Road sign's street art, vol. II.

Exactly one year ago I have posted the photos about road signs, plate's stickers etc. Today I'm doing it again, as the amount of the new street art pieces on the traffic signs and plates is growing fast every day and the artists are getting more and more creative!

Below: author unknown

No thoroughfare road sign originally retouched by Clet Abraham, was, in my opinion, enhanced once again, but by another artist, who pasted the eyeball instead of the head. Moreover, this eyeball sticker is reflective, which gives different effects with and without a flesh (made by night ). 

Clet Abraham again.

Here Clet Abraham, of course, and just below the work of Leo'n'Pipo - enhanced road sign about bicycles.

Liberte - freedom. In my post about London, you can see an English version of this traffic sign.

About the last two photos, I'm not sure, whether they belong to Clet Abraham, or not, but the last one made me a big smile whilst the morning rush to work

Yuuupi!

Leo'n'pipo below

I also found a bicycle (I'm not sure though, whether was it really bicycle or not...) frame, attached to the wall, with the RIP sprayed behind it. Apparently, for some people the feelings don't need to be addressed to the human/living beings only.

London's art by night

It was very short, my visit in London... Though, still I had a little time to make a quick shot "here and there". Mostly taken by night, but it gave them even more charm. Enjoy the report of what is just happening on the London's streets! 

Bestiary of ROA.

By wikipedia : "ROA (artist from Ghent in Belgium) generally paints wild/urban animals and birds that are native to the area being painted. ROA usually uses a minimal colour pallet like black, white and red, but also creates works using vibrant colours depicting flesh and/or internal systems within the animals and birds". 

Giant rat - ROA

I must admit that these animals, of a large format - as they occupy entire walls, found by chance around the corner, arouse some kind of terror. They also remind us, that in this post-industrial and super urbanized environment we are not the only inhabitants...

Giant squirrel - ROA

Almost all the photos were taken in Shoreditch area of London (let's say it's an equivalent of the Parisian Marais).

Street art piece below is just breathtaking. As it was taken by night and under the bridge, the quality is not the best, but thanks to it the 3d effect is much more enhanced. I was starring a little while on it, completely amazed. Not only because of the 3d effect, but the motion that artist was able to create using this particular technique. After, on DailyMail, I found a long article about it. DALeast, chinese secretive graffiti artist, whose "unusual paintings, which are sometimes hundreds of feet across, can look 3D and as if they are created out of thousands of tiny metal shards, but in fact they have been spray-painted onto a flat surface." 

DALeast said in one of the interviews: "I hope I am creating illusions through my paintings that can be a switch for people's minds. I like to express life-emotions and the environment, and use different artistic forms to speak. I prefer people staring at my work without saying any words - it means they are taking it in."

Panoramic view

Changing the subject from animals to people, a few "faces of London" to look at.

Below the mural dedicated to Charlie Burns, that passed away 2 years ago in London. He was the oldest inhabitant of Brick Lane. "He achieved glamorous success and universal respect as the patriarch of the Burns family, celebrated for their endeavours in boxing" - as we can read here and there. Artist unknown. 

Powerful expression...Artist unknown.

Portrait presented below made by painter Guy Denning is quite creepy. On wikipedia we can read: "Denning uses not only powerful brush strokes to express his emotions deeply, but also scratches the paint to show the audience the intensity of the emotions he is trying to portray with his artwork. His work involves other techniques such as blacking out eyes and mouths maybe to emphasize Denning's theme of darkness, horror and maybe even despair."

Making-of presented in this movie. Superposing and spraying many stencils, one on the another is not only an interesting technique in itself but also, in my opinion, serves to emphasize the "message" contained in his works.

Johnny Cash

More fantastic than realistic. Born in 1979, Ricardo Akn is an illustrator, photographer, and street artist.  Akn has worked with well known brands and publications including Nike, Ellus, CK One, Doc Dog, and others. 

Read more after the break --->

Nemo found. Jana-und-js, too.

Nemo found. Where? In 13th district of Paris. Actually I found his two works and one of his friend -Jef Aerosol. Those two are the artists who began the story about Street Art in Paris. Already long ago. About Jef Aerosol I wrote few months ago here  Now is the time for Nemo. (wikipedia only in French)

Below I'm presenting one of his work (from march 2004!) (photo presenting entire art work here) that is extended on the entire wall. He has integrated perfectly a silhouette of a man, hurrying down the stairs, loosing meanwhile all his affairs: suitcase and umbrella. At least, we think so at first glance. Then we're starting to notice, that he's not hurrying down the stairs, but fishing actually. There's a red fishing-rod in his hand. Behind the bushes(bottom left), there's a water drawn, together with the paper boat and a red balloon above. 

Not only this man - by the bye reminding me a detective from some novel - but also the black cats, fish, blue parrots, colorful little stars, light blue water, paper boats and other childhood-like stuff are the elements of each and every piece work of this artist. I think that Nemo (some more works to see here) shows how an adult person, serious and dignified, would try to connect with the world that he doesn't belong to anymore. Namely his own childhood... How he would like to go back in time (space even) and become a child once again. For that he uses all these little colorful elements, to achieve a "dreamy", magic, fairy tale-like atmosphere. Black gentleman with a hat is a perfect contrast to it.

About Nemo himself, there's a book to buy by Daniel Pennac. His real name is Serge Fauri(by wikipedia) and he started as a computer scientist for a living. After started to amuse himself by painting the black gentleman on the damaged walls, doors and windows to offer a little poetry to those sad places. Sometimes he co-works with Jérôme Mesnager and his white characters that meets his mysterious black man. 

Above: destroyed a bit, but still visible, gold fish. Definitely the simplicity of the used components, the message of the artwork, the composition that captures everybody's eye made him one of the best artist in the history of Parisian street art. Jef Aerosol, his friend, as they were working together, quickly found an excellent graphic answer to those "lost dreams". Namely, it's a pensive boy, staring somewhere far away. Probably the realization of what "the man with a hat" looks for, a bridge between the adulthood and childhood. The boy lost in a dreamland, or a boy who is afraid to join one day the reality of a black silhouette. 

Here you can see the photo taken by balavenise, before the bushes have covered it all over.

Only few meters far away from the first art piece of Nemo, we can already find a second one. Much more smaller and "modest" in composition, yet still moving the imagination of the adults and children, who are passing by rue Pirandello.   

Few districts further, another work of Nemo found. Blue parrot, giraffe, butterfly and the mighty red balloon instead of a red umbrella this time... The man in black has always a good company!

In the same place, just around the corner, I found something that I considered, at first glance, as a kind of poster about photography. Then I realized it's a art piece of Jana und JS artists (on flickr), who were invited to work for Lezarts de la Bievre. Austrian-French couple moved to Salzburg in Austria after spending some years in Paris and Madrid. 

What we can read about them on their website: their works fit well the urban spaces as well as a closed rooms like exhibitions areas etc. (personally I prefer the urban context, as they beautifully compose and integrate the silhouettes of people within city areas, old houses, walls, trams etc). 

Quote from the website: "Inspired by the city and its architecture that is constantly changing, but also by those who live and observe, they paint landscapes, simple architectural details and portraits in mirror sets and transparency. They use the stencil technique, based solely on their photographic work."

In the work presented above I really like a lot this urban game accent, which provides an average passer to play with it by placing any kind of object on the stack and laugh at a "photographer" taking photos of it.