Things I’ve seen….

Mooching around the city I call home has become rather difficult in the last 3 weeks, being as I was knocked off of my bike and bust my shoulder and cut my face open…. and then had my bike stolen while I was unconscious… but that is another story

So here are a few piece I have spotted on my hobbles around Londres….

Pez dispenser

Pez is a cute artist, his stuff adorning the walls and trains and sometimes even galleries in Barcelona, London, NYC, Amsterdam and beyond since 1999. On my recent trip to Barcelona to dance my ass off at Sonar his fishy pieces were everywhere, a bit like our friend Sweet Toof in London. He is the signature of Barca for me.

Then something I have seen more and more of recently in the Eastend…

BFC head

Relatively new to London but making a bit of a splash, more info to follow on Broken Fingaz Crew Love this, it looks like some weird super hero cum slasher porno mag from Sin City

That’s all paint pickers… until next time

Cartrain homage to Gilbert & George and a little Damien Hirst baiting

Cartrain – An artist SF really likes, few reasons for the respect, firstly the style is cool, love the collage based stuff, taking everyday items, cultural reference points and making them into playful pieces. The pieces are 3D as well using other items to stand of the canvas, wall or paper.

G&G – Legends

This piece features a collage including a Blue Peter badge and a stamp with the iconic Queens of the Eastend. #Like

The other reason I like him is his amusing feud with Damien Hirst, Hirst is not known for his sense of humour. He comes across as a bit of a dour-nut, someone who takes himself supremely seriously and who has pretty much performed an anal gynecology with his head…. The feud started when Cartrain used imagery of Hirst’s over-priced skull a few years back for an exhibition he had created, it happened to share the same name, For The Love of God.

Cartrain was only 17 and maybe trying to steal some notoriety by doing so really got on Hirst’s wick. He retaliated and sued…. a 17 year old. He won ownership of the art work and since then there has been some bad blood.

Cartrain pulled a funny by pinching some pencils from a Hirst exhibition then creating a wanted style piece with a note to Hirst which read…

‘FOR THE SAFE RETURN OF DAMIEN HIRST’S PENCILS I WOULD LIKE MY ARTWORKS BACKS THAT DACS AND HIRST BACK IN NOVEMBER. IT’S NOT A LARGE DEMAND…. HIRST HAS UNTIL THE END OF THIS MONTH TO RESOLVE THIS OR ON THE 31 JULY THE PENCILS WILL BE SHARPENED. HE HAS BEEN WARNED’

Cartrain for a giggle….

SF feels having a little sense of humour about this could have ended in Hirst not looking like a bully and even an amusing colab. A chance for Hirst to help a young pretender.

In the end the young pretender created his own riposte and hung it

A lil Dscreet Roa

Couple of things I have seen en route recently

A Dscreet hoot

And then….

Roa bird

A few pieces off of Brick LAne, the centre of street art in the Eastend

Stik it to you

Stik. One of the most visible artists in town, especially around the Eastend, these are not new ones but they have not featured on SF before.

Cute sleepy one

Zzzzzzzzz Stik

The lookout one

eye Stik

A SF fave for simplicity and and conveying emotion through something ever so simple, in a world of political art and the plain shite, this is a refreshing change. props Stik.

<3 Kate Moss & Hate Mr Brainwash

La Moss still looks hot

So where does my sentiment lie? I love Kate Moss, if I was a woman then I’d be her. Ok she made a boo boo with the drugs, or was it just getting caught with that druggy rat fink Doherty? We all have dabbled. She has managed to say nothing but say everything and become a cultural icon by maintaining mystique while being one of the most famous faces in the world. Being accessible but totally inaccessible. Genius.

Then you have Mr Brainwash, a man whose opportunism can either be admired or found to be totally nauseating, I fall on the latter. By showing additional pieces I am giving him credence but at the same time it is attention seeking. O how torn!

If you fancy seeing his exhibition then check out here... as much as it is recycled ideas from everyone who has ever put paint to canvas… it is a touch intriguing.

Ps. Kate Moss – Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels

Things I’ve seen….

Couple of quick additions from around the Hackney Road area.

Found round the corner from a Sweet Toof piece, by regular collaborator Paul Insect. Nice cool and simple piece of a super hero-esq mouse character. Vivid colours, sharp lines and a creepy cyclops style eye.

Eye eye

No idea who this is by but love the mixture of two styles, classic B+W and the firey word work. Any suggestions for who this then hit me up

Off Hackney Road

Cope2… well really it is about Kate Moss

Hot mess

NYC based graf artist has a new website, I do not think it is fully finished but looks alright. Could do with showing some more of the older back catalogue. I’ve picked it out because it is a great example of an established graf artist making himself a commercial product.

It shows that graf artists from any generation are a business and as such they need to sell themselves. Cope2 has his statement on his site, eulogising about what he does, influence, techniques and his journey. There is his CV which is actually where he has exhibited and then there is the history naming all the brands he has worked with.

Street art is so accessible and open for everyone to engage with, I think this is a great thing, from the years of making no money from it at all to today where it is hung in the biggest galleries across the globe. In my marketing career I have used street art for brands from fizzy drinks, to cars, to beers to sport equipment and it always draws a crowd. The key to using something cool and underground is how to make it relevant and interesting to the casual fan and the hardcore street art community. And to make sure you are adding to a scene rather than ripping it off.

Cope2

True Life with la Moss

Obviously I picked this out for the obligatory Kate Moss piece… love la Moss.

Graffiti paintball machine

So now it seems there is a machine which takes away the craftmanship of graf and stenciling. Like a paintball machine that is the bastard love-child of Ben Eine and Robot Wars.

While I am all for technology, pushing the world forward creating new stuff to wow and open our fragile little minds, surely somethings are best left to us humans. Such as making suits, making food, making sex and painting.

It is called a Facadeprinter by some clever German chaps at Sonice Development GmbH, name sounds rather grand and means nothing to me. I guess it might be useful for putting art in those tough to get to places such as the top of the Shard

Big stencils quickly

nOlympics Thank you very much

I have said before that not everyone in London and especially the Eastend is over the moon about this thing called the Olympics. Some are dead against it. I was one who was nonplussed but after some campaigning by my good friend I started to feel the excitement. I am even going to the games… I am a guest of a rather large brand…. but I fear the tickets are for women’s beach volleyball… nothing could be more inappropriate for my goodself.

Another reason for liking the idea of the Olympics is the rise of streetart based on the biggest event to hit these shores in anyone’s living memory. Here is another cute and curt piece.

Toxic Olympics

Things I’ve seen….

Random things SF has seen over the weekend just gone….

London Pride just went…

This was outside a sex shop off Great Eastern Street

Wall of paint…

Off Brick Lane

A real eyefull

Think that is a Roa piece….