Ronzo & Connor Harrington in Shoreditch

Saw this new piece up on the weekend. Ronzo and Connor Harington in Fashion Street. Some other great pieces up this street too, so if you're in the area over xmas check 'em out. but be quick as this street changes fast (location included in this post).

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GHG Xmas party this year kicked off with a graffiti workshop hosted by Graffiti Kings in a studio in a wicked photographic studio Shoreditch.

K-dawg in action 

Someone needed to introduce the team to stencils! 

The GHG team

A great time had by all, even those who thought they'd hate it. The afternoon started with lunch and a demonstration, then all the staff spent the afternoon honing their skills and getting drunk. Then the GK pros tidied up our shabby work with some skilled black line-work and highlights. The studio team then painted over the masterpiece while we had secret santa, and we left the studio as we had found it (pristene). Dinner at Boundary in Redchurch finished up was was a very enjoyable and memorable xmas party.
Link: http://www.graffitikings.co.uk/
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EVOL at Pictures On Walls

We went to the POW exhibition weekend on Sunday. Great show including new work from Banksy, Mighty Mo, Cept, Zach Shrey, Bill Barminski, Victor Van Gaasbeek, and of course, the ever fantastic Berliner EVOL, who has been doing some work in London recently.

POW sign outside the gallery

 Evol installation (detail)

 Evol installation (detail)

Evol installation (detail) 

Evol installation (detail) 

Evol installation (detail) 

Evol installation (detail) 

To give it scale Jen jumped in

The exhibition is on at POW, 46-48 Commercial Street, London E1 untill 23 Dec, so check it out if you're in the area. Loads of great artwork, prints and street art books on sale too.

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David Walker at Rook & Raven Gallery

Went to the opening of the first solo show by David Walker - Brides on fire -  at the end of last month. Some stunning paintings at the show, and a great turn out. We would have loved to buy one of the large works, but a bit outside our budget (and our flat is too small to do it the justice it deserves. We ended up buying a print of one of the paintings instead, which we love, and got a couple of hand painted masks from David too.

This wall piece was awesome - not for sale though 

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This is the piece we bought a print of - Bride 1 

Love this wall - sorry about the focus 

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Detail  (click on image to enlarge)

Detail  (click on image to enlarge) 

This piece was slightly grotesque 

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The installation in the foyer made from dead cans 

shadow from the installation

shadow from the installation 

 Art buyers at the opening

Looking down to the lower (print) level 

 Art buyers/punters at the opening - full house! 

Art buyers at the opening 

Art buyers at the opening 

Art buyers at the opening

The only B&W in the room full of colour - stunning 

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Could this be the new Banksy?

Some new pics in today from Wooster Collective from the streets of Liverpool.

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These are posted up on the Wooster site from the lonely Villein. Here is the link to his flickr site, which seems to be the ultimate Banksy collection, as well as some other awesome stencil work from around the country. Check it out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thelonelyvillein/

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Hanksy in the Lower East Side

I really love the concept of Hanksy - Banksy knock-offs featuring Tom Hanks. Here's a couple of recent examples from Manhattan courtesy of Wooster-collective.

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CCTV conversation

'Nuff said really...

Goldfish Salvation - an exhibition by Japanese artist Riusuke Fukahori at ICN Gallery

We went to the opening of an excellent exhibition on thursday just been. Riusuke Fukahori's fascination with goldfish is unprecedented. There were goldfish paintings and installation pieces throughout the 2 storied gallery. Upon arrival (and after a number of complimentary Ashai beers) I was convinced that they were actual goldfish set in resin, but it became clear after a while that no fish died in the making of these artworks. Instead, Fukahori painstakingly paints fish detail and then lays down a layer of resin, waits 2 days, and applies another layer of detail painting resulting in a three-dimensional appearance with a feeling of lifelike vitality. The large piece below took a month to complete.

Meeting the artist in front of his feature piece

Here is the video of him working (courtesy of ICN gallery): Artist Riusuke Fukahori's London debut exhibition "Goldfish Salvation" transforms ICN gallery into the world of goldfish. When struggling with artistic vision, Fukahori's pet goldfish became his inspiration and ever since his passion and lifelong theme. His unique style of painting uses acrylic on clear resin which is poured into containers, resulting in a three-dimensional appearance and lifelike vitality. Check the link below:

 Detail (click to enlarge)

Link: http://vimeo.com/32967940

Get down there if you can - it's fantastic. The exhibition runs to 11 Jan 2012 at ICN gallery, 96-98 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4RH. 
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Oh come all ye hackers at KK Outlet

Took a couple of friends to an awesome exhibition opening at KK Outlet just next to Hoxton Square last night.

Love it

Here's the low-down from KK Outlet: The bad Christmas jumper is as much a seasonal staple as dry turkey and brussel sprouts. However Andrew Salomone and his hacked knitting machine are here to change all that.

Salomone has developed an electronic hack, which means he can use a Brother KH930 knitting machine like a desktop printer to transform any design into a unique hand made Christmas jumper.

Hack-knitters weapon of choice - the Brother KH930 

The snowflake (the formula for this exact snowflake appears
along the bottom 

Just wrong 

Um, and wrong... 

I think this one was titled 'one less'

In an homage to the king of patterned knitted jumpers, Salomone created a design featuring Bill Cosby wearing a jumper of Bill Cosby, wearing a jumper of Bill Cosby. The final garment was featured on Good Morning America and presented to Mr Cosby himself.

Throughout December KK Outlet will showcase a collection of alternative Christmas jumpers made by hand on Salomone’s hacked knitting machine. Designs supplied by Anthony Burrill, Siggi Eggertsson, Nous Vous, Genevieve Gaukler and features a knitted version of the Slayer Christmas Lightorama

Slayer xmas lightorama - in a dark room and illuminated 
with on-board blue lighting strips as per the video, 
accompanied by the vid/track on loop on the facing wall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFjI7gT1FvI

Want to see your own design transformed into a Christmas jumper, to keep for yourself or give as a gift to your nearest & dearest? No problem. For 10 days Salomone will be working in the KK Outlet gallery creating customized jumpers from open submission designs. Send your artwork to manchester@kkoutlet.com stating what European size you would like to final jumper to be. Each jumper costs £70.

The design spec due to the machine restrictions is as follows:

Designs to be no more than 200 pixels wide and no more than 600 pixels long. Each design is restricted to two colors per row. Designs to supplied in high res tiff format. All final designs will be converted into knitting patterns by Andrew Salomone.

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