Do you know your Banksy from Bambi? In the series Street Artists Unveiled I uncover the artists behind some of the hundreds of artworks I see on a weekly basis, just wandering around Shoreditch. This East London hipster neighbourhood, located ‘round the corner from where I live, is one of the top street art hotspots in London.
It’s now almost a month ago I published my first blog post here on Dutch Girl in London. I then wrote about the Brick Lane graffiti tour I had taken, learning more about the artists behind the artworks from our knowledgeable guide.
Street artists unveiled: uncovering the artists behind iconic East London murals
Feeling inspired by the tour, my camera and I have been obsessively scouring the East London streets since then. I have also been looking through my archive of street art pics as I had never made an attempt before to look up the artists.
There are too many photos to put in one post, so I made a very small selection and am focusing on four artists in this post. More photos and background stories will obviously follow in future.
Alex Face – Thailand
The huge cute babies wearing bunny suits in this photo and the one at the top of this article are the creations of Thai street artist Alex Face. He started to explore the Bangkok streets out of his interest in architecture (he studied architecture) and from there developed an interest in street art.
His own baby girl has been the inspiration for Alex’ baby murals. You can find them in more parts of Brick Lane.
Odeith – Portugal
Odeith is a Portugese street artist specialised in 3D works, and is also a tattoo artist. He lived in London for a few years, but has now returned to Portugal.
I discovered this mural last week in a dodgy looking parking area on Brick Lane. The entire space was covered in street art so my camera had a very busy time there!
This work by Odeith was absolutely my favourite one there. The 3D effect is stunning and caught my eye immediately. Before I realised, I uttered a loud ‘wooooooow’ in admiration.
The colour of the fox perfectly matched the autumn coloured leaves on the ground. On the right of the fox you can see the London skyline which subtly features Big Ben, Parliment and the London Eye.
A few years later I would see the following stunning 3D mural by Odeith at Upfest Bristol, Europe’s largest (free) graffiti and street art festival.
SER – Greece
In the same dodgy parking area was this work by Greek artist SER. It is a funny looking piece which reminded me of some kind of swamp monster from a cult science fiction film.
When I looked up the artist, I discovered that it isn’t meant as a funny cartoon though, but actually satirises the Greek debt crisis. After learning this, the words Deluxe Crisis suddenly made sense to me.
Thankfully, SER returned to London in following years. I found this beautiful large mural by him on the music venue Village Underground during my 24 hours in Shoreditch, London.
Conor Harrington – Northern Ireland
Born in Ireland, painter and street artist Conor Harrington has been based in East London for the last years now. The works I have seen by him are all huge, archaic murals. The characters depicted in them are often baroque soldiers. Here are some photos of his works I took over the last years.
How often do you come across street art without realising who the artist was? Do you try to find out the artist name or do you just enjoy looking at the artwork? Let me know your thoughts in a comment below!
Thanks, Zarina xx