Art on the street

It’s been a while since the last post on this blog so this is an extended one based on a lengthy walk around London last Friday looking for art actually on the street.

Is Street Art in London dead? Well, no. You just have to look a bit harder than you used to.

Kicking off in Brentford (don’t ask) it was great to see a simple stencil created to interact with a spill on the street. There’s not enough work like this around at the moment – more please. The artist responsible is unknown and that’s also kind of neat – there’s no print to sell or name attached – it’s just someone taking the effort to create something for no apparent reason other than enjoyment.

Round the corner was a huge derelict building which I took a look around and found amongst other things an RT and a Gors piece both easily visible from the nearby M4 motorway.

Gors graffiti, Brentford

RT graffiti, Brentford

Next stop was Leake Street in Waterloo. It’s pretty hit and miss place these days – sometimes the walls are full of quality and other times the place is just a mess. I’d pretty much put it in the latter for this visit but these hits stood out.

Leake Street – an instruction at the exit

Leake Street reflections

Nelson Mandela ’92 Not Out’ – must have been fresh out of the can as how long does stencil graffiti last in the Leake Street tunnel these days?

Onto the East End and more trudging around in the rain revealed these recent (?) pieces.

C215 off Brick Lane

Boms graffiti, Sclater Street

Mighty Mo / Peg, Holywell Lane

Ben Eine ‘Anti Anti Anti’

Then on to Camden – not much new but there was this R***o piece dissing B***y painted just before his show opened at Pure Evil’s gallery. I can’t be arsed to type anything more on this feud and I’ve starred out their names to avoid this post getting picked up on blog searches for their names. I also couldn’t be arsed to walk the few extra hundred yards to photograph the rest of R****’s put downs which were way below this one.

Finally onto Shoreditch for a few beers with a few friends and a look around Pictures On Walls to see the newly released ‘Street Sketchbook: Journeys’. It’s another quality book from Tristan Manco and is accompanied by a supporting show in the POW offices featuring work by many of the artists in the volume. I’ll post a review up on the site when I’ve had a chance to read through it properly.

More trudging soon – just as soon as my coat has dried out.