Sad news!

It's a sad day on Brick Lane! One of my all-time favourite pieces has been painted over! It''s a very unusual portrait of the revolutionary icon Che Guevara. I recently spoke to the artist - Osch - and asked him if the designs that make up his face were facial muscles and tendons. He said that he meant them to be stylised wrinkles, though he could see what I was getting at. Yesterday, I was walking down a street that I walk down everyday and looked at his usual spot to marvel at this piece as I usually do and there was a grey wall instead! I was nonplussed. I thought that Osch wouls make another painting. When I spoke to him later, he told me that it was another artist that was going to paint there whois his friend and he even asked permission.

I walked past again today and there was a new piece in it's stead (though as you know I can't take a pic as I am camera-less at the moment) of an artist whose work I have seen before but have not met as yet. I will take photos soon though and keep you posted on other new work in the Brick Lane area.

Here's the original piece in all its glory (click to enlarge)
















Che by Osch, (formerly on) Redcurch St.

Mission Statement

This blog is about showing people around the world the wonderful artwork on the streets and in the galleries in the Brick Lane area of London, which I have extended to Aldgate in the south and Hoxton in the north.

Art should be free, that’s why graffiti and street-art are so important to me.

I am cynical about the “artworld” and attack its commercialism whenever and wherever I see fit.

If a gallery has the prices of the artists work next to the piece, this exhibition will not get a good review, no matter how good the work is.

I will strive to get into the head of an artist when I interview them and always ask about the price as a way of ascertaining whether they are in it for money and fame.

I will also ask them about the concept of pieces, and as much as I can about their methodology and technique.

I will report on art-related issues that appear in the press and online.

N.B. This list is not exhaustive, I will probably add more as I extend the blog.

mancpete

First Thursday, Art Barter and Interview with Cédric Carré

Hey all! I haven't done anything here for over a month. As you may have read, my camera and blackberry were stolen a few weeks agon, then a second blackberry was stolen! And who said London was a nice place?

Well there is quite a lot to report and a new interview with Cédric Carré for your viewing pleasure! That, as usual, is at the end of the blog.

I will also be reporting on first Thusday 2 weeks ago and news of another exhibition opening last week.

On top of these, I will be reporting on a new concept called "Art Barter", which was held at Maurice Einhardt Neu gallery on Rechurch St. over the weekend.

This is an important time of year of the Arts in London as Frieze Fair is taking place at the moment. Go to http://www.frieze.com/ for more info

First up, over the last weekend I stumbled (quite literally, I was drunk!) into Art Barter at the Maurice Einhardt Neu gallery on Redchurch St. I immediately liked this because it was not just an exhibition, as implied by the name, this is a chance for mere mortals like me and you to obtain a piece of art for less than the astronomical prices asked for these days. Actually, according to the rules of Art Barter no money can change hands at all, people swap for items they feel are valuable, and the artists accepts the swap on what they feel is valuable to them. What a great concept!

Insecticide by Matt Collishaw at Art Barter

Read more at - http://www.artbarterlondon.co.uk

Below is an interview conducted with the artist Cédric Carré outside his exhibiton at the Gallery in Redchurch St. I won't write about it further as all my qusetions are in the interview, although below are quotes from the website of the gallery and from the organisers, Time Out's First Thursday.


French painter Cédric Carré is to make his UK debut this autumn at The Gallery In Redchurch Street. The exhibition consists of recent work from his Urban Landscapes series, which sees him document the urban periphery - that space which sits, undefined, between city and countryside. Depicting, in an almost literal sense, these no-mans lands, Carrés paintings are eerily absent of people, or any sign of their existence, bar the man-made objects that occupy them. The work seems to present an abandoned, perhaps even alien world, yet the repeated inclusion of these constructions allows us a sense of comfort that can only come from recognition. Pylons and industrial buildings all feature highly in the paintings. Not generally considered to be things of beauty, but with which we are all familiar, in Carrés hands they become worthy in their own right of aesthetic appreciation rather than just objects of necessity to contemporary living. Roads, another of Carrés favourite subjects, reassure us by offering an escape from these deserted non-places back to, or away from civilization - and a chance to follow those natural instincts towards society or into the freedom of isolation. Cédric Carré has shown widely throughout France and his work can be found in private collections and public galleries throughout Europe, including the Musée de la Piscine in Roubaix, which this summer acquired, and exhibits, a second piece of his work. With Urban Landscapes, his debut show in London this October, recognition of Carré as one of our most exciting and important contemporary artists is sure spread even farther.

www.carrecedric.fr

And here's what Time Out's First Thursday website had to say about the exhibition.

Cédric Carré - Urban Landscapes

05 Oct – 10 Oct 2010
Exhibition
Oil on canvas / Paper / Wood
50 Redchurch St
London E2 7DP
The Gallery in Redchurch Street


First Thursdays Late Opening, October 7, 6-9pm

French painter Cédric Carré is to make his UK debut this autumn at The Gallery in Redchurch Street. The exhibition consists of recent work from his ‘Urban Landscapes’ series, which sees him document the urban periphery - that space which sits, undefined, between city and countryside.

Depicting, in an almost literal sense, these ‘no-man’s lands’, Carré’s paintings are eerily absent of people, or any sign of their existence, bar the man-made objects that occupy them. The work seems to present an abandoned, perhaps even alien world, yet the repeated inclusion of these constructions allows us a sense of comfort that can only come from recognition.

www.firstthursdays.co.uk

New pieces!

There are always new pieces of art going up on and around Brick Lane, one day I will write about the artists need for fame but in an anti-establishment way, though for now I just want to enjoy it and show it to the world.

Some old pieces

Trawling through my archives I found these pics that I took a couple of years ago and thought I'd share them with you. Enjoy!

Mooner Lisa by Nick Walker. Classic!

Charlie Brown by CyOne. Somehow makes the ultimate loser/geek look REALLY mean and hard!

Invader by Space Invader. This guy is totally refreshing in that he used materials that no-one else uses. Ceramic tiles in a mosaic of a Space Inveader. Genius!

A couple of old Banksy works now. This pink car is still in the Truman Brewery courtyard if you wanna check it out.

Sadly this Banksy is no longer there. So just call 0800 226579 to advertise here.

Boy by Twat. Gotta just love that tag! hahahahaha

The Krays by Twat. For those of you that don't know, the Krays were a notorious pair of East-End gangsters from the '50's and '60's. I can't imagine them popping out to Tesco's for their shopping.

Kate Moss by Jimmy (sorry Ican't remember his last name!) As you may be aware I love art that makes me laugh, and that is tongue-in-cheek.

Nigella Lawson by Jimmy whateverhisnameis again. The downtrodden man walking past adds to the pathos of this piece by pointing out that it is taking the piss!

Cans Festival (geddit?) by ? Taking the piss out of both the art and the film worlds. Double Whammy!

Big Foot by ? Nice pun.

As I said, there are plenty more pics of great art like this to come. Keep yoor eyes peeled for my updates and tell all your friends how great this blog is.

mancpete

Street-Art "Jam" and more pics

Last night, Son of Recession asked some of his friends to come along to Fashion St. between Brick Lane and Commercial St. to do some "legal" street-art. Let me explain: even the prolific grafitti artists and street artists were asked to come and use materials that they could not get arrested for. Most people chose to use chalk, though Son of Recession chose to spray on bin-liners. I wondered whether even this would be considered criminal damage, though he seemed confident in his assertion that as he was spraying on the plastic bag and not the actual surface, it should be ok.

Son of Recession, Fashion St. admiring his handy-work

Kadir, Fashion St. There aren't many female artists in the street scene, though Kadir really impressed by doing something based on perspective, with depth a key theme. Kadir also left some free presents above her piece: some postcard sized piece of her artwork. I took one and asked her to sign and date it for when she gets famous and I can seel it for a million.

Marco, Fashion St. There was also a poet on hand. Here is Marco checking his work which he usually makes up on-the-spot according to how he feels.

Lost Monkey, Fashion St. Sorry it's a bit dark, you can click on it and lighten it yourself.

Also, Lost Monkey has a new exhibition coming up, here's a poster for it with the details.

Maxwell, Fashion St. Click on the image to enlarge.

Maxwell, Fashion St. Here's the man himself in front of his work.

The artworks should still be there for a while, so go and check them out (if the rain doesn't wash them away)

Here are some pics of some assorted work from around the area. I'll try to name the artist and location whenever I can, so if this info is not there then I can't fathom it out.

2 Kold by Zomby, Redchurch St. There is not enough graf around Brick Lane and I've moaned about this time and time again. The majority of the graf is of a good standard, and this looks good, though I think it needs developing.

Keen One and Ideal, Sclater St. off Brick Lane. Nice to see some international graf in the area. These are from Dortmund, Germany.

Redchurch St. off Brick Lane. Even I can't read this tag, but I like it! So I'm gonna call it Moo. Notice the Space Invader sticker? See previous posts for more of his/her work.

Piss alley, off Brick Lane. Remember the blue sperm from a while back? Well I really liked it and I would be so pissed off that it got covered if the urinals weren't so good.

Hanbury St. You Know. I like this little guy as it reminds me of the arcade games like pacman, but also because he is implying that everyone know's his secret.

Ronzo, Brick Lane. I used to have a problem with paste-ups, then ones like this would make me laugh.

Bink, Brick Lane. Not much to say about this except that it makes me smile.

Roa, Brick Lane. The Crow. This is one of the most prolific, and ambitious, artists on Brick Lane. Did you see his 20 metre Stork? WOW!

Roa, Brick Lane, The Boar. He has also done a giant squirrel. Go to previous posts to see this.

Mark Amerling, Sclater St. off Brick Lane. I've a feeling I've uploaded these before, but they're so good I don't mind seeing them again.

You know, I've only uploaded about half the pics I meant to. It takes soooooooo long to do it on here, then you have to mess about re-positioning them. Pain in the arse! That means that there is a lot more to come so I'm gonna be busy with the blog for the near future.

Coming soon: More graf and street-art pics

mancpete

New and old street-art and an intro to some galleries

Well not much action going on recently, even at First Thursday 2 weeks ago. So I thought I would take you on a short tour of some of the galleries on and around Brick Lane and show you some new (and old) stuff that has appeared.

Unknown artist. This is on Redchurch St. at the northern end of Brick Lane and has been there for a while. I like that it's done in a graf style and looks pretty apocolyptic, like the opening scenes of Terminator when the machines are chasing the humans and killing them.

Existence is Punishment, unknown artist, Redchurch St. As an ex-tagger I kinda like this, not that I ever wrote anything other than my tag and crew name. Notice how whoever did this made a mistake and tried to cover it up by writing a huge "T"? This makes me laugh and sort of gives more gravitas to the message.

Unknown artist, Redchurch St. I like the way the artist has utilised all the available space in this tiny doorway. This the same doorway featured earlier of a boy saying "Nothing in particular". I would really recommend that if anyone is visiting Brick Lane that you start in Shoreditch and walk down Redchurch St. towards Brick Lane making sure you look up and down towards the ground, AND in all the little nooks and crannies.

Brick Lane, unknown artist. There is a lot of bizarre stuff around Brick Lane, though is one of the freakiest. It kinda scares me which I like and it makes want to look at all it composite parts to see what the hell it is. It seems to have the body of a Hindu deity and the face of an African witch-doctor with a manic smile.

Unknown artist, Rechurch St. I presume it says "Miss Skull" as someone has tried to rip it off the wall. When I look at this it says something about the fashion/make-up/beauty industry, though I don't exactly know what. I would like to meet the artist to ask them about this.

Crow by Roa, Brick Lane. Remember the giant stork and the suirrel featured on earlier posts? Well, Roa is one of the most prolific artists around Brick Lane. I like the style of the work and the naturalistic poses of the animals, not to mention the scale of some of the pieces.

Self-portrait by Son of Recession, Brick Lane. Another one of my favourite artists, and if you saw my interview or pics of him in front of work you may be able to see that this is a self-portrait. As soon as I saw it and the hair I knew straight away. Son of Recession is also one of the most prolific artists in the Brick Lane area, and here he combines both his main methodologies, the "Fragile" tape and outlines of shadows, into one artwork.

Invader by Invader, Brick Lane. Apparently this guy is very famous, my friend from Bilbao told me she saw his work there and he is quite well known all over Spain, though she doesn't know if he is Spanish. This another artist I would to meet and pick their brain. There is a new, and bigger, one recently appeared on the Foundry. I will bring you this soon.

I am usually quite cynical about about commercial art, whether it's gallery based or street based, though I had to admire the piece below. I think it's done by a grafitti artist trying to make a few quid and fair play, the technique and colour scheme are amazing.

O.K. before I go on to the promised introduction to some of the galleries around Brick Lane, I want to show you something that is from another area of London called Hampstead. For those of you that don't know Hampstead is a posh area and seeing this on the pavement made me laugh even more because of this.

I like the way that the dog shit has steam coming off it! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

There are numerous galleries around Brick Lane, including some that are also bars and clubs, Here is a few that I have visited and commented on before. In the next installment, I will provide a map highlighting where they are.

Brick Lane Gallery, 196 Brick Lane, London, UK E1 6SA, 020 7729 9721. I've been here numerous times (check through past entries) and spoken to Tony the manager about this blog. I told him I'm not making any cash from it yet, he said stick with and come back in 6 months time as that's how he started out. That was 2 months ago, so not long to go now! Confession time: When quite drunk I told Tony that I started this blog because I was going to all the galloeries and getting very drunk. Now I'm only allowed 1 drink when I go there! HAHAHAHA!

The Gallery in Redchurch Street, 50 Redchurch Street, E2. This gallery isn't open very often, which is a shame as I think it's a very good space, airy, lot's of natural light and of course, very close to Brick Lane. If you look at my very first interview with David Marsh, you will be able to see how good this gallery is and how vibrant the area around it is.

Studio 1.1, 57A Redchurch Street, London E2 7DG, 07952 986 696. This a tiny space, though I must admit that it's one of my favourite galleries in the area as they exhibit artists that may not get a look in elsewhere. I don't mean that in a bad way, it's just that they show work from lesser known artist and students, in fact I interviewed an guy here about his instalation of a spiral of sticks that resembled a stairway to nowhere, though unfortunately it was all lost due to one of my famous "technical difficulties".

The Aubin Gallery. 64-66 Redchurch St Shoreditch London E2 7DP www.theaubingallery.com. 0845 6048486. Probably the largest and trendiest of all the galleries on Redchurch St. Loads of shows on here all the time and some interesting work, see past posts for reviews of work here. The best thing about this place is that there is ALWAYS free booze on the go!

Well, that's your lot for now. Coming soon: More introductions to galleries and I will be tracking down your favourite street artists and harassing some gallery artists!

mancpete