Don't Fret, an artist from Chicago, visited London last year ahead of an exhibition and collaboration with street artist Edwin. During that visit, he pasted up some artwork and created "Art for the Masses" mural on one of the high profile walls on Hanbury Street. He worked on collaboration with fellow street artist Edwin, creating "Disinct sounds of laughter in the distance", which was at Unit5 Gallery last year.
Don't Fret adds a sense of humour to his political and social cartoon-ish characters. His current series hit the streets at the end of January and featured historical portraits. Many of these did not last long before being removed, and I wished I'd photographed them when I first saw them.
Some of Don't Fret's artworks from last year remain in London at the time of writing this. "Art for the Masses" is currently located on Hanbury Street. It was painted here a few months ago and remains intact. The artwork features a shopfront where people walk by or hang out. Inside the shop, merchandise is being sold. The artist used the original building in order to create some of the art for it to blend in, such as sitting one of the characters on a ledge and using the doorways.
Here is a close-up of what is happening inside the window of the "Art for the Masses" mural.
"Exchange Program" was the title to one of his paste-ups on Brick Lane which featured two men (one dressed with a UK flag and one with a USA flag) exchanging their brains. The artist drew similarities between the political environments in both countries.
A lot of the artist's new paste-ups have not lasted long, but if you know of the locations of any that I have not posted here, then write a comment.
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