A walk around Bristol, the UK's street art HQ

When you think about Bristol and street art, your mind can't help but race through images of Banksy's work. But for those in the know, he was considered the city's second generation of street artists. The first generation were known as graffiti artists and followed a more New York style of aerosol art.

The Mild Mild West by Banksy, Stokes Croft, Bristol

I mention this because history is important to get context and dig deeper, beyond the superficial. On a recent "Where The Walls" street art tour visitors got a first hand account of the Bristol street art scene. The focus was on today's active artists, but if you press the tour guides they will fill you in on Bristol's vibrant graffiti heritage that has created the rich, creative community today. All the Where the Walls guides are involved in the street art scene today, but more importantly, have been around before anyone was interested in Banksy!

Join the 5-star rated tour and you might be lucky enough to be led around the city by John Nation. As an ex-youth worker and influential community leader of the Bristol street art scene you'll get a unique perspective of the scene. On my tour, visitors also heard about the history of Barton Hill Youth Club, which was a place teeming with graffiti talent back in the late '80s and early '90s. Check out pictures of the tour below.

See No Evil, 2013, Nelson St., Bristol

Why Bristol is UK's street art HQ   The love for graffiti and the laid back West Country manner allowed entrepreneurial artists to create an enviable environment to develop their artform. This is witnessed by legal, council and business supported events around the city, as early as the 1980s.

I first met Inkie, a leader in the street art movement in the UK, Europe and the U.S., at an Arnolfini Art Gallery event, 1985 (organized by Nick Walker.) This event featured the U.K.'s pioneering first wave of artists - Bristol's 3D, Goldie, Pride (The Chrome Angelz,) and ZBoys. Fast forward to 1998 and Bristol hosted "Walls of Fire." This time, Inkie organized this massive public graffiti art event around the Harbourside development in the center of the city.

More recent headlines have been made by Inkie's "See No Evil" street art festival which began in 2012 and ran until 2013. As described by the Bristol Evening Post, the event is taking a sabbatical this year to take stock and make plans for (hopefully) next year. Taking a break is also the theme for a south Bristol street art event, called Upfest. Described as "Europe's largest urban arts festival," Upfest ran for six years until this year in the Southville area of Bristol.

Today is my last day in Bristol. On this summer trip I got to join the street art tour and visit St. Paul's Carnival for the first time in over a decade. Things are different, but, oddly, also remain the same in this laid back city. Definitely make a visit if you get the chance. 

Bristol's Nick Walker gets a new job in a car park

Ok, Walker hasn't become a car park attendant, but he has been commissioned to paint the hip CityWay development parking garage by Indianapolis Museum of Art, IMA for short, and real estate developer, Buckingham Companies.

CityWay is a $155 million residential, retail and office development that is rejuvenating urban Indianapolis. Ironically, not so long ago the site itself was just Elli Lily & Co.'s car park next to the Amtrak station.

"On Tuesday afternoon, Walker used multiple stencils on a concrete post to paint “Vandal Child,” a tween-aged girl wearing a polka-dot dress and ski mask while holding two aerosol cans. 

While Walker at times spurs controversy with visual commentary on politics and religion (stencils of can-can dancers cloaked in Islamic veils, for instance), Buckingham executive Smith said his company collaborated with the artist for a relatively whimsical concept in the garage. 

“We want everybody and anybody to come see this,” Smith said." Indianapolis Star

This city developer and artist collaboration although innovative, it isn't new. Back in 2010 Las Vegas' CityCenter project imported several major artists, including Doze Green, to work on murals. Check out my blog post here.

The article from the IndyStar is a good read and tries to get inside of Walker's head. When asked if commissioned work is "incongruous with his art" Walker replies: "I’m comfortable with it...You have to earn a living, haven’t you? I’ve done my time on the street."

It seems that the photographer, Frank Espich, is also earning his living. You can purchase photos of Walker and his work starting at $4.99 for a 3" button pin on IndyStar's website.

If you are in Indianapolis then go see Walker's work as it will be formally unveiled later this month. If you don't get to visit here is a video of Nick Walker in action putting the finishing touches to his "Vandal Child" painting.





CityWay Discovery Center 
205 E. South St
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Hours : Monday-Friday 9am-6pm
Saturday 9am-1pm
Map

Giftin' #3: New and Improved graffiti - "Children of the Can 2.0"

This past weekend, Bristol's Tangent Books turned up the heat on Bristol graffiti with the second edition of Felix "FLX" Braun's 2008 book, "Children of the Can: Bristol Graffiti and Street Art." This is officially Stevio's Christmas gift list item #3!

The original book Braun laid out Bristol's rich graffiti history and gave props to the old skool heroes, the celebrities (3D, Banksy) and the various hangouts. Click here to read my 2011 interview with Felix about the book project and how it came about.

There's not much information on Amazon.com, but Alibris (pronounced “uh-LEE-briss”), the leading independent bookselling website, even has first edition copies - which are no longer in print and have sold out - available for a reasonable price!

"Author Felix Braun has completed a monumental research project to unravel the thread that leads to the beginnings of Bristol's world renowned street art scene. Only somebody on the inside would be able to track down the leading figures from the early 80s and Felix was at the very heart of the movement which revolved around youth worker John Nation at the Barton Hill youth project. This book contains more than 40 interviews and traces the Bristol street art story from early protagonists such as 3D from Massive Attack to the new crop of young artists operating in the city." Alibris

The second edition of "Children of the Can..." adds an extra 70 pages, 30 new artists and 100s of new pictures as Bristol has become a destination for artists from around the country and even from abroad. Banksy's notoriety has put the city on the map, but also community efforts like the People's Republic of Stokes Croft, or PRSC for short, has become a safe haven for artists. Even, Bristol's municipal authorities have embraced the energy of the graffiti and street art movement by supporting several ground breaking events, including Banksy's takeover of the Bristol Museum and the recent multi-day "See No Evil" graffiti festival organized by Felix "FLX" Braun's long-time friend, Inkie.


The launch event on Saturday December 1st  featured some of Bristol’s finest graffiti and street artists painting in near freezing weather conditions in the ‘Children of the JAM’ in the People's Republic of Stokes Croft area which has become a hub for legal graffiti and street art.

Children of the Can: Bristol Graffiti and Street Art 352-page hard back book that "traces the roots of the city's graffiti and street art culture back to the 80s when 3D and the Z-Boys were the first to bring the street style of New York to Bristol. Felix profiles writers such as Cheo, Jody and Inkie from the early days at John Nation's Barton Hill Youth Club through to Banksy, Lokey and the Bad Appelz Crew and the current crop of Bristol wriiters."

Tangent Books Read more about the publisher of "Children of the Can" and the other graffiti books, including a great one on Banksy's work, on its blog.

(Berlin) Wall Project - Berlin to Los Angeles

Berlin/L.A. Wall, 2009 (credit: Wende Museum)

The Berlin Wall fell in November 9th, 1989. Twenty years later, on November 8th, 2009 a section was permanently resurrected on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles by Los Angeles' Wende Museum. Watch the documentary below to hear from Germans what happened in their country.

Fast forward to to 2012  Driving along Wilshire near LACMA and it's easy to forget that the Wall installation is the largest piece of the Berlin Wall outside of Germany. These 10 sections of the Wall are nearly 40-foot long, but are easily blocked by food trucks lined up opposite the LACMA.

During a visit to the LACMA "Through the Mic series," I had a chance to walk around the Wall. On the street side, you see sections of wall painted by different artists. None of them instantly recognizable to me.
On the opposite side, the Wall reveals three other artists. All of whom are world-renowned street artists: Herakut (Germany), Retna (Los Angeles) and DFace (London.) And overshadowing the Wall is a glass-fronted building with a new installation from Retna. To see it at night, glowing from the lights, is memerizing.

Wall Project and Retna building, 5900 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles

The Wende Museum
Open to the public Monday - Thursday by appointment only from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. (except on holidays). To schedule an appointment, call 310-216-1600 x305 or e-mail ccuevaswolf@wendemuseum.org.

The Museum is open without appointment on Fridays from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. and a tour of the Museum’s vault is offered every Friday at 3 P.M. Admission is free.

Group Visits
For visits by groups of ten or larger please call to arrange an appointment: 310-216-1600 x305

5741 Buckingham Parkway, Suite E
Culver City, CA. 90230

Complex magazine names the 50 greatest street artists

Complex is braver than I am by publishing its list of Top 50 street artists. Ok, it was actually drawn up by Vandalog's young Editor in Chief, R.J. Rushmore.

What will happen? For sure some folks named will let it go to their heads. Others will continue with their work undistracted.  Let's hope those that needed recognition got it.

Complex's Top 50 street artists

For me, it was good to learn the names of some new artists. Enjoy the list here.

Los Angeles graffiti hits Bristol, UK for "See No Evil" graffiti Olympics

As Los Angeles boils under a 100°F / 37°C sun some LA artists have decamped to cooler climes of England in pursuit of graffiti walls.

Man One (Crewest, Couple of Indians,) Mear (CBS, WCA) and Vyal (Couple of Indians) are making the 5,600 mile journey from LA to Bristol to participate in the UK's largest street art permanent exhibition. The second annual "See No Evil" event will be held again in Bristol, UK, infamous for its slave trade history and for being Banksy's hometown.

"See No Evil" postcard set (credit: Mark Chilvers)  

The UK connection  Both Man One and Mear competed against "See No Evil" organizer, Inkie, and Ben Eine in the BritWeek art event in May 2012 as reported on this blog. So it was only right to extend an invite to paint in Bristol. The painting starts tomorrow, but the official public opening of the finished walls is on Thursday 16th, August.

Check out the videos below for a sampler of the Bristol music (drum and bass) and the Bristol accent (West country) :). I'm proud to call it my hometown...5,600 miles from Los Angeles.

Graffiti Olympics  There are 72 confirmed artists selected by an art steering group, including Conor Harrington, L’atlas, Nychos, Flying Fortress, Seize, M-City, Pixel Pancho, Mark Bode, CanTwo, Chu, Satone, Lyken, Mr Jago, China Mike, Sick Boy, TCF crew, KTF Crew, Limited Press, Lucy McLauchlan, Kashink, Kuildoosh and Nick Walker.

Last Chance If you're quick you can see last year's phenomenal paintings from U.S. household names like El Mac and Tats Cru alongside the Brit posse: Nick Walker, Inkie, Soker, Jago, MauMau, China Mike amongst others. A full map can be found here.

To fully appreciate the scale of this event you only have to look at the supporters: the Arts Council England, London 2012 Festival, Bristol City Council, Watershed and the prestigious, University of Bristol. There are six events: Mail, Maps and Motion, the free all-day Block Party, the Longplaya art event and a trio of club parties. For street art lovers, there is the main event: a three-day street art event, plus the See No Evil gallery show featuring 50 artists and over 100 artworks available for sale. Check out more here on the official website.

Now that's Love  The city has closed down a section of central Bristol for the weekend so visitors can enjoy "See No Evil" as a walking experience.

See No Evil Official Schedule - all times are BST.

• Thursday 16th - Saturday 18th August - See No Evil Nelson Street art walls, free
• Thursday 16th August - Resident Advisor a taste of Bristol with Livity Sound, Eats Everything, Young Echo and Outboxx, tickets £5 (10pm-4am)
• Friday 17th August - See No Evil Paintworks Art gallery, free entry (11am – 7pm)
• Friday 17th August - FutureBoogie Recordings presents Eric Duncan, Behling & Simpson, Christophe & Lukas, tickets £5 (10pm-4am)
• Saturday  18th August - See No Evil Block Party, free (12-9pm)
• Saturday 18th August - See No Evil: Sound Clash with Smith & Mighty, DJ Krust , tickets £5  (10pm-4am)
• Monday 21th August - See No Evil Paintworks Art gallery, free entry (11am – 7pm)
• Tues 22nd August - See No Evil Paintworks Art gallery, free entry (11am – 7pm)