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