Last year (2015) had provided some good street art in the ever-changing London scene. I have decided to list a review of the year in this post featuring some favourites and popular pieces. 2015 has been a little different than the past few years as (from March) I have gone from working in east London and checking out the scene on a daily basis to only being able to visit at the odd weekend (as I lived outside of London). So, here's the notable pieces that I did not miss and was able to photograph so far. (Also, apologies for not posting this sooner.)
Cheese London
January: 'Je Suis Charlie' (covered here) was the mood of the month. This tragic event in Paris and the murder of cartoonists by terrorists led to some creative quick work across the city, such as the work by Pure Evil (below), who painted a few times on the hoarding off Great Eastern Street.
February: I loved the Valentine's Day tribute parody of the card 'I choo-choo-choose you' from The Simpsons. The artwork was completed by Graffiti Life. You can read more about my write-up on it here.
March: March was a busy month for street art, and I cannot choose just one good piece as the weather started to get warmer and artists started to hit the streets.
First, Femme Fierce took place in Leake Street Tunnel. This is an annual event of women artists. I checked it out this year and saw a lot of good work, which you can read more about here.
Phelgm's artwork is one of the most easily-recognisable with his unique spindly characters, and I was happy to see a new one of his pieces painted on a large wall between Rivington and Old Streets (covered here).
Evoca1 and PixelPancho (covered here) also painted in London, and I loved the roosters on Hanbury Street.
Gregos, a street artist who places up plaster masks, also visited London again and I loved finding his masks across the city.
April: April was another busy month, and I've managed to shorten the list down to a couple of amazing pieces.
JimmyC produced a stunning portrait on a local cafe (Joe's Kid) off Brick Lane. The story behind the piece is interesting (read here).
En Masse, a collective Canadian group, painted on the Village Underground wall, and it was one of the most impressive walls of the year (covered here).
May: The month of May was busy in the diary for street art. The Greenhouse Effect Paint Jam was one of the main events taking place off Pedley Street (near Brick Lane) in reclaimed land. I wasn't able to get many photographs of this before they were painted over, but you can read more about it here.
One of the largest pieces on a wall that had not really been used for street art much until this year was titled 'Spring Offering' by Bailon and Sliks (covered here).
Brazilian artist Cranio (who paints the blue tribal characters) also returned to London in the spring, and one of my favourite pieces was a collaboration between him and London Fanakapan (covered here). I loved seeing the painted foil balloons by Fankapan go up over the city over the spring and summer in 2015.
June: The summer months continued to be busy with walls changing often, and I was starting to find getting into London to get photographs a little challenging before the work changed. There are many excellent examples of work this month.
London-based artist Himbad has had a popular year on the streets of London, and a favourite of mine was a collaboration with Kyle Holbrook (Himbad and Kyle Holbrook).
Boe & Irony also returned to create two large-scale and stunning pieces in Paradise Row (a pigeon and a cat) in Bethnal Green. More work on Paradise Row can be read in my post here.
Ben Eine also came back to create new work in the city, and he collaborated with street artist Cheese London on the piece near Columbia Road.
Furia ACK (covered here) was another artist to create several paintings across London in the spring and summer, but the artist has had a longer time here with a lot of work appearing from as early as mid-2014.
One of the most colourful and probably one of the most photographed pieces, by Alexis Diaz and Elian, was also painted on Hanbury Street this month (covered here).
July: July was the busiest month of street art, and I found that I missed a lot of the London scene as it was a very busy month for me. For me, it was all about Bristol Upfest, which I covered here. There were so many excellent pieces created by many excellent artists, and I covered it extensively in my post.
In London, one of the most interesting street art took form in sculptures of pigeons placed in Soho Square. The pigeons were made by Patrick Murphy (covered here) and were on display throughout the summer but were particular to an event at the end of July.
August: August made the news with Banksy street art. Dismaland became a popular sensation and people struggled to get tickets. I was away on a business trip but thankfully back the following week and managed to secure tickets (before resorting to having to beg friends in Weston-super-Mare to get me in). I covered Dismaland in my post here.
Of course, being away and doing a lot of overtime at work meant that I could not make it to London for awhile.
September: The street art scene did not show any decline over the summer months, and my schedule continued to be busy, but I was able to make it to London to photograph some pieces. I know that over the summer, glow-in-the-dark street art was all the rage, and there were at least five pieces up in London. A lot of these were commissioned and could only be really enjoyed in the evening, and they also did not last too long. I managed to photograph one by Amara por Dios, but it was in daylight only, and I also managed to photograph these owls in Camden later in the year in daylight.
Telmo Miel painted "Love Gloves" in the series of gloves and a hybrid human-panda. I covered the work in more detail here.
Masai painted a mural in order to help endangered coral reefs, and the result is a stunning piece (covered here).
October: October brought us a stunning collaboration by Nagel (popular for his mushroom sculptures) and Pang (who creates illustrations normally in black and white). They collaborated on 'The Death of Ego' off Brick Lane, which I covered here.
October was also a popular month featuring artists from Mexico. Mazatl, Acaro, and Stinkfish all collaborated on artwork in the city (covered here).
And, finally, Bom.K. produced a stunning green mural off Brick Lane. The mural appeared realistic andwas eye-catching.
November: This year was also a changing one as places that were often painted on with street art and other familiar areas in London have started to disappear now that newer buildings are being built and these areas are being replaced. This theme was covered a lot recently, and one of the images that captures this best is by JimmyC.
The next work this month comes from one of the artists who really got me interested in street art, Stik (covered here). A new Stik was painted this month on Hackney Road, and it's been a long while since the artist has put up anything new in London. A new Stik appeared at Homerton Hospital earlier in the year, but it was a smaller scale and I have not been able to see it. I love how Stik has used the crumbling building in this new mural.
December: The biggest surprise this month was seeing Banksy's "The Drinker" sculpture re-appear in Soho with some additions to it. AK47 added a toilet seat and renamed the statue to "The Stinker".
Additionally, Gregos (the artist who appeared earlier in the year) hit the streets again in December and pasted up a new mural featuring his masks with balloons. This was an interesting concept because it encouraged visitors to post with the artwork.
Notable Mentions: Notable mention throughout the year is ALO (covered here), Zabou (covered here) and Don 'Paul' Smith, both who painted quite a bit in London throughout the year.
Don 'Paul' Smith continued to place his artwork around the city, and I saw something new each time I visited (covered here).
I hope that 2016 is a good year for street art, despite the number of walls and areas that they were placed on is dwindling. Also, I hope to be able to keep up with the scene a little more unlike 2015.
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