We have made another attempt to fill some gaps in The Street Art Directory and have added lots more artist galleries. Many of these we found had created works in London but we also feature pieces from New Brighton, Belfast, Southend, Costa Rica, Norway and more.
Here’s just a small selection of pics by these 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.
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.
Vlek mural on a street cabinet in Bergen, Norway. Voidnumber6 sticker in London’s Ely’s Yard.This Wild Wonder Woman pasteup appeared as part of the London International Pasteup Festival in Shoreditch at the end of 2021.The partially obscured Won ABC mural in Leicester.Shop shutter decorated by Wilf Dessent in for Withington Walls.
The Street Art Directory is an independent website showcasing contemporary street art from around the world. Get updates to The Street Art Directory direct to your mailbox by signing up here.
Her art focuses primarily on characters set in a world of blue shades, combining colours that inspire a peaceful atmosphere and invigorate a sense of calm and wellbeing. She uses a variety of techniques to create her artwork and tries to make use of eco-friendly materials and fabrics.
Visit Alicedalilart‘s gallery in The Street Art Directory.
You can find Alicedalilart on Instagram at @alicedalilart and he also visit her website.
Get updates to The Street Art Directory direct to your mailbox by signing up here.
The walls of Shoreditch have for some time been the epicentre of London’s street art scene and the go-to place to find murals, stencils, pasteups and other delights. Until recently pasteups have been largely relegated to quiet cul-de-sacs and side streets where they can be installed without drawing attention and often being pasted over in a matter of hours or removed (sometimes within minutes) by fans selfishly wanting a piece of the damp artwork for themselves. A few months ago, in a breath of fresh air for the genre, there was a well publicised legal pasteup event on Cheshire Street, just off Brick Lane. Here the wall alongside the Secret Art Gallery was covered in colourful work from a range of artists, organised by the gallery itself with help from prolific paster Subdude.
The very colourful curated pasteup wall in Cheshire Street back in May 2021.
Step forward a few months and pasteups got another boost with the announcement of the first London International Pasteup Festival (LIPF) curated by Art House Project and Outside The Zone (OTZ). A request was published for artists to submit works to be added and the project was inundated envelopes from artists from around the world.
The LIPF was held from 4th to 7th Nov 2021. With the help of many of the artists a series of dedicated street locations in East London were covered with an amazing array of paste up artwork. All these locations were conveniently just a short walk from the Hoxton Gallery, which hosted the event, and held an exhibition of selected artists’ original artworks and a pop up store selling prints and the like. The festival also included a guided walk around the sites and live pasteup sessions.
LIPF pasteup wall in Braithwaite StThe ‘monster’ LIPF-curated wall in Dereham Place with its almost overwhelming array of pasteupsA fun evening was had by all at the London International Pasteup Festival launch at Hoxton Gallery on the evening of 4th November.LIPF launch at Hoxton Gallery
The artists involved in the festival included: Donk, Luap, Wrdsmth, Dr Cream, Ben Rider, Carla Mata Hari, Shuby, Hellothemushroom, Endless, Subdude, Apparan, Tweet, Apparan, ‘Orrible, AKC, Morgazmik, Neon Savage, Oddo, Mort, Werck1, The End Of Animals, Ezura Forest, Bentoghoul, DD Regalo and Lucie Flynn – along with very many more. We have already uploaded some of the work from the LIPF to The Street Art Directory and we have lots more to add in the coming weeks.
Live pasteup session at Hoxton Gallery
A massive well done to everyone involved in making the festival a huge success. We are now looking forward to the next LIPF – is 2022 too soon?
OK, the title of this article may be a bit misleading given that all art is subjective and everyone will have their favourite street artists but bear with us. As 2021 drew to a close we had a look at the stats for our The Street art Directory website to see which artist gallery pages were visited most often during the year. Just as we found in 2020 the top 10 was a a varied and interesting mix of artists and not just the ‘big hitters’ that one might have expected would dominate the popular searches. With over 1400 artists now featured we give all street artists a platform and exposure, not just the big names. It is great to brilliant see up and coming artists and those not yet on everyone’s radar taking some of the top spots.
So here we go – the most visited artist gallery pages of 2021 in the time-honoured tradition of reverse order…
In 10th place we have the ever busy Savant. Each time we venture to East London we can guarantee there will be new selection of his printed or spray-painted pasteups on display. We particularly like the ongoing series of stencilled text character works, such as the one below, which are instantly identifiable and enhance any wall.
Aydar describes themselves as “Just a simple Parisian street artist” but their artworks are anything but simple. When this native American figure appeared on East London it caused quite a stir and has been much appreciated – and thankfully (last time we looked at least) has not been tagged over or otherwise ruined.
Simple but endearingly attractive panda pasteups started to appear in London during COVID lockdown. The design was originally created early on during the pandemic to bring a smile to the people of London but the Pandas can now also be found further afield in Britain – Bristol, Brighton & Exeter at least – as well as overseas in Lisbon, Barcelona, Porto, Kraków and Riga. The panda invasion started our with fairly small wheatepaste designs but over time the portfolio has expanded and there are now much larger stencils and painted works hitting the walls whilst retaining the delightful panda graphic. The panda design is also, commendably, being used to raise money for charity. We have to agree with the artist that these pandas do indeed bring a smile to the face.
Italian artist Emanuela Montorro is our 7th placed artist for 2021. Her works, largely presenting the female form, are very much in demand and a number of pieces are available for sale via the excellent Secret Art Gallery in London. We feature a few of her lips pasteups on our site.
Fosh hit our list at number 2 last year. With a limited range of wheatpastes and stencils centred around either the portrait depicted below or the “Have you seen Fosh” motif, Fosh’s work became instantly recognisable. A number of people contacted YouTuber Max Fosh so see if the street pieces were his (they aren’t) and Max contacted us to find out more about the artist. We couldn’t help much other than to point him to Fosh’s Instagram: @forshurr.
We don’t know a lot about Nicky Nailed It either but these child’s face pasteups have been quite prominent in East London at least for some time now and have landed the artist at No 5 in this year’s most visited galleries list. According to their 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” and the Instagram page @nickynailedit indicates the brand embraces ‘carpentry, skateboarding, creativity, adventure, and good vibes’.
Ghost is a self-taught artist originally from South Wales. He has a fondness for portraits and there’s an anti-establishment theme to many of his pasteups which we have photographed on the streets of East London.
Lee Tokeley, the artist behind the LT66 moniker has been nothing short of prolific over the last year. We probably have added more work by this artist to the website than any other (with the possible exception of Oddo!). LT66’s stencil portraits hit the walls as wheatpastes, typically on newsprint. Usually, but not exclusively, illustrating female characters – from unknown faces to celebrities (Amy Winehouse and Emma Raducanu make an appearance) – the style is very bold and distinctive. LT66 can be found on Instagram at @lt66art.
Although we only feature one piece by Humor on the website he has been consistently popular, taking 6th place in last year’s list and up to the silver medal spot this year. The piece we feature is a tribute to the late artist Pow and was to be found in a prominent position in Allen Gardens, off Brick Lane in London. Humor is a very talented portrait artist and we love his recent painting of the much-missed comedian Sean Lock in Brighton (which we’ve not been able to get to the south coast to see yet). Humor’s Instagram account indicated on the mural is now defunct but he can be found at @humorstreetart.
In fourth place last year but it is top spot this time round for Cliff Phillips. Cliff is one artist we have aways admired and we have have enjoyed finding his pasteups. We have photographed Cliff’s work mainly in Manchester’s Northern Quarter but have also found a few pieces in Shoreditch. We were really pleased to catch up with Cliff during the year and publish an interview with the artist which you can read here. Cliff does not currently have an active presence on social media.
The Street Art Directory is an independent website showcasing the works of the world’s street artists. The site currently presents gallery pages for 1400 artists with works from 5 continents. More artists and works are being uploaded all the time. You can receive The Street Art Directory posts by signing up here.
Many thanks to all the artists and website visitors for your support. We are looking forward to exciting 2022 full of new and vibrant street art.
In our ramblings we have come to love Bentoghoul‘s skull-design stickers and paste-ups. As well as his solo work Bento has also collaborated with a number of other street artists and we share a selection here. Most of these were photographed on the streets of Manchester’s Northern Quarter and the the Brick Lane area of London.
Bentoghoul x Herr EifelBentoghoul x CannakillaBentoghoul x DeadpixelsBentoghoul x Werck1Bentoghoul x MycutecreaturesBentoghoul x TsmokeBentoghoul x DoesthepopeBentoghoul x TRP613Bentoghoul x Dacarter
Prior to the excitement caused by the Banksy East Anglia ‘Sprayctation‘ we brought you a bunch of new artist gallery pages based on works photographed in Manchester’s vibrant Northern Quarter. We are now pleased to be able to bring you another update from the city and share with you another eleven artists who are new to The Street Art Directory, again with works from the streets of Manchester.
A Noxious Bastards sticker.LeveyAngeles sticker.Metraeda paste-up.This stencil is one of two works that we feature by From The Moon.A sticker by Deadpixels.Typically colourful (though tagged over) work by Caroline Dowsett.Benjamin Harrison.Raze sticker.Just Jack sticker.Liskbot.Karla-Chan sticker.
The Street Art Directory 