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Tag Archives: London

Streets: Banksy (North London)

Banksy is back, with a new, large-scale street piece appearing overnight on a residential building on Hornsey Road, midway between the Archway and Finsbury Park areas of North London. AM was prompted out of hermit mode, jumped on a bus, and went to have look, before the artwork could be dogged by the petty-minded/envious, sidebusted by coattail-riders, or covered in perspex.  The whimsical mural interacts with a tree in the foreground — a rather sad-looking, currently leafless specimen that was aggressively lopped and topped by local authorities. Having taken matters […]

Showing: José Parlá – ‘Phosphene’ @ Ben Brown (London)

Closing today after a four week run, Phosphene is José Parlá’s second show at Ben Brown Fine Art’s London location. The title references the phenomenon of seeing light without any external stimulus and the exhibition features 11 large scale canvases infused with kinetic and sensory energy. For many, graffiti is a means to exist beyond the corporeal and social confinement of our current circumstances and the now Brooklyn-based artist’s Ease tag was like a visual mantra repeated across south Miami in search of personal perfection. […]

Showing: Os Gêmeos – ‘In the Corner of the Mind’ @ Lehmann Maupin (London)

Almost unbelievably, In The Corner Of The Mind is Os Gêmeos’ first solo show in the UK. The exhibition at Lehmann Maupin’s new London outpost allows the viewer to once again dive into the twin’s playful, personal universe created from small memories which they call Tritez.  A large canvases which shares its name with that of the exhibition depicts a head supported by crutches and, as a result, is strongly suggestive of Salvador Dalí’s Le Sommeil (Sleep). For Dali, the crutches hint at the fragility […]

Showing: Sebas Velasco – “A New Error” (London)

This week, the Spanish artist Sebas Velasco opened his first solo exhibition in London entitled A New Error. The show presents 16 new works on canvas and wood which capture forgotten urban environments at night and into daybreak. Velasco’s style, with its aversion to idealism and the picturesque, contains references to the Realism of both Gustave Courbet, who was at the forefront of the movement in the 19th century, and his own compatriot Antonio López García. Both Courbet and García sought to capture the visible […]

Showing: Mr Jago – ‘Imbolc’ @ Unit London

Returning for his third exhibition with Unit London, Mr Jago is currently presenting a new body of work entitled Imbolc. The name is derived from the traditional Gaelic festival which marks the beginning of spring and the large-scale canvases, which strike a deliberately hopeful tone, are a celebration of renewal and new beginnings. Imbolc falls at the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox and there is a sense that the show’s optimism for brighter days to come is grounded in the realistic […]

Recap: Lucy Sparrow – ‘Bourdon Street Chemist’ @ Lyndsey Ingram

The latest incarnation of Lucy Sparrow’s felt installations saw the Suffolk-based artist recreate a fully stocked drugstore selling everything from luxury perfume to hemorrhoid cream at Lyndsey Ingram Gallery in London. Bourdon Street Chemist was the artist’s seventh major exhibition where all the items have been rendered out of felt and it followed on from her similarly exhaustive reimagining of a Soho sex shop in 2015 and a New York bodega in 2018 (covered). Some items that grace the shelves, like shampoo and Band-Aids, are so […]

Showing: Ana Benaroya – ‘The Passenger’ @ Carl Kostyál

For her first show in the UK, Ana Benaroya has presented a new exhibition at Carl Kostyál Gallery in Mayfair called ‘The Passenger‘. While the body of work references Americana and a bygone era of Hollywood glamour, it does so while employing a distinctly contemporary depiction of women. The New Jersey-based artist’s work is strongly informed by a lifelong passion for the aesthetics of Spider-Man, X-Men and DC Comics. However, the gender representations contained in that source material has been subverted here so that women […]

Streets: Conor Harrington // London Mural Festival

Right on the heels of a recently finished mural from D*Face, Conor Harrington (interviewed) has completed his contribution to the first ever London Mural Festival. Touching on themes of nationalism, the Irish-born artist goes big with his familiar flag and colonial imagery in Greenwich (71 Trafalgar Rd, SE10 9TS) with this new wall. Just a 10 minute bike ride from his home, Harrington really did a phenomenal job with palette and details of this piece… Photos via Global Street Art & @streetartatlas. Discuss Conor Harrington here.

Streets: D*Face // London Mural Festival

With the global pandemic starting to loosen its grip on some areas of the world, it’s nice to see artists out painting walls again. The first ever London Mural Festival kicked off this month (created by Global Street Art) with a roster the included the locally-based D*Face (interviewed). The new piece created in his segmented style features his cartoonish imagery while also including what looks to be a partial self portrait. As the event was sponsored by Zippo, there appears to be some lighters produced with […]

Previews: disConnect Project (London)

Schoeni Projects in collaboration with HK Walls presents disCONNECT, an exhibition featuring ten international artists with site specific installations inside a Victorian townhouse in South West London. Opening during the COVID-19 pandemic, the show reflects on the creative and physical constraints of the current global crisis, exploring psychological and political reactions to the crisis, as well as the role of technology as conduit between the two. Full list of participating artists includes Adam Neate (UK), Aida Wilde (Iran), Alex Fakso (Italy), MR CENZ (UK), David Bray (UK), […]