It was very short, my visit in London... Though, still I had a little time to make a quick shot "here and there". Mostly taken by night, but it gave them even more charm. Enjoy the report of what is just happening on the London's streets!
Bestiary of ROA.
By wikipedia : "ROA (artist from Ghent in Belgium) generally paints wild/urban animals and birds that are native to the area being painted. ROA usually uses a minimal colour pallet like black, white and red, but also creates works using vibrant colours depicting flesh and/or internal systems within the animals and birds".
Giant rat - ROA |
I must admit that these animals, of a large format - as they occupy entire walls, found by chance around the corner, arouse some kind of terror. They also remind us, that in this post-industrial and super urbanized environment we are not the only inhabitants...
Giant squirrel - ROA |
Almost all the photos were taken in Shoreditch area of London (let's say it's an equivalent of the Parisian Marais).
Street art piece below is just breathtaking. As it was taken by night and under the bridge, the quality is not the best, but thanks to it the 3d effect is much more enhanced. I was starring a little while on it, completely amazed. Not only because of the 3d effect, but the motion that artist was able to create using this particular technique. After, on DailyMail, I found a long article about it. DALeast, chinese secretive graffiti artist, whose "unusual paintings, which are sometimes hundreds of feet across, can look 3D and as if they are created out of thousands of tiny metal shards, but in fact they have been spray-painted onto a flat surface."
DALeast said in one of the interviews: "I hope I am creating illusions through my paintings that can be a switch for people's minds. I like to express life-emotions and the environment, and use different artistic forms to speak. I prefer people staring at my work without saying any words - it means they are taking it in."
Panoramic view
Changing the subject from animals to people, a few "faces of London" to look at.
Below the mural dedicated to Charlie Burns, that passed away 2 years ago in London. He was the oldest inhabitant of Brick Lane. "He achieved glamorous success and universal respect as the patriarch of the Burns family, celebrated for their endeavours in boxing" - as we can read here and there. Artist unknown.
Powerful expression...Artist unknown.
Portrait presented below made by painter Guy Denning is quite creepy. On wikipedia we can read: "Denning uses not only powerful brush strokes to express his emotions deeply, but also scratches the paint to show the audience the intensity of the emotions he is trying to portray with his artwork. His work involves other techniques such as blacking out eyes and mouths maybe to emphasize Denning's theme of darkness, horror and maybe even despair."
Making-of presented in this movie. Superposing and spraying many stencils, one on the another is not only an interesting technique in itself but also, in my opinion, serves to emphasize the "message" contained in his works.
Johnny Cash
More fantastic than realistic. Born in 1979, Ricardo Akn is an illustrator, photographer, and street artist. Akn has worked with well known brands and publications including Nike, Ellus, CK One, Doc Dog, and others.
Read more after the break --->