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.
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?
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
With a couple of recent visits to London, camera in tow, we have a huge number of photos to share with you. In this bumper update we bring you a selection of new artists, each of whom have their own gallery page on the website. Curiouser – known to her friends as Ly has three murals in the site and we also have several of Haze‘s stylised stick characters and Condur‘s little paste-ups. There’s a shop shutter by Mo Morrell and other murals by Gűneş Terkol and Chris Martin. We really like the colourful paste-up by Medea and Chris Martin‘s large piece opposite Luap‘s giant pink bear in Shoreditch. We’re not sure the Eggs‘ egg enhances Woskerski‘s piece but is shown alongside another work on a shop shutter in Old Street. As well as all these we have pieces by Neonita and HWJ.
Medea paste-up on the newly decorated wall in London’s Cheshire St.Mo Morrall shop shutter.One of Haze’s characters in Blackall St.“Home is my heart” – Gűneş Terkol’s mural in Middlesex St for Art Night 2017.Chris Martin’s mural under the Bateman’s Row bridge.Neonita mural in Allen Gardens.HWJ (defaced) on Braithwaite St.Condur’s nod to the Megan and Harry interview with Oprah Winfrey.Eggs’ egg outline over Woskerski’s egg on a washing line mural.Curiouser mural in Allen Gardens.
Cnobs571 paste-upSadly defaced paste-up by Ogni Donna Una Madonna.Mr MentalhealthBaloki Boy sticker.Systa Eaz.Vector Meldrew sticker – scan the code for a cute animation.Tel-lie-vision by Ink! 1980 Baby.
Last year we did a run down of the top 10 most visited artist gallery pages on The Street Art Directory website and thought it would be a good thing to do again for 2020. Before sitting down to compile this year’s list we were expecting it to end up being a who’s who of household names – those street artists who seem to be never too far from media attention – Banksy, Stik, Ben Eine, Shepard Fairey and the like. Instead what we found was these big hitters nowhere to be found at he top of the list. So here they are, in reverse order, this year’s most popular artists on the website.
First up, and in 10th place, we have Anne McCloy. Anne is a multi-disciplinary artist working in the visual and multimedia arts and design. She trained at Central St Martins College of Art and Design where she now lectures on the BA Fashion course. Anne McCloy works in music and design under the moniker ‘Some Product’ under which banner she can be found on Instagram.
On The Street Art Directory website we feature a large mural which used to reside at the junction of Great Eastern St and Old St in London. The building (which has also hosted works by Phlegm, Invader, Thierry Noir, Roa and many more over the years) has now been demolished.
Next we have Deranged Elf in 9th place. Anyone who has spent time wandering the streets around Brick Lane is likely to have stumbled across Deranged Elf’s diverse range of paste-ups, stencils and stickers. The artist’s work sometimes make political comment such as this Boris Johnson/Pinnochio portrayed here and other works which highlight environmental issues. Deranged Elf can be found on Instagram here.
We’ve found a few of Eiknarf’s paste-ups in East London, including the above typical “Crying but still punk” piece. On Eiknarf’s website you can purchase similar herpetologically-themed paintings, prints and T-shirts and you can also see more on their Instagram page.
The 7th most visited gallery is that of the prolific Atomic Hercules. Looking for interesting information about this artist we found this on their Twitter page: “As snake oil salesman, I prefer to shows off my quaint quirkiness with quackery. A practitioner of Choas Magik, Graphic Design & Linocut.” Atomic Hercules’s snails, beermat-style pasteups and stamp designs are to be found widely across East London at least and we feature a good selection on the website.
Humor (Hugh Whitaker) is represented on the website by just this one piece – a tribute to the street artist who painted under the name Pow. This work, in Allen Gardens in London, is one of many tributes to Alex that have hit the walls since he passed away in 2019.
Captain Eyeliner is the 5th most visited gallery and an artist that describes themselves as “a wheat paster, culture jammer, and an occasional pain in the ass“. We’ve captured a few of their cat skull images around London for the site. Captain Eyeliner has a presence on Instagram.
Our number 4 is Cliff Phillips. Born in 1975, Phillips comments on contemporary social behaviours through his vibrant portraits. As well as powerful works on the streets of Manchester and London he works in acrylic on reclaimed canvas, boards and found objects. We can’t find a website or social media profile for Cliff Phillips.
Our Number 3 is London based Cyborg iconoclast, Hallidonto whose “Cyborgia Manifesto” art, is created through the use of a variety of media, including virtual reality, crypto, digital, painting, drawing and poetry. On his website he explains his cyborg obsession:
“The cyborg image has been an integral part of my childhood. The cold war had just ended – the cultural landscape of the 80’s, was very much rooted in the future, the inherent feeling of that time was dystopia from the cartoons/films I watched as a kid, the advent of console gaming: Nintendo, etc. The image of man was always his metamorphism into the machine, or the machines taking over. I identified with the cyborg image, I wanted to be one. I identified with the concept of such a being and it has informed my work to date. They are infantile and simplistic in their appearance but not in their construction, being drawn in one continuous line. My visual discourse is motivated by transcribing the sociological constructions of our age, the evolution of the flesh its reflection of the coming state of mankind, flesh anxiety, the departure into a new being.”
Fosh topped the list last year and is still ‘up there’ this time around, taking the 2020 number 2 place. Fosh’s Instagram page doesn’t give away a lot about the artist behind the tags, paster-ups and stencils. Some seem to have wondered if Fosh the artist was Max Fosh the London-based YouTuber though this appears not to be the case.
The 2020 most visited artist gallery is that of the artist who goes by the name Bedroom. Several works by this text-based artist have appeared in Ipswich over the last year. The first of these doffed its cap to the highly successful ‘Sound City‘ music event in the town whilst subsequent stencils and plastic lettering pays homage to Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed. Bedroom appears not to have a website or social media profile currently.
So there we have it – The Street Art Directory‘s most viewed artists of 2020. We have many more artists in our archive still to upload to the site but very much look forward to the post-vaccine freedom of being able to wander the streets and find more new and interesting art.
The Street Art Directory 