The London Police at StolenSpace Gallery

Fantastic new show at StolenSpace Gallery on Brick Lane. The London Police take over gallery 1 with some spectacular works including some seriously large canvases.

Also a foray into London pop and style icons

The show titled "All at Sea" runs until 29th May, so hurry on down to check it out - you won't be disappointed.

In gallery 2 is a fantastic show of paintings from American artist Scott Lisfield entitled 'An American astronaut in London, and as you can see from the images below, does what it says on the tin. Great show, and equally worth checking out while you're there.

http://www.stolenspace.com/exhibitions/

A couple of new bits from Brick lane area

A handfull of new bits from Shoreditch last week inc. a couple of ACEs. Thanks for the pics Jen...

This is at the entrance to Truman Brewery 

Twisted smiley face 

ACE (click to enlarge)

ACE (click to enlarge)

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Garage door on Fournier Street off Brick Lane

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Interesting garage door signage that caught my attention recently...
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Off Brick Lane

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Some bits from the disused lot off Brick Lane (almost opposite the big Asian supermarket) mentioned in the post that follows this one....
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Found. Refuse or Art?

Art is in the eye of the beholder. We were wondering around a vacant lot off Brick lane the other day. It's accessed down an alley way heading down the curry end of Brick Lane toward Aldgate end. There's usually some nice bits in there, and I'll chuck up some of those pics in the post after this. Anyway, so there's this hand basin in the ground next to a pile of rubble. It looks to me like it's been aesthetically placed, like some random art piece (to me resembling a face), but I'm the only one that gets it. To every one else it'd just just discarded trash.

There is a guy that does pieces down Brick Lane that are just mysteriously placed wire coat hangers, and another dude who sticks up power points, so why not bathroom fittings? I liked it, so there you go. Thoughts?
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Some new pieces up in Shoreditch area

On our way to Brick Lane last night I noticed a few works-in-progress that I felt were worthy of a bit of publicity. These pieces are all from the area near Dray Walk. Unsure of the artists at this stage, so will have to come back to that when I know, but at this stage I'll name them alphanumerically. Will be back over Hackney & Shoreditch way on Saturday, so will try to see how they've progressed then.

A. Scratched out of pinboard (click to enlarge)
Detail showing the scratching & digging (L), Thr whole 10ft image (C),
The position - bottom left on the building gives you an idea of scale (R)

This piece was about 10ft square, and was a portrait that was scratched or scraped out of a piece of plasterboard or pinboard type material. A unique medium if you ask me - I've not seen such a large piece done in this technique before.

27/08/09: Have been online since, and pretty sure it's a piece by Vhils (Alexandre Farto) from Portugal. More here: http://alexandrefarto.com/

B. Sculptural piece made of painted plaster? (click to enlarge)

Piece B is sculptural, and I'm guessing it's made of plaster and then painted in hi-gloss enamel paint. The piece is about 12ft up the wall and is about a foot tall. Really nice cultural piece, and kind of reminds me of what some Aussie artists are doing at the moment with street sculpture, as opposed to painting (see previous article on Mal Function, although I featured his more monotone range, but his latest work is dynamically coloured like this piece).

C. Scraped billboard (click to enlarge)

This piece was created by scraping away the layers of posters to create a multi level project. Kind of Farley like, and only just hanging in there, but a lovely aesthetic none the less. Shame we were loosing the light and I didn't have the chance to get up colser for some detail shots. Oh well, next time...
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Meeting of Styles 09 exhibition/symposium

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Well, finally got my shit together and sorted through a couple of hundred pics I took over the 2 day graffiti extravaganza. Meeting of Styles is a live, 2 day exhibition of over 80 graffiti and street artists. I was lucky enough to be shooting there for the 2 days, and it was awesome. So many styles, so many artists, so many countries represented, so much talent! It is part of an ongoing global tour that twists and changes at each leg, evolving into a premier global event.

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8 ft tall Pete Doherty (click on image to enlarge)

I have chucked a whole bunch of pics up on my flickr site, and I'll fix my favorites into sets here over the next few weeks (or when I'm running short of fresh posts).

flickr.com/photos/hamstar/sets

Enjoy, and feel free to pass on this link to who ever you think may enjoy this type of stuff. Chur...
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Some random pieces around Brick Lane and 'hood

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Wandering around on the high street at the bagel end of Brick Lane when I ran into my mate Si Hill. We were standing there talking about graffiti and stuff. He showed me some of the stuff he'd photographed the week before, and I showed him some of my best of the day. We were talking about observation when I looked down at the ground and saw this piece at the bottom of a pillar at foot path level, highlighting how observant you've got to be to see everything around us (Si didn't notice it till I bent down to take the pic).

Lioness - off mid Brick Lane (click image to enlarge)

el tape - Brick Lane (click image to enlarge)

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A few random bits I found along Brick Lane and surrounding hoods. Will put some more up soon, and also a bunch up on my flickr too. See:

flickr.com/photos/hamstar/sets

More Jeff Soto on Brick Lane...

Soto piece in progress...

Jeff in action on Brick Lane?

Was surprised to come across more Jeff Soto street work on the No Lions in London site the other day. Backed up also by their blog. Now I walked up Brick Lane half a dozen times in that fortnight and only saw the blue box 'Greetings from California' piece, so not exactly sure where these pieces were - perhaps they were stolen by the time I got there?

See the pics and some other interesting shit here:
http://graffoto1.blogspot.com/
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Brick Lane evening stroll reveals new work

Not sure what drives someone to deface other artists work?

Work in progress...

I shot a whole bunch of this guys work the other week
- still haven't found out who it is, but he's prolific in the area!

'After Lives' detail (click on image to enlarge)

Brick Lane stroll the other evo revealed a whole host of new work up down the curry end (Aldgate East). Will endeavor to put a bunch of it up as time allows, but here's a few to start the ball rolling...
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New London Police stickers in Brick Lane

Came across some new London Police stickers along Brick Lane on my wander to Rhythm Factory the other night. Very distinctive style.

On the street with Jeff Soto

Ha! Love the messaging, although I didn't notice that
'till my second walk by

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Well, as promised, here's the pics from Jeff's trip up Brick Lane. What was of most surprise to me
was that I saw this piece on my way to the exhibition opening last Thursday, and didn't realise it was Jeff's until I got tom the show at StolenSpace. Duh!
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Jeff Soto - Inland Empire show at StolenSpace

Jeff and Rebecca at StolenSpace

Jeff Soto exhibition image painting

Painting detail (click to enlarge)

Painting detail (click to enlarge)

Painting detail (click to enlarge)

Thursday just been was exhibition opening night, and I managed to cram in 3 galleries as well as a photo walk down Brick Lane (but I'll cover that in following posts). Will mention at this point tho, that whilst on that walk I photographed a fantastic Soto piece on a ply sheet gate, and had it up online before the folk at Wooster Collective. Ha!

The Jeff Soto show featured over twenty new paintings on wood panel and paper, as well as large-scale outdoor installations. The opening saw the release of a limited edition hand pulled screen print and Soto was signing copies of his newly published book ‘Storm Clouds’. ‘

The Inland Empire’ is a politically charged exhibition focusing on the theme of recession in the area in which the artist lives and how it reflects what is happening all over the world.

Got to meet Jeff at the show, and he seemed like a top chap (he was obviously very busy doing the signing, photos and general chatty stuff).

Runs 14th May – 07th June 2009. Stolenspace, The Old Truman Brewery. 91 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL

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New styles for Brick Lane

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Wondered down Brick Lane last night on my way to an exhibition opening at StolenSpace gallery. First time in absolutely ages that I've been down that way, and was well surprised at all the new graf up, both on and off the lane. I'll feature some of the artists I shot last night in later posts, but wanted to show this chap first. Not sure who he is, but his style is unique. Very complicated (and time consuming I'm sure) sketchy style, the likes of which I've never seen before. Given the fading light the photos have turned out ok.

I highly recommend clicking on these pics to see the detailed line work

I'm trying to get a name, but no joy so far.
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The human CCTV on Brick Lane

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CCTV was a street performer on Brick Lane Sunday avo. Was a great concept, and he was attracting more than his share of attention. There's a lot of CCTV around that area now, so it's good to see some nice street art going around there despite the added attention.