Graffiti London

One of my favorite urban art mags meets one of my favorite graffiti artists: Very Nearly Almost caught up with Austrian graffiti legend Nychos The Weird in London in late July 2012 with João Retorta and Luke Atkinson filming him doing his best… painting, painting, painting. Nychos passed through London last month and even with loads of rain, overzealous council workers buffing a piece on a private wall (within hours of it being finished) and several days dealing with a mysterious illness, he managed to paint some amazing murals. (VNA) ...

This Thursday, one of the UK’s original contemporary street art pioneers Keith Hopewell aka Part2ism is going to open his first solo exhibition since 2009! The New Horizons & Future Love Songs show, hosted by Red Gallery in London, will feature new abstract paintings as well as sculptural pieces and is definitely a must to see for every abstract graffiti enthusiast… A syncretist at heart and now a synaesthesiac in practice, Part2ism is a multi-talented creator, exploring where his interests and instincts lead him. Beyond all the isms’ that can be applied to his work over the past twenty eight years, whether of his own invention or culled from art history, Part2ism has always aligned himself with his own visions first. As an artist, he subsumes all categories and at the same time defies them. More importantly than these post-creation categories that can be applied to his body of work, the underlying and unifying threads in Part2ism’s history are DIY individualism, a revolutionary mentality and a consistent exploration of mind-challenging aesthetics. His timbre, his voice, his style is a constantly mutating, gene-splicing hybridism embodying rebellion and progression. ...

London’s End of the Line crew (who are organizing the local Meeting of Styles) just sent an e-mail, informing about their latest Alien graffiti piece in East-London… As a tribute to the vision of the incredible directors and artists who created the world of Alien, the contemporary creative collective, which is well-known not just in London for their large scale mural productions, painted all the four panels on Great Eastern street! ...

The Agents of Change Augustine Kofie, Steve More, Remi Rough, LXone and David Shillinglaw recently have been busy in London, painting the largest mural in London, as was mentioned by Ian Cox who by the way took some great photos of this painting action! Keeping the geometry of the design intact is no easy feat especially when you can’t stand back and have a look what you are doing without negotiating six ladders and some traffic. ...

Back in 2010, Barcelona-based street artist Zosen opened his System Collapse exhibition at StolenSpace Gallery in London, now it’s Tilt’s turn to bring anarchy to the UK… The French graffiti artist, who is renowned for painting on buildings, canvases and naked women, recently repainted the famous magic wall of Village Underground which before was used by Australian tape artist Buff Diss for his Make Something from Nothing tape works! While Tilt created a huge Union Jack painting, made up of lyrics from the Sex Pistols God Save the Queen, Benjamin Roudet used to document the entire process! The result is a dope video, showing a controversial graffiti artist painting a provocative wall. Well done!

Although some friend from London recently told me that this year’s Meeting of Styles wasn’t as wicked as last year’s, on the hundreds of photos you can find online it looks like a big and crazy outdoor party! This annual British edition of the international Meeting of Styles event brings together some of the most talented graffiti artists from all over Europe and has grown from 15 artists and one main wall in its first year to a full scale outdoor block party and street exhibition in 2010 and 2011, including 60 handpicked graffiti artists painting walls, canvases, and boards throughout the day to a backdrop of hip-hop, reggae, ska and more… ...

London-based photographer Brian David Stevens just informed me about his latest project: Documenting writers at the well-known Leake St Tunnel in London! At the moment this graffiti-photography series includes some quite nice, contrasty snap-shots, focusing not the finished piece but the artists and their equipment… Leake St Tunnel, also known as Banksy tunnel, was initially decorated with graffiti during the Cans Festival back in 2008. Since then it’s legal to paint inside the tunnel, for what reason it attracts a lot of London-based writers and tourists. ...

Back in April 2011, Remi/Rough and System from Agents Of Change crew painted a large scale mural commemorating three influential graffiti-kings: Dondi, Jean-Michel Basquiat and RammellZee! I think they did a good job and although in my eyes it’s quite hard to decide who is worth commemorating it’s a nice step into the right direction, because it’s actually respect and recognition what’s sometimes missing in today’s so-called urban art scene… For more info about Agent of Change, visit agents-of-change.co.uk. Via e-mail, thanks!

Ha, right after I posted about Banks’s upcoming Antics Roadshow I spotted another hot program tip for this weekend: Graffiti Wars is an urban art documentary examining street art and graffiti, and the creative tensions and conflicts within this artistic arena. It’s the story of the ongoing Banksy vs. Robbo battle…Just remember the RIP Street Art exhibition Robbo did last year… At street level a bitter war is being waged between graffiti writers, street artists and the authorities. While graffiti writers face trial and prison sentences for their art, some street artists’ work is lauded and protected behind Perspex. ...