So, am back from the opening night of the ‘Not A Penny’ show, and damn was it good. Many people met, many discussions had, and some art viewed too. It was a crazy night, let me tell you about what i can…
Got there later than intended, and saw the first of the shutter pieces i’d heard were being done. A big 45rpm owl…
checked the queue at, what, 6:45pm. Bonkers.
Went and met some mates on Jamaica Street round the corner, found these Cyclops, S.W.A.T. and LPA bits on Hillgrove street, bonus. Have seen ‘LP’ in the same style round before, not ‘LPA’ though, will do more digging, is distinctive. Not seen a new S.W.A.T. for a while too, at least not knowingly. Old skool tag tho…
Joined the queue, check how long it was. It got longer before the doors opened!
and really, within a minute, or maybe two, of the doors opening, this was the queue to buy pieces. Does anyone else think this has got a bit out of hand of late?
So, stepped outside into a courtyard style place, and saw this SPQR piece on the wall, free advertising huh? Love the image though, lots.
The rest of this space wasn’t exactly shabby either though…
So, to the rest of the pieces. Not necessarily going to cover everything here, as covered some of them in the preview blog, so here’s what wasn’t around before, starting with good Mr Graham Paris.
Next to him, Herr Das Mudwig. Couple of prints as well above, that i’d love to bring you, but, for various random Mudwig reasons, i can’t right now. He’s the artist, innit.
Above that, on this wall of Wet Sshame, some lovely Eko pieces. Watch these Wssk people people, it’s real Bristol art, long very underecognised. Who in the queue when this was taken was queueing for this stuff?.
I think, if memory serves, another Kunstterroist.
A Motorboy print, summing up the theme of the show i guess, despite the fact he’d put loads of work into making it happen…
Cyclops, meets Joy Division, meets Disney. Ace.
This is the Sweet Toof that you only saw the very edge of yesterday, the other two big pieces are in that post if you wanna check them out.
But this is what pretty quickly happened to them once the doors opened…
Some Will St Leger pieces there…
As mentioned before, my very favourite SPQR piece. Ace idea. But having heard the guy’s story tonight, it reconfirmed my thoughts on the current art scene.
Some K-guy, the bottom piece is marble you know, for those of you who live in Clifton.
K Guy again. Yeah kids, we don’t need them guns…
Not the image for the show, but certainly the sign for it, by SP38.
Cyclops and Mau Mau meet. Pretty cool huh? To be fair, any meeting with either of them is gonna be pretty cool…
SP38 again.
Guy Denning again. Getting photos that weren’t ruined by glare was almost impossible. Here’s one that worked.
Realised i missed getting a photo of this last night, a big old Rowdy. For those that know Bristol, it’s the view from the Kingsdown flats, Armada Place to be precise. Funny thing is, he’s included the derelict buildings (to the left), but missed off his own hugely visible piece that’s been on them for yonks. Also missed off the Xenz piece that’s on the bottom left wall there, but who could recreate that?
Now these were freaky. Evol and Pisa from the sign, i think, but hell, correct me on the name, and far more besides if you would.
(Text L to R) ‘Hello, i was your mother’, ‘Hello, can i shit your hat?’, etc. Those crazy artists huh?
Here’s a Cyclops piece, on top of a Lucie Akerman light box. The Cyclops piece was £2,750. It sold within minutes.
This piece was a bit odd, apparently by a somewhat unknown collective originating in Nottingham. Forget the name, but this piece was titled ‘Can Can (Can’t Can’t)’. It certainly raises far more questions than it answers. It also plays with the concepts of style, culture and, i think, correct me if i’m wrong, Wednesday. It’s certainly up there with the outer reaches of the avant garde.
Bit steep perhaps?
There was an upstairs too, but not that much going on there really. Other than toilet queues.
A shot of the back half from some stairs, including the Guy Dennings there to the right a bit.
Another random crowd shot.
The Will Barras pieces. I got chatting to a mate about them. They got sold. C’est la vie…
Edit: Bit of an update, didn’t cover in this post originally the C215 work, but it’s caused a bit of debate, cos it was getting pulled off the wall as it was bought. Apparently, this was because keeping track of which was which got difficult in the busyness of the buying queue, nothing else was taken down on the night or since, so it’s all still there for you to see.
Edit part 2: Photo now gladly removed, see comments below!
And finally the SPQR print that, it seems, sold out on the spot.
A bonkers night. You have to go and see this show. Apparently pieces were getting pulled off the wall as they were bought though (Edit: see explanation above). Didn’t see any of that myself, it was all still there that i saw, but still, go see it. Go check out the new pieces on the Gloucester Road too that stem from it.
Hell, just go and bloody enjoy the free street art in this city dammit. This show has caused people from across the country to come and check it out. People across the globe are watching it. So let’s all just enjoy what we have going on here.
Cos it’s really rather good.
