He's Done It Again" — Fabricated Times and "*****" — Another One.

The artist has taken it one step further and created his own version of the small print, which most people never read! On this occasion we have read the small print and Mobstrs version reads as follows: Mobstr productions in association with Mobstr entertainment presents a cliche movie. Directed by: Someone with no imagination. Story by: Someone writing the same old shit. Screenplay by: A Machine. Based on the Novel by: Didnt’t We cover this already? Co-Produced by: Bored People. 3D Visual Effects by: Filling up space to make this look authentic.