Having recently discovered a large selection of pasteups in London by the artist JoLA we are pleased to created a new artist gallery to house the works on The Street Art Directory.
JoLA has been an active street artist since 2022 with her ‘bird spotting’ paste-ups appearing around Shoreditch in the spring. She works with stencils, spraypaint + acrylics to produce her creatures. The stencil artwork often in black & white and then adorned with colourful masks + jewellery. We think the Magpie particularly is a cracker!
JoLA has a website and you can also follow her on Instagram at @jola.artist.
The Street Art Directoryis an independent website showcasing contemporary street art of over 1500 artists from around the world. Get updates to The Street Art Directory direct to your mailbox by signing up here.
If you find The Street Art Directory is a useful resource and would like make a small donation to help with the costs of running and maintaining the website take a look here.
We recently listed the 2022’s 10 most visited artist gallery pages on The Street Art Directory website and now it is the turn to share the most read feature articles on the site. These are primarily older articles which if nothing else may act as a prompt for us to write some new stuff and interview a few more street artists.
The Street Art Directoryis an independent website showcasing contemporary street art of over 1500 artists from around the world. Get updates to The Street Art Directory direct to your mailbox by signing up here.
If you find The Street Art Directory is a useful resource and would like make a small donation to help with the costs of running and maintaining the website take a look here.
When we created The Street Art Directory website we set out to produce the sort of site we’d love to have stumbled across when we began taking a more detailed look at the cities’ walls. The site has continued to evolve and grow through 2022 and now features over 1,500 artists from around the world.
As in previous years we have checked which have been the 10 most-visited artist gallery pages on the site during the last year. We are again surprised (and encouraged) that the top 10 is not dominated by what may be considered the household names of the art world.
We are already working on further improvements for The Street Art Directory in ’23. We have acquired more capacity so will be able to share more photos of street art without fear of running out of space and have almost 6,000 photos and many artists waiting in the wings to be added as well as updating existing galleries.
Anyway, back to the most popular artist galleries on the site in 2022…
NUMBER 1 – Nicky Nailed It The most visited gallery this year is that of Nicky Nailed It. We have found several of this artist’s child face pasteups around London’s Shoreditch. According to the artist’s website, “Nicky Nailed It™ has been created to encourage the spirit of childhood in the sense of curiosity, freedom and the innocence that drives us to do what makes us happy regardless of outside influence.” Nicky Nailed It can be found on Instagram at @nickynailedit.
NUMBER 2 – LT66 East London’s LT66 has been active as a street artist since 2019 and we found the first of his works in the following year. He has been prolific with his pasteups around East London in 2022. LT66 is a self taught artist working with spray paint applied by brush to vintage newspaper. He shares very well observed and executed paintings of his female muses. Original artwork can be purchased from his website and he can be found on Instagram at @lt66art.
NUMBER 3 – Jake Ghost The third most visited artist gallery in 2022 was Jake Ghost. This is another artist whose work we have found around East London. His pasteup works featuring celebrities including Amy Winehouse, Boris Johnson, Kate Moss and Pete Docherty have been a fixture since 2019. Jake Ghost is on Instagram at @_ghostgallery.
NUMBER 4 – Mantra Rea French artist Mantra Rea is well known for his ultra-realistic large scale pinned butterfly murals which incorporate excellent use of shade to convince you that you are actually looking at a massive entomological cabinet rather than the side of a building. On our site we feature two of Mantra’s works, both from Jaco in Costa Rica. Check out Mantra Rea’s Instagram account @mantrarea.
NUMBER 5 – Cliff Phillips Cliff Phillips has featured regularly in The Street art Directory’s ‘Top 10s’. A very talented artist, his pasteups have been encountered mainly in Manchester’s Northern Quarter but also in London. We interviewed Cliff a couple of years back and you can read this here. Cliff remains popular despite the lack of a social media presence.
NUMBER 6 – Bluntroller Bluntroller is a talented stencillist who has a running (bouncing?) space hopper theme. The first works we found of his were of a policeman on a space hopper. In 2022 Bluntroller’s gleeful Queen Elizabeth on a space hopper took on an added an added poignancy with her passing. He doesn’t have an online shop or website that we could find but Bluntroller can be contacted via his Instagram: @bluntroller87.
NUMBER 7 – Helch The artist known as Helch is perhaps the only truly ‘famous’ graffiti artist in this year’s Top 10. Helch’s fame (infamy?) stems from a 20m ‘HELCH’ tag on a railway viaduct in Windsor back in 2019 which left the late Queen Elizabeth “extremely upset”. Helch has since adorned a number of motorway bridges around London including amending the popular ‘Give peas a chance’ over the M25 to ‘Give Helch a chance’. Helch has since widely decorated east London with his undoubted roller talents. He has recently launched his first (and very quickly sold out) print and retains a low profile on social media.
NUMBER 8 – Thierry Jaspart We don’t know a lot about Thierry Jaspart. We know he is a bilingual visual artist who lists his skills as including ”illustration, photography, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, video shooting and editing”. His pasteups have been prominent around East London for some time now. Thierry is on Instagram as @thierryjaspart and he has a website.
NUMBER 9 – Jean Peut-être Jean Peut-être, produces modern screen prints on old paper – blueprints, accountancy papers, maps and more. His highly detailed single colour works of fish, lobsters, unbrellas, etc. are very distinctive and the bold designs stand out on any city wall. We have a large collection of Jean Peut-être’s work on The Street Art Directory. Find Jean Peut-être on Instagram at @jeanpeutetre and via his website.
NUMBER 10 – Marco Polo Marco Polo is a talented Essex/London-based urban artist and painter who has worked on walls on the streets of London, New York, Los Angeles and Barcelona. He works in acrylic, oil paint, spray paint and stencil. It is perhaps a surprise to see Marco Polo in The Street Art Directory‘s Top 10 as we have not found any works of his on walls since 2015, after which time he put his efforts into gallery works. In fact he seems to have vanished without trace. Hopefully Marco Polo will resurface with a new body of work, either on walls or canvases, in due course.
The Street Art Directoryis an independent website showcasing contemporary street art of over 1500 artists from around the world. Get updates to The Street Art Directory direct to your mailbox by signing up here.
If you find The Street Art Directory is a useful resource and would like make a small donation to help with the costs of running and maintaining the website take a look here.
Here at The Street Art Directory we were very sat to read on social media that John Dolan passed away on Friday 21st October 2022. We were never fortunate enough to meet John but his fun portraits of his beloved dog George have been a familiar sight on the walls and pavements of Shoreditch. We have updated John’s gallery page on The Street Art Directory website with more photos of his work as a lasting tribute.
The Street Art Directoryis an independent website showcasing contemporary street art from over 1500 artists from around the world. Get updates to The Street Art Directory direct to your mailbox by signing up here.
If you find The Street Art Directory is a useful resource and would like make a small donation to help with the costs of running and maintaining the website take a look here.
During our recent wander round the streets of Shoreditch the work of two artists seemed to pup up on every corner. Here at The Street Art Directory we were previously unaware of Stephen Hiam‘s work. His monochrome stylised head pasteups are certainly very striking, their simple bold form making them stand out on even the busiest wall. We were really pleased to be able to photograph over 20 of Stephen’s works and these now populate his gallery page on the website. Stephen does not (yet) have a website but you can find more of his works on his Instagram page: @stephen_hiam.
Stephen Hiam
The other artist that has obviously had a prolific streak around East London is David Gersch. David’s pixellated self portrait pasteups and stencils are spread widely around Shoreditch. We’ve added those we stumbled across to David’s gallery page on the website. David’s instagram (@thedavidgersch) and website inform us that he is a “World Renowned Artist & NFT Creator” and we look forward to seeing more of his work.
David Gersch.
The Street Art Directoryis an independent website showcasing contemporary street art from over 1500 artists from around the world. Get updates to The Street Art Directory direct to your mailbox by signing up here.
If you find The Street Art Directory is a useful resource and would like make a small donation to help with the costs of running and maintaining the website take a look here.
Benson Koo pasteup.Brager wall from the Southend city Jam 2022.Benzi Brofman‘s Salvador Dali from Brick Lane in London.Sven over Lobogordo Grolou in Sân José, Costa Rică.Emmalene Blake tribute to Lyra McKee.Driper‘s pigeon mural from Southend.Cry‘s excellent 2021 work from Southend.Anonymouse for the London International Pasteup Festival 2021.Alethea in Allen Gardens.Brickflats flat in miniature in Shoreditch.
The Street Art Directoryis an independent website showcasing contemporary street art from over 1500 artists from around the world. Get updates to The Street Art Directory direct to your mailbox by signing up here.
If you find The Street Art Directory is a useful resource and would like make a small donation to help with the costs of running and maintaining the website take a look here.
The Street Art Directoryis an independent website showcasing contemporary street art from over 1500 artists from around the world. Get updates to The Street Art Directory direct to your mailbox by signing up here.
If you find The Street Art Directory is a useful resource and would like make a small donation to help with the costs of running and maintaining the website take a look here.
The Dan Leo gallery brings together pics of a few of his wildlife murals. As well as the impressive crab from Southend there’s also a Black Guillemot from Bangor – an iconic bird of the town’s harbour. Slightly less geographically relevant but equally impressive is the Palm Cockatoo from Australia and New Guinea which was painted in Belfast.
Amuk‘s piece for Southend City Jam 2022.Amed working on his mural in Southend-on-Sea – round the corner from Amuk.Candie‘s Union Jack shutter next to Otto Schade‘s face mural in London’s Brick Lane.A work by Catherine Chinatree which we found in Leicester.“Love, loss n beyond” – Carl Kenz‘s contribution to Belfast’s ‘Hit The North 22’ street art festival.Another from the Southend City Jam 2022 – this one by Brave 1 on the adjacent wall to a large mural by Dan Kitchener.Ster, one of the organisers of the Southend City Jam, added this work to the event.Slightly tucked away from the other murals completed for the Southend City Jam, Voyder‘s portrait of Ster was well worth seeking out.Dan Leo working on his crab mural at the Southend City Jam.Not quite finished, but this Yeko mural for Southend City Jam is already a bit special.The beating heart of Liverpool captured in this Soma359 pasteup which we snapped across the Wirral in New Brighton.
The Street Art Directoryis an independent website showcasing contemporary street art from over 1500 artists from around the world. Get updates to The Street Art Directory direct to your mailbox by signing up here.
If you find The Street Art Directory is a useful resource and would like make a small donation to help with the costs of running and maintaining the website take a look here.
Between 2nd at 4th September 2022 over 100 artists descended on Southend-on-Sea to take part in the first ever “Southend City Jam“. Great weather helped to bring out the crowds and the painting frenzy in and around the city’s High Street had a true festival feel. We only left ourselves a couple of hours to try and see as much of the street art as possible and missed a whole load but wow – what a great event! As well as a large number of works adorning existing buildings, there were specially erected temporary walls and hoardings to decorate. Along High Street itself a massive temporary wall had been erected, with artists working on both sides through the weekend.
With such a large number of artists from around the world the festival offered something for everyone. Many of the artists were familiar to us at The Street Art Directory and we have seen their works many times around the UK, artists including Woskerski, Spray Saint, Curtis Hylton, 616, Curiouser, Dan Kitchener and Aches. Others were new to us and we will be adding gallery pages on the website in due course.
The Southend jam has been facilitated by artists Ekto and Ster – the latter of which was immortalised in the impressive large mural by Voyder.
With the obvious success of this year’s event we hope that this will be the first of many paint jams in Southend.
Here’s a small selection of photos of this year’s art work. We’ve got LOADS more that we will add to the website at a later date.
Voyder‘s portrait of Ster, who was one of the artists behind the Southend City Jam.Woskerski busy completing on his excellent ostrich mural under the railway bridge on High Street.Dan Leo’s huge crab mural – one of many pieces in Alexandra Street Car Park.Detail from Curtis Hylton‘s awesome and very large owl piece on Royal Mews.Yeko‘s mural off Elmer Approach (work in progress).One of a couple of Spray Saint works completed for the Jam. This one under the railway bridge on High Street opposite Woskerski’s ostriches.Lovely wall from Aches in Clarence Road Car Park, where you can also find pieces by Dan Kitchener and others.
The Street Art Directoryis an independent website showcasing contemporary street art from over 1500 artists from around the world. Get updates to The Street Art Directory direct to your mailbox by signing up here.
If you find The Street Art Directory is a useful resource and would like make a small donation to help with the costs of running and maintaining the website take a look here.
As the 32nd longest serving Prime Minister in UK history Boris Johnson certainly provided plenty of material to fuel the imaginations of street artists in his 3 years and 44 days in charge of the country. On 6 September 2022 Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson stepped down from the role and handed the metaphorical baton to Liz Truss. Now seems a good time to bring together a selection of the many and varied pasteups, murals and other artwork he inspired that has been shared on our streets over the last few years.
“Boris The Bozo” – pasteup by Subdude.“The Three Brexiteers” by Subdude.Alex Arnell portrait of Boris Johnson on Brick Lane, London“Disobey” by Crux.“Refuse” by Crux.Jake Ghost pasteup.Ante mural in Shoreditch.Boris Johnson as Pinocchio by Deranged Elf.Big Jim‘s large Boris pasteup in London.“Wanker” by Jake Ghost.“Brexshit Instinct” with Boris Johnson as Sharon Stone by Iggstamatic.“No Morals, No Mandate, No Majority” by Floating Concrete.“Fuck The Tories” by Charlie Gould.“1st Class Prat” by LT66.“1st Class Pratt” by LT66.“65000+ Dead -Guilty” pasteup by unknown artist.“Coward!” pasteup by unknown artist.“Failed” pasteup in Manchester by Robin Ross.“Hopeless” by Tye Forde.“We’re Gonna Party Like It’s COVID 19-99” by Subdude.Boris Johnson hair and and red nose added by Alex Arnell to Luap‘s bear pasteup.Boris with a bomb pasteup in New Brighton by Soma359.“Boris Chump” by John D’Oh.Pablo Fiasco‘s stencil over Donk‘s pasteup in London.
The Street Art Directoryis an independent website showcasing contemporary street art from over 1500 artists from around the world. Get updates to The Street Art Directory direct to your mailbox by signing up here.
If you think The Street Art Directory is a useful resource and would like make a small donation to help with the costs of running and maintaining the website take a look here.
The Street Art Directory 