Clever lil Ruskie

Making a spectacle

Street art should, in my opinion build on the surroundings and make them better, it should not stand out for the sake of standing out, it should never merely blend either. A tricky tightrope you might say.

Street light

This is the first time I have come across Pavel Puhov but I love the way he toys with his surroundings in order to take everyday mundane objects and makes them into something different and artistic. Everyday objects such as spectacles or a torch can be something quite enchanting

Lights and shadows

I stumbled across these pieces which he did recently in Russia on thisiscolossal.com

Stik man map

Stik-y

Props to Londonist for creating the a London street map outlining where Stik pieces can be seen, even some that have disappeared.

Map Stick Man

Stik started putting his simplistic yet strangely emotive pieces around East London about 10 years ago and they can be seen from Hackney Wick, Well St, Hommerton, Brick Lane and throughout Shoreditch. When I first moved to East London in 2002, I remember spotting them and taking pictures on a snappy snap. Now 10 years down the track I still look out for new ones and this map has even been verified by the man himself.

Down Stik-s

Crash….. and burn

Not sure....

Crash is clearly a good artist, but really?  Mobile phone cases? How about you do a range of those annoying charms that our Japanese friends seem to have on their phones, maybe a collaboration with Hello Kitty, how about a hands free kit or even a multi coloured leather case for your belt…

#majorfail

But having Eric Clapton commission a bespoke guitar well that is worth talking about

Pablo Delgado – Making a little noise

Money for nothing and tricks for free

I’ve spotted a few mini piece of street art around East London this year but did not know until a little while ago who was responsible, it is a certain Mexican chap called Pablo Delgado.

Lady in red

Delgado is a Whitechapel resident and his pictures kind of depict scenes from the oldest profession in the world, and have a sort of innocent sleaze about them, the best kind in my mind. They are actually a commentary on the gentrification of East London and how everyone in the city is geared towards selling themselves and making cash money in the year of the London Olympics.

'I want to be like those pretty ladies when i grow up'

Fat slags

Ps. I don’t like the idea of London 2012… I might have mentioned tha

 

Things i’ve seen….

My fave part of the Dalston mural

No cock sax this....

New cafe

toof

 

Xenz in East London

Mystic

Xenz launched his first solo show last week at the Leonard St gallery, it wis titled Cloud Cuckoo Land, which in itself is a great name and where i feel like I am currently residing after a weekend of misadventure in Manchester and Dalston. The collection is a two year project and feels very labrinth-esq.

NZ Police get in on the Stencil Art Tip

Down under the Police have decided, if you can’t beat them, join them. In a rather bold move masterminded by M&C Saatchi the New Zealand Police have taken to their creating their own street art in order to try and recruit new cops.

Cop this

In theory I like this as it subverts the norm and could actually bring the establishment some more understanding and kudos…. but then again there is the flipside. For one it maybe smacks of hipopcracy, does this mean that people caught spraying graf in NZ will be commended on their line work? Secondly, the designs created by Otis Frizzell are hardly original and pretty much rip off work by Banksy…. how much kudos would that give your average savvy graffiti artist?

You never know what is around the corner

In other news Police in London were spotted skinning up L plates in Brixton  so they can get the numbers on the drug squads up and in Amsterdam the female officers are wearing their uniforms for ‘evening work’ in the Red light district offering an extra special service.

 

Is this a new Banksy? And more to the point does anyone really care?

A comment on Materialism? #artforall ahem!

Don’t get me wrong…. I am not a Banksy hater (I even sold a Banksy for 1p in a previous life) but he also isn’t the most popular with some people such as Robbo and many people think he just ripped Blek le Rat. While the film he released called Exit Through the Gift Shop featuring Thierry Guetta was interesting and nicely put together, it also cheapened the Street Art idea because Mister Brainwash managed to put on this frankly ridiculously huge exhibition and sell pieces for thousands of $$ without actually really being an artist.  It also gave a poor impression of the American art buying public who were just mindlessly bidding for pieces, some of which they had barely seen let alone tried to understand the piece.

I am not for one minute claiming to be an art aficianado, far from it, I just like pretty things and I like what I like, just merely posing the question…. Is Banksy relevant and credible anymore?

Spotted at foreignstudents.com