“Pictures On Walls has been taken over by venture anti-capitalists and will cease trading from 31st December 2017.”
This text appeared earlier today @ PicturesOnWalls.com, official website of London-based groundbreaking printing house. After 16 years of not only changing, but literally forming and directing the course that urban and street art was going, they pretty much announced the end of an era.
For those of you that don’t know, POW started back in 2001 by a group of graffiti artists and illustrators working outside the margins of mainstream art. Starting in a small office in East London, they begun producing, promoting and distributing their own art, including the early releases of virtually unknown Bristol-born stencil artist Banksy. Over the years they’ve introduced a long list of new talents, including the likes of Paul Insect, Dran or Antony Micallef, through countless group and solo exhibitions, as well as set up various pop-up shop events, book or limited edition releases. And AM was regularly reporting from those events over the years, as you can see from the photos we’ve selected from our archives for this feature. Always ran as an independent, artist-run operation, in the last couple of years the collective couldn’t find their spot in the new trends and new economy they’ve helped creating. In their own words: “POW has proved unwilling or unable to become the sort of professional retail outlet that services a demand whether our hearts are in it or not. Its time to call it quits. Well, it was time to call it quits about three years ago, but hey…”
To mark the end of their trading business, POW just announced the closing down sale which will include releasing remaindered editions, previously unreleased prints and offering big discounts on selected items. The unreleased prints include perfectly fitting, full edition of 500 signed Sale Ends prints by Banksy (header), Gee Vaucher‘s companion piece to an earlier release titled Country Walk, and hand finished low edition of Swamp prints by Maya Hayuk.
