Street Art London: Discover the City's Vibrant Murals

This Thursday, London’s Pure Evil Gallery will open its doors for a fantastic Buenos Aires street art exhibition presented by “Graffitimundo”! It’s the first collective exhibition of street artworks from Buenos Aires in London and will in addition to artworks by Tec, Chu and Defi, present those by Buenos Aires Stencil, Malatesta, Orilo and Jaz… Buenos Aires has one of the most active and unusual street art scenes in the world. An economic crash in 2001 acted as a catalyst for a generation of young artists to start painting in the streets. Public acceptance of street art nurtured the scene, giving artists the freedom to experiment at a scale and level of complexity unseen in other cities. Ggraffitimundo was set up to promote this extraordinary scene, and supports the artists through exhibitions, events, tours and an online shop & gallery. (Pure Evil Gallery) ...

The world’s biggest graffiti festival, the legendary international Meeting Of Styles, took place in the Highbury Studios in north London for the last two day. In addition to London-based graffiti legends as Tizer or She1 about 50 other international well-known wall painters and graffiti artists - for example Inkfetish, 3Steps, MadC, Probs, Korps, Dran, Sowat, Bomk, Sebasura, Liliwenn (teaser-shot) - participated and created in that way a fantastic graffiti atmosphere! Since its inception in 2002, Meeting Of Styles has organised more than 70 events, reached more than 120,000 people, and spread its creativity, passion and message across 16 countries. Their mission? To add ‘colour and vitality to blank urban landscapes in a creative and relaxed atmosphere whilst leaving a legacy of art,’ and with such a broad range of graffiti styles on offer they’re certainly taking the London festival seriously. (ukstreetart.co.uk) ...

As you maybe noticed, Brooklyn’s infamous collagist and urban artist Bäst is in London for his first solo exhibition called “Botulism”! Bäst, who has been part of the international street art scene for the last ten years, presents in that show new artworks, especially screen-printings, which are inspired by the early punk flyers of London and New York. Showing 21st Century icons and imagery from all types of media. The crazy thing about his very successful screen-printings is, that they don’t look like a screen-printing, but like real collages! I was highly impressed by that fact, the joke within his artworks and the small talk I had with him. ...

As I told you, the premier UK solo show by Barcelona-based street artist Zosen called “System Collapse” is currently running in London! The art show presents an interesting collection of colorful, very detailed and funny canvas paintings and additionally a limited edition screen print. The simplicity of the imagery in psychedelic colours references a plethora of social and political issues, juxtaposing the heavily distorted photo imagery of today’s consumer society with naive, two dimensional characters and imaginary of primitive African art and Latin-American Folklore. In System Collapse, symbols saturated in colour represent the inequalities and injustices that separate the First and Third Worlds. (StolenSpace Gallery) ...

In addition to the exclusive prints by famous graffiti artist Roa, I was able to watch Bristol-based urban artist, street art veteran, graphic designer and illustrator Mr. Jago live-painting at the VNA release party at Pure Evil gallery. Jago is internationally well-know for its marvel-influenced, often abstract and chaotic style. In the past, BBC Blast did a nice interview with the smart man where he speaks about things inspiring him, his style and so on… ...

For one week, a lot of interesting and totally different urban artists worked hard under London’s Westway and finally tomorrow the public opening will take place. I already went to see Snub23, Sinna One, Ink Fetish, Funky Red Dog, Foundry, Leeks, Nine-o, Fin DAC and other London-based graffiti and street artists during the last days and of course took some photos… The location is rather nice and the feeling between the concrete pillars, stabilizing the Westway, is pure urban! Take a look at the photos of the preparations - Maybe we see each-other tomorrow! ...

For a few days, the interesting UK debut solo-show by Brooklyn-based urban artist Specter is running at famous Pure Evil Gallery. As you maybe know, I’m fortunately in London at moment and took the chance to meet up with Specter at the gallery! When I arrived I was highly impressed by the realistic paintings and the clean, but still urban-touched style of the slightly different artworks. Specter, who exhibited together with the Berlin-based street artists Various and Gould a few month ago, is well known around world for his wide range of street art interventions, reaching from large paste-ups to shopping cart sculptures, cardboard gates and brickwork mods. ...

Today I visited the amazing stencil art exhibition by French stencil artist C215 in London’s Signal Gallery! Although photos say generally more than words, I want to tell you that C215 also did some really nice and colorful artwork outside on the streets. So if you’re also currently in London, walk down the streets nearby the gallery! C215 has made a name for himself internationally as a street artist, second to none. For the past 5 years, he has been taking himself across the world, to major cities and small towns and ‘decorating’ their street walls with his own special brand of beautiful and intricate stencil artwork. His approach has always been to get involved with the street and get the inhabitants to enjoy and appreciate his contribution to their environment. (Signal Gallery) ...

As you maybe know, I’m currently in London and still searching for great urban things I haven’t seen or visited yet, like that crazy underground skatepark close to London Bridge station. Today I found a nice hint on one of my favourite blogs Ektopia: Abandoned tube stations in London! There are apparently some interesting abandoned tube stations in the British capital. One of the least well-known or visited disused stations is St Mary’s in East London - Recently the BBC did a small tour inside the station! It looks rather old and less frequented by graffiti artists, what is really incomprehensibly for me… ...

For one week now, the “Midnight Dreams” stencil exhibition by French urban artist C215 is running in London’s Signal Gallery and it seems to be a great one! C215, whose latest exhibition took place in Paris, is well-known for his amazing, highly detailed stencil artworks he put up around the world. By the way, some month ago he gave me an nice interview… Midnight Dreams will be C215’s second solo show with us at Signal. In the show, the artist is moving away from reproducing works whose origins are on the street. He is developing a style that has more fantasy and independent imaginative force. Inspired by colourful memories from his childhood in Orleans, the work that will be shown will retain the fabulous use of intricate stencil work, with a freshness, lightness of touch and brilliant use of colour, that has not been appropriate in his street work to date. (Signal Gallery) ...