Love is in the air at Dot towers and to celebrate it i’ve decided to share the love with this limited edition printed Valentines card. Printed by the wonderful Mesh silkscreen in Bristol on 375gsm Lambeth cotton rag paper. Its a two colour print on A4 paper with a factory fold turning it into a A5 valentines card with matching ivory envelope. It’s an edition of 60 at the cost of £25 including postage and packing. Show your love with a collectable!
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!
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
Just before i set off to Glastonbury Festival for the Unfaiground a few things came together in a weird culmination of events from several different strands. 10 days before i left we met on Portobello Road to discuss the promotion of a collaboration i was doing with Pills and dollar Bills. Around the table were, Attollo art, Graffik gallery, Pills and dollar bills and myself, June is a bugger for me, Glastonbury breaks me every year, I return a shell of myself and can’t face leaving the bed for daze. The festival ends on the 29th so the proposed date of the 1st was put back to the 14th… It was all still a stretch!
I got so much done before i left for the unfairground, but still it was a hell of a schedule when i got back. Add a large install into Home House members club (see next post) to the list of a solo show, a large mural to be done in a day it was going to be a tough week.
The show
Show photos by Bronwyn Boyle
Cant believe we got a Chelsea hero to wear a shirt! Thanks Mikel!
Well we managed it all, can’t say it was easy, but with the help of Jay, ollie, Kate, Vestalia, Tamsin, Rashid, Webbo, Dani, Bronwyn and joy it was a dam sight easier!
On the 14th of July i will be Launching a cool collaboration i have been working on for some time with Pills and Dollar bills. Over the last 6 months we have been dreaming of producing some of the loudest, brashest hoodied tops and bottoms on the market. All over prints, embroidered elements, this things are gonna rock! As a taster of things to come P&DB and i are showcasing some designs in a dotmasters show at Graffik Gallery. I am painting the front of the gallery, installing one of the Glastonbury auto beggers and generally causing chaos in Portobello road. Join us for some fashion, some art and some cocktails!
I have to say, this year the Unfairground looked the best it ever has! The new Battle bus stage, with 2 1980’s london single decker buses being dragged from the field by cherubs and skeleton horses, really was one of the most dramatic stage settings in the whole of the Naughty corner. Ben Eine’s huge text warned Incurable, Imperfect, Send help! Giles walkers robot’s sold drugs on the path through using the legendary voice of Mac, while auto begger jackpot machines by myself and George Tomlinson declared the punters winners and thanked them for their 50p’s. So many new elements this year that made the unfair experience complete!
We were already in mourning onsite with the loss of one of our true heroes Uncool Dave earlier in the year, to top it all we lost a true friend during the build, Josh Knotty a talented and integral member of the unfairground crew. R.I.P Josh, Dave. Gone but not forgotten.
Dave’s the one you don’t recognise.
George Tomlinson and I built two auto beggers, the principle being that some pinball tat that we got of pinball geoff got us thinking of coin slot fun for the unfairground. We came up with one armed bandits that did nothing but illuminate in lights the fact you were a winner or thanked you for your coins… pointless and unfair i think you will agree.
I will have to thank Ben and ivana who smashed out some topical words and pulled all the stuff together, cheers guys!
and of course Micheal Evis and Bez for making it all happen
and all of you who brought all the glamour!
I’ve had a thing for Astroboy since exhibiting in Tokyo a few years at Gypsy Eyes Cafe. The recent mural in Croydon only helped to me love him more. So here he is, the latest one of the TOY series i started painting them for Nuart festival in 2008.
Printed at the wonderful Mesh silkscreens on 375 gsm Lambeth cartridge stock
100% cotton rag with a wapping 12 colours it comes as an edition of 50, signed numbered and embossed. The size of the print is 90cm x 35cm and is a partnership print with Attollo art.
I will be releasing this print through this site around the 10th of May, a more definite date to follow.
In Marrakech this week painting for the Biennale with MB6, amazing place, really another world. Its early days and i’ve just started painting, going to be a weird Dotmasters piece and i have had to find something non figurative to fit with the local culture. More info as it happens
