After a crazy week in Tokyo it was a quick dash on the Shinkansen (bullet train) down to meet old friends kenichi yamamura (ken) and Ben Eine and Massagon. It was a blur of paint drink and laughter in equal measure. Christ we got drunk! First off painted Malu the craziest hairdresser in Osaka, he has a full recording studio and VJ set up inside, working as he cuts hair…Thanks for the haircut!
Then a quick stop at Banquet and great bar round the corner and a couple of small works dotted around while i sampled the joys of Japanese whisky.
Ben, Ken and Massagon are dangerous guys to go out for an evening with, if it wasn’t for then i may have never found my way home. Waking up in the morning finding photos of things i didn’t remember…like painting people’s clothes in the street?
The next day saw an early hungover start and some more rude kids on shutters at Kenmuri
Then a quick visit to the mayor..?..!..?
Of course the evening turned out stranger than i can remember and on the last day in Osaka another wall and another bar…
I love Osaka, mostly because of the people . Thank you so much Ken and massagon your amazing hosts, thanks for keeping us all safe and sound finding some great walls and great bars and restaurants. Great to spend some time with Ben and MC, see you both in London! It was a great 3 daze!
Category: street
Just back from Japan, i had a great time! First off a week in Tokyo with Gypsy eyes showing me around town, helping me find walls and the gallery Kawamatsu for a show on the 8th of October. I first visited Kawamatsu 4 years ago when i first had a show in Tokyo. The owner is a keen street art fan and had one of the only walls that you could paint legally in town. 4 years later i was exhibiting inside. Thanks to everyone who came, bought something and drank a little too much Asahi beer, it was a great night!
photograph Yuki Loroi
Finding walls to paint in Tokyo is tricky, Its a dense city with complicated wall ownership and a young appreciation of art on the street. However Gypsy eyes pulled it out of the bag with this stunning newly renovated cafe/bar soon to open called Kitsune (fox). A weird shape and full of windows with only the stencils i came with to work i think it worked. God knows it took us a couple of very long days to finish! Thanks to Taro who was an incredible help thorough out the week and to Murao who drove like a crazy man to get me around! Thanks all you made a fantastic visit!
address of the cafe
inside
outside
quick skateboard during the night.
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Hidden Civil War
Hidden Civil War is a month long programme of activity in Newcastle upon Tyne, commissioned by The NewBridge Project. Throughout October 2016 activists and artists contribute to a series of events that expose, collate and present evidence of a Hidden Civil War in Britain today.
Just back from Newcastle painting for the Hidden Civil War show . Had a cracking few days painting the ‘Union banner for the dispossessed’ both in the gallery and on the front of Cobalt studios in Ouseburn. The event happens across the city, with friends and family from the Unfairground dropping sculptures here and there, Jimmy Caulty with his riot in a container, protest jukeboxes and showings of the Battle of the bean field. The show is at Newbridge project gallery and well worth a visit. i even got a chance to do some urban exploring in the tunnels under Ouseburn and drop off a few kids.
Cobalt studios in Ouseburn was the location for my public mural in Newcastle. Surrounded by an ever increasing development of student accommodation Cobalt is fighting for it’s right to be arty. The wall faces the office of the developers and hopefully sends the right message. Gentrification happens because of places like Cobalt and it’s a ignorant developer that ignores the reason why people are drawn in the area in the first palce.
The gallery show is in the centre of town at the Newbridge Project gallery. A cracking space with a great team behind it. The space will host a series of works made for the hidden civil war dialogue. Pop in pick up a newspaper, watch a movie or put on a protest song on the jukebox…show opens on the 30th of September. The program and paper are available here
Of course there was some time for some late night fun!
Leam
Marrakech was a blast. a real change of cultures, a lesson in patience and a change of pace. It started weirdly with Louis Theroux and his family on our easy jet flight from Gatwick (the unfinished airport). He was to reappear daily while we were painting, just to weird us out. Marrakech is an assault on the senses, the bustle of the souks the smells of spice and moped fumes, the call of shop keepers “come look Ali Babba”. It’s a crazy whirl of getting lost continually, trying to find the walls.
It was a nice mix of folk curated by Atttollo, for the Mb6 street art festival. Local boy Kalamour joined Alexey Luka from Moscow, Giacomo Bufarini aka Run from Italy via Stoke Newington (my old stomping ground), LX one from France, Remi Rough and Yesbee from Saaf London and all three in the Agents for Change crew, Mad C from Germany and old friends Lucy Mclauchlan and Sickboy from Nuart and the Widewalls Majorca easter break, with Ian cox on the camera it was like old times.
When first asked to participate in MB6 street art festival i was very aware i was going to paint in a culture not my own. My usual subjects were not going to work in an islamic country. Islam resists to the representation of living beings both man and animals this ultimately stems from the belief that the creation of living forms is unique to God. So my western stuff like trash, toys and rude kids were out. Marrakech is often called the rose city for its colour, everything is painted a reddish brown, coupled with the fact that Morocco is a major producer of rose oil with a unique fragrance meant that i had found something local i could focus on. The cabbage rose that grows there is not a looker, (its called the cabbage rose for a reason) so i picked a prettier version to paint.
The scaffolding was scary but the locals made me welcome, being asked to eat with the local masons and given countless cups of Moroccan whiskey (mint tea) from the berber barrow boys who carry goods in and out of the souks.
We were housed in a couple of cool riads across the city with the sun beating down on us painting during the day it was a cool place to hang out at night. As the week went on the Marrakech Biennale started with a series of parties, where tiny snacks and large amounts of alcohol often equalled drunk artists, a bloody good laugh was had by all. A massive thanks to Ahmed our local fixer and practical guy and of course his assistant Hassan. Big thanks to both Gladys and Elena who helped the wheels stay on the cart, and of course to Vestalia and Terrence who organised the whole affair.
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Astro Boy hits Croydon
Picture by Ian cox aka Wallkandy
The second mural as part of the Croydon Mural Project is finished! Luckily i was the first artist to be asked to paint so… when offered a wall, I thought i could put one on the wall opposite and have the two Toys facing each other, luckily they said yes. After the very girly image of the Ragdoll i thought it would be nice to produce an image that was more male, Astroboy! All of the toys i paint are actual toys from my shelf of plastic crap i have in the studio (see below), Astroboy was something i got given in Japan a few years ago when i was doing a show with Rat king in Tokyo and have painted smaller versions for shows as part of the Toy series but really wanted to see it big!
A huge thanks to the Croydon Mural Project for getting me the walls and sorting out all the logistics. I had a fun couple of weeks in Croydon if not a little wet and i look forward to seeing what other artists put up around the town during the duration of the project
Loving LA, good weather, amazing spots and great people, Thanks to Icon, hit the ground running. Thanks to LA Glass Gallery, John, Sydnie and the Jazz man! Check out the show at LAB Art!
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Dubai report
Just left Dubai after a whirlwind week of a show, Art Dubai, and a spot of painting on JBL Walk. Urban Art is a pretty new thing for the United Arab Emirates and almost unknown in Dubai, so i was pretty impressed with the turn out at the courtyard gallery for the private view. You don’t get as diverse a crowd any where, Emirates Bikers on huge custom Harley’s mixed with Dubai’s glamourous art set and street artists from Beriut & Abu Dabi. The show POP Wall, mixed works from the Graffik Gallery’s stable of artists and middle eastern artists curated by the Courtyard gallery, flowing arabic handstyles next to western stencils and islamic pop art works, a great show that gelled to show a common humour and attitude.
It’s not so easy to find spots to paint in Dubai, there’s no tagging, no flyposting, despite an abundance of building site hoardings and amazing spots. With cans of paint hard to source and at an incredible cost (almost $24 a pop), not to mention strict rules and penalties its not hard to work out why. Coupled to the fact i was painting large piles of trash i was amazed to finally get something street side. I have to thank Otto and his team at the Ocean View Hotel for letting me play on their hotel front, just on JBL Walk. By way of thanks i popped a few framed works around the hotel. If you want to convince someone something is art its often handy to have some whacking great gold frames to make the point.
Thanks to all who came to see the show, it runs till the 17th of April so if you didn’t get a chance to come down to the preview there is still time yet. A huge thank you to all who helped make this trip possible from Graffik, Ollie and Jay, who set the whole thing up and facilitated an amazing stay. From Courtyard, Samia and Nadine who were amazing hosts, put on an great show and found me spots to paint and The Ocean View Hotel, Otto and his team gave us free reign of the hotel and generally looked after our wants and need. Thanks all, see you next year?
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Clue 3 west side story
Ok so i have no clever clues for this one, and no real excuse as to why this is here, other than a good friend lives here. So get yourself over to Bramber road W14 9PB the clues on the green telecoms box at the north end rd of the street. Only one more clue to go and you’ll have all the digits to enter into google maps and that will take you to the Toy shop at the end of the hunt.
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Treasure Hunt West side Clue 2
So if your playing this in the west you’ll be wanting your second clue. I’m going to droping clues fast an furious this morning to give you the weekend to hunt them down. Clue 2 is where you would go to see The Drowned Man. It’s a big building so you’ll be needing a picture to give you a guide.
Here’s the stencil you’ll be looking for (below), the blank space at the bottom has the four numbers you have to take note of at each location, collect all 16 and then enter them in the order you collected them into google maps and hey presto you have final resting place of the Mr potato Head Toy
