Turnpike Art Group

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2022-03-25T10:38:00.003+00:00

The Stanmore Mouflon

2022-03-22T19:30:00.003+00:00

Help bring The Stanmore Mouflon to West Green.

West Green is the centre of one of London's most culturally diverse neighbourhoods. This unique melting pot of residents and businesses blend to form a vibrant urban locality, which is cultured, creative and community focussed.
With a well-established Greek and Turkish district nearby, a special artwork is being created - one every bit as unique and individual.
The Cyprus mouflon (Ovis orientalis ophion) is a mammal that is sui generis to the island of Cyprus, found only within the mountainous state forest of Paphos. This protected species is symbolic within Cypriot culture, and has been depicted on vases and pottery going back to ancient times.

A special street artwork championing the Cyprus mouflon will be created, celebrating both ancestry and future generations. We are seeking a modest budget of £475 to allow for production costs. Please use the dedicated link below to contribute. Thank you.

Shanti

2021-08-04T18:03:00.001+01:00

Langham Place, London, July 2021.

With special thanks to

Seema Chandwani

Labour Councillor for West Green Ward

Cabinet Member for Transformation and Public Realm Investment

and

Stefanie Turton

Head of Housing (London and the South East)

Sanctuary Housing

Shanti

Print. Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Pigment print on Hahnemühle German Etching.
29.7 x 42 cm.

£150

(plus postage)

TO PURCHASE CLICK HERE TO SEND AN EMAIL

Gallery

2021-08-04T13:41:00.005+01:00

Warham Pettirosso

2021-08-03T14:12:00.002+01:00

Tales from the river bank

2021-08-03T13:58:00.005+01:00

Sirdar Chit Chat

2021-08-02T14:00:00.001+01:00

Three Chaffinches and a sparrow begin a conversation on a London front garden wall.

Louis Masai - Project Pongo

2021-05-03T14:28:00.001+01:00

Part of a UK-wide Street art campaign, warning the public of the Orangutans’ risk of imminent extinction.

Environmentalist and artist Louis Masai was commissioned by Meridian Foods, to promote the palm oil free nut butter brand.

The artwork is located on Whymark Avenue, N15, London.

This little piggy...

2021-05-02T16:00:00.002+01:00

Support Farm Sanctuary by buying a limited edition THIRTY-FIVE TALES print.

With thanks to Perkyns's
Neighbourhood coffee, craft beer and sandwich shop.
10 Vicarage Parade, West Green Road, London.

Photo © Veronica Aguilar

DONATE TO TAG

2021-01-18T20:05:00.004+00:00

The Turnpike Art Group rely on public donations to allow many of our art projects to arrive at a suitable wall.
Please click on the butterfly to make a donation.
THANK YOU

Donation can also come in more concrete form - if you have a suitable wall or outside structure which you would like to offer as an urban canvas, get in touch.

Gallery

2020-12-10T14:11:00.036+00:00

JAMES STRAFFON

OTHER ARTISTS

SHEPARD FAIREY

THE TOASTERS

FIO SILVA

ART IS TRA$H

STEWY

ATM

LOUIS MASAI

CHINAGIRL TILE

MOBSTR

NESPOON

CHRISTAAN NAGEL

BINTY BINT

IN THE FRAME

INSIDE OUT

PEGASUS

Commission

2020-12-09T14:15:00.005+00:00

The Turnpike Art Group has produced a broad variety of specially commissioned artworks. These include private works on canvas and building interiors and exteriors, to corporate and business projects, applied to both office spaces and larger scale outside installations. We have worked with many companies, as well as local councils to provide carefully planned and curated artworks which both embellish space and provide a positive visual landscape.

We can rapidly create visuals and art proposals, and deliver accurate renditions of these in a short time frame. Our work has brought acclaim from all the urban areas across which we place works, providing a sense of unity and wellbeing to the communities who pass by the spaces we work on.

To commission any artwork, begin the process by sending an email here > info@turnpikeartgroup.co.uk

CONTACT

2020-12-08T14:18:00.001+00:00

info@turnpikeartgroup.co.uk

Turnpike Art Group

2020-12-06T15:12:00.002+00:00

The Turnpike Art Group (TAG) are based in North London N15, within one of the most ethnically-diverse urban locations in the UK. It is this rich mix of cultures which inspired our drive to create an ongoing visual dialogue of street art interventions.

The core ethos is to provide a free art experience for residents, visitors and admirers of urban art. TAG champions heritage, cultural development, and the natural world. The artworks we place arrive through a dialogue with individuals, building owners and businesses (from small to corporate).

Over the years many art pieces have appeared in the West Green/Turnpike Lane Area, yet, as with the ephemeral nature of street art, some have come and gone; many still exist.

Created in 2012 by local residents and artists James Straffon and Veronica Bailey, TAG is as an offshoot from award-winning charity Sustran's DIY Streets Turnpike Lane/West Green project, who successfully united a London community in a dialogue of change. Within that program Art in the Community was a key element, from which residents chose a heritage-based street sign project called Doorstep Welcome, by Veronica Bailey, who studied Communication Design at Central St. Martins.

Referencing the decorative Victorian tiled residential porches within the West Green area, encaustic letter tiles of older road signs linked the street names with orange tiles similar in colour to the Turnpike Lane tube station walls. Made by the same manufacturing company - Craven Dunhill Jackfield 'the most complete Victorian tile factory in England' - eight street signs were placed at key locations, introducing a unique visual identity to the area.

Since 2012, primarily under the creative direction of artist James Straffon, TAG have overseen installation of a broad mix of carefully-curated art pieces within the urban landscape - Envision Peace, by Shepard Fairey, was one of the first to be placed in our neighbourhood within an erstwhile, and crumbling, plaster-framed advertising hoarding, above a local shop.

TAG welcomes you to visit the Turnpike Lane area and The Westbury Pub, which exhibits many artworks by James Straffon, some which are available to purchase.

During 2021, TAG hope to run some street art tours, providing first hand information and a personal guide to the urban work of The Turnpike Art Group. If you are interested in being on a mailing list click here > info@turnpikeartgroup.co.uk.

TAG interactive map

2020-12-05T18:09:00.004+00:00

The owl and the pussycat... | Artist - STEWY. Installed August 2013

2020-12-04T23:43:00.001+00:00

Art is Tra$h

2020-12-04T20:14:00.000+00:00

When did you first start creating street art?
In 2009, after doing an exposition in a gallery in Barcelona. I wasn't successful and the Spanish crisis moved me onto the street. I've used painting as a weapon to protest against the establishment.

Can you remember your first piece?
Yes, on a broken bit of wood I painted a character criticising politicians. With a text that said: Looking for a decent politician.

When did Art is Tra$h appear? And is there a conscious message your work provides - wrapped up in a commentary on today's society perhaps?
Art is Tra$h is a paradox, a phrase with a disguise and a mask. It's a critique of society in general. Of the human being, with their virtues and defects.

Does your unique style have any influences from the art world?
I don't have any academic qualifications in art. I have a mixture of all the artists that I studied on my own.

There is a strong sense of humour and down-to-earth wit in your work. Which suggests you want to allow the onlooker to smile with you. Does Art is Tra$h have an agenda?
One of the most important things in life is a sense of humour, it's a virtue which not everyone has. It's like art, not everyone can see it.

The work that you create is often very transient - it gets disposed of - is this another key element of your approach to street art?
I believe that what I do is near to real street art. It has the ingredients that I think are necessary and authentic, like, for example, improvisation and the ephemeral. The life and death of an object that was important in daily life and was abandoned in the street to die in the drain. My intention is to make the most of these elements in a short space of time, to communicate my vision of the world in which I live.

Can you explain more about your working method.
It's very simple, I go out on to the street without preconceived ideas. I generate inspiration from the position of the rubbish that people put out in the street.

You mentioned it was hard to make your work in more 'cleaner' cities, such as Berlin. Given your prolific output this summer in London, should we be glad that London produces so much trash?
London is not a very dirty city. It's difficult to find decent rubbish to make an installation in the street. Every city has it's way of collecting rubbish. Many people live in big cities and it's normal that they're not perfectly clean.

Has your work evolved?
There's nothing like painting on rubbish, doing it for free and constructing something from nothing, knowing that it has a short life span. This is Art is Tra$h. Developing it outside of the street loses all the power and authenticity. I can construct things in a town hall or a factory, but that would be premeditated and over-studied, not the same.

Do you plan to visit other cities?
My intention is to speak and respond in rubbish, about rubbish, on the rubbish which each city generates.

• Gracias a J. H.

El Arte Es Basura | Artist - Art is Tra$h. Installed October 2013

2020-12-04T20:08:00.002+00:00

"Paradise!"

It was an incongruous, and somewhat disputable term of reference for Turnpike Lane. But Francisco de Pájaro, AKA Art is Tra$h, is all about paradox.

This devilishly-creative Spanish artist had previous with our TAG street art gallery, so it was with great pleasure that we were able to invite him back; courtesy of a chance liaison at the Moniker Art Fair, and latterly Tommy from London West Bank Gallery.

So a meeting was set. And Francisco was reacquainted with Meg The Horse. When informed that permission to paint was granted, and large sections of our brutally-rendered gallery wall were ostensibly a blank canvas, TAG were able to rustle up a stampede - there was no pressure to dance with the devil on this outing. Even our passing Community Police Officers uttered "That's nice."

Pájaro is an instantly likeable individual. His work is another example of the transcendent ability of street art to harness the finesse of the finer arts, and infuse them with an urban edginess, or more critically a sense of demanding immediacy. Yet much more than many other street art practitioners, Art is Tra$h embodies the very essence of 'the moment' - his prolific output so often here today, gone tomorrow. He plays with the notion of ephemeral. Pájaro makes art from the items we discard.

With a highly-aggressive anti-graffiti enforcement program in place in his native Barcelona, together with a crumbling economy, Pájaro made the decision to take his energies elsewhere. And what was Catalonia's loss, became London's gain. All through 2013 (most often of Thursday's), this master of improvisation and spontaneity elevated the debris of our city life into flashes of genius. It's a challenge to look over some of Pájaro's reinterpretations of junk, and not see the spectre of Picasso peeking through the bulging, semi-opaque rubbish bags so often formed into screaming huddles of bewitched souls. It's not a bad paradigm to draw upon.

Yet Pájaro's metier is his own; where the viewer glimpses hints of provocation, social commentary, raw satire, even the burlesque. Here one can observe how this artist has embraced the ethos behind the Arte Povera movement of the late 1960s; reframing it within the ubiquitous, every day product of our post-modern culture - waste.

Turnpike Toaster | Artist - The Toasters. Installed May 2013

2020-12-04T19:38:00.000+00:00

It's an almost surreal situation, standing outside Turnpike Lane's Cafeteria, with two thirds of an urban art group of iconic status, whilst they concur on the superior quality of Milkshake offered at said eatery. And as the sun bathed our outlook onto a half-shuttered shop front, having the Toasters 'warming up' for a two-evening session of paintbrush and spray-can divinity seemed something Marcel Duchamp would wholeheartedly have approved of. Maybe Henri Matisse also.

A month-or-so emailing back and forth, with 'Toaster A' and 'Toaster B', had facilitated this altruistic event. Much like Shepard Fairey the year previously, when bona fide street artists donate their time, for free, to the benefit of your community, one can observe the truly friendly and charitable power unique to street art. Such benevolent behaviour was also extended by the owners of Cafeteria, who TAG applaud for their open-minded attitude, and permission to paint.

And so it was, as the first brush strokes were applied to lowered shutters, Turnpike Lane could stand alongside New York, LA, San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Sydney, Berlin, and Stockholm as locations endowed with a humble, yet classic, kitchen appliance; elevated as a recognised icon to the counter-culture - The Toaster.

Fastidiously re-applying, and reinventing variations on this very focussed theme, Toaster A, Toaster B and Toaster D have been building a magnum opus of street works, since 1999. Before the term Street Art had even been truly coined, their cleverly displaced device was popping up across the UK. In time, their two-slot muse would inspire a generation.

Day Two saw Toaster A holding the can. With the closing light, it was a privilege to observe the fever of creativity, as a pocket-symphony of form and colour evolved. Impulsive decisions were made on the fly, as his toolkit of vari-scaled toaster stencils allowed for any number of compositional possibilities. Hence, as is the current mode of Toaster production, wonderfully organic landscapes began to flow from the deconstructed elements of the original genesis point.

Embedding this unique artwork within N15, TAG were briefly permitted honorary status as Toaster T - as, with fading light, we pitched-in with brush and stencil-steadying. Every passing word from those returning from a days work was a positive one. Which ultimately is why we do this - to make the every day journey a lighter one. And you don't get more everyday than a toaster!

Turnpike Toscana | Artist - James Straffon. Installed August 2013

2020-12-04T19:12:00.001+00:00

Tuscan hills roll in downtown Tottenham.

Completed in 1372, the famous Torre pendente di Pisa, or Leaning Tower of Pisa, leans at a precarious 5.5 degrees. Taking nearly 200 years to complete, this freestanding bell tower is rumoured to be the product of Guglielmo and Bonanno Pisano. With the builder most probably Diotisalvi of Pisa.

With a mere 3-metre foundation, the tower is 55.86 metres from the ground on the low side, and 56.70 metres on the high side, meaning the top of the bell tower is nearly four metres off vertical.

Artwork created by James Straffon

Mother and Child • London 2015 | Artist - James Straffon. Installed October 2015

2020-12-04T19:04:00.000+00:00

When elephants fight, it is the grass that gets hurt.

Swahili proverb

On the eve of the largest global protest march for the support of Elephants and Rhinos, TAG added their voice to the many, with an artwork entitled 'Mother and Child' - which looks to the past and the future, posing the poignant question 'What will remain for the next generation?'

More than 35,000 elephants are being killed every year (currently one every fifteen minutes) so their tusks can be carved into ivory trinkets. A rhino is slaughtered once every 8 hours for its horn. Their only hope for survival lies in an immediate end to the ivory and rhino horn trade (both "legal" and "illegal") and the chance to recover from decades of mass slaughter.

Safety in numbers

2020-12-04T19:00:00.002+00:00

On December 28, 1973, American President Richard Nixon signed into law the The Endangered Species Act. It was designed to protect critically at risk species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation." Ten years later, Pop artist Andy Warhol was commissioned to produce the Endangered Species Portfolio - a suite of silkscreen prints depicting a variety of animals taken from an ever-expanding list of members. Among these artworks was the African elephant, Siberian tiger and the black rhino. It also included the Grévy's Zebra.

From the period when Warhol created the Endangered Species Portfolio, to the early part of the 21st Century, the Grévy's zebra population reduced dramatically. Today that decline sits at approximately 75-80% - with around 2,000 individuals remaining; the largest and most threatened equid species on the planet having undergone the most substantial reductions of range of any African mammal. Habitat loss, competition for water with other grazers (mainly through overgrazing of livestock) and hunting for their skins, has placed the survival of the Grévy's , or Imperial zebra in the hands of the most destructive mammal on the planet.

From the raw Paleolithic cave paintings at Lascaux (created over 17,000 years ago), to the refined noble image of George Stubbs’ Whistlejacket (1762), the depiction of the equus genus as painted portrait has run parallel with humankind’s rapid evolution. This friend and servant shares the canvas of our own history. And as we progress this evolution, modern artists have reinterpreted this relationship as one of exploitation and maltreatment. Think of the anguished visage of the horse placed centrally within Pablo Picasso’s Geurnica. Such sentiment is perhaps best illustrated by a Banksy artwork circa 2010 - the British street artist visiting Timbuktu, in Mali, western Africa - the result an expectant zebra standing close to a local washer woman. Here the impoverished and endangered stand side by side, both quite literally hung out to dry.

The zebra relies on the principle of safety in numbers. Alone, it embodies the notion of vulnerability.

This installation is about vulnerability. Moreover it is about exposure; both in terms of the endangered, and also how we human beings view the responsibility and development of our shared environment. Do we engage with the beauty of the natural world around us? Do we allow the diversity and complexity of evolution to flourish freely? Or do we continue to remain blinkered to our rate of economic growth, and strip away the assets which make the natural world such a place of wonder?

When the numbers no longer suggest safety, we need to protect the vulnerable.
www.grevyszebratrust.org

With gratitude to Eddie. And congratulations to him and Angel.
Artwork created by James Straffon

La Próxima Gran Cosa | Artist - Fio Silva. Installed March 2015

2020-12-04T18:58:00.001+00:00

Art in the wider context has always had the power to break down boundaries. Street art takes this paradigm further, binding a global community of image-makers through a common, passionate motivation to change the environment through a monumentally diverse palette of self-expression.

That sense of a shared outlook, brought the 'Next Big Thing' in street art nearly 7,000 miles, from her home in Hurlingham, just outside Buenos Aires, to the back streets of Turnpike Lane, London. At the tender age of 23, Argentine street artist Fio Silva has found herself swept along on a surreal, all expenses paid, fairy tale of picture book wanderlust - with a panel of judges (Bri Patty, Stuart Holdsworth from Inspiring City, Ayaan Bulale the founder of Femme Fierce, Ingrid Beazley the curator of the Dulwich Outdoor Gallery and photographer Alexandra Henry) selecting her work from a talent search which spanned over forty countries, and in excess of 100 applicants; Silva's work will be juxtaposed with the great and good of the street art scene. Having never owned a passport, or travelled beyond her native South America, this coquettish, gifted painter will now make her mark, visiting a number or european locations, culminating in a spot at Femme Fierce Reloaded, on International Women’s Day, 8 March 2015.

At the heart of this enterprise is a group called The Spring Projects; their manifesto 'to bring back smiles and hope on the streets with simple small street art ideas'. TAG totally concur with this simple, elegant working ethos. Likewise, Fio Silva's love of 'animals in fusion with organic things like leaves, branches, trees …' dovetails with our own championing of the natural world as a means to soften the urban landscape. Her flowing, sinuous artworks simply course with life and positive energy. And so it was, in early March 2015, a girl called Fio brought her smile to N15, London.

Chinese Community Centre | Artist - TAG. Installed July/August 2013

2020-12-04T18:47:00.005+00:00

In mid-April 2013, TAG submitted an artwork proposal to the Chinese Community Centre, N15. Over three months later, its final brushwork was completed, by the people who walked by this stretch of paving, on Sunday 4th August. It was a very special day spent painting. Once finished, the full breadth of the task became apparent. As did the emotion, at journey's end, when a vision which was once just paper, became reality. A journey had been played out on the grey slabs fronting 211 Langham Road, N15. A month of glorious summer had gifted the conditions for growth. Scores, maybe more, had passed by. Many compelled to give thanks. The positive reaction, at times, overwhelming.

And so it seemed only right, as we sensed the final phase was entered, that the individuals sharing our streets should share in the picture we were forming. And over a long afternoon, TAG stopped the people in the street, and put a brush in their hand. We wanted this artwork to be about them.

Thanks to all those who painted petals - Vivien, Sarah, Esra, Anne-Marie, Colin, Zara, Shannon, Reniah, Alexia, Ruby-Rose, Clara, Monika, Catalina, and many more.

TAG would like to thank all at the Haringey Chinese Community Centre - for their trust, enthusiasm, generosity, and blank canvas. It took many hands to realise, with many new friends made along the way. Truly a piece of community art.

TAG Flower Boxes 2013Artist - TAG. Installed April 2013

2020-12-04T18:42:00.000+00:00

In 2012, the Turnpike Art Group approached Virgin Media with a concept to decorate their street-side telecom boxes. With Virgin's permission, along with Haringey Council, funding from Community First allowed the project to go ahead. TAG also received generous support from Cut-Tec, in Barnsley, who created the stencils required without cost.

Dear old Muffin • London 2016 Artist - TAG. Installed October 2016

2020-12-04T18:33:00.001+00:00

Almost 70 years ago to the day, broadcast television in the UK took its first steps into a revolutionary department of program making. Having launched the first high definition television service on 2nd November 1936, BBC transmissions from Alexandra Palace, north London, ceased at 12.35pm on 1st September 1939, half way through a Mickey Mouse Gala Premiere. There was no announcement as to why. Those working at what has been dubbed ‘the birthplace of television’, were presuming the hostilities of World War II would make them an easy target. "We were expecting death to rain from the skies, and Ally Pally would have been the target for it. It was the strongest and clearest signal in Europe."

But Ally Pally survived, along with a desire to push a radical form of home entertainment into new territory. At that time there were only around 20,000 television sets in the whole country, with reception reaching no more than 20 miles from Alexandra Palace. But on 20th October 1946, during a live broadcast of ‘For the Children’, Annette Mills introduced adolescent London to an animated, coltish string-puppet mule called “Muffin”. What we now term Children’s Television had begun; Children's Hour making a timely debut.

Broadcast by the BBC at the Alexandra Palace studios from 1946 to 1955, Muffin the Mule would dance across a piano played by Mills, often accompanied by his friends Mr Peregrine Esquire the Penguin, Louise the Lamb, Oswald the Ostrich and Grace the Giraffe. Here was the genesis for an enduring format - human host interfacing through the spoken word with animal associate, or counterpart.

Muffin the Mule
Here comes Muffin, Muffin the mule,
Dear old Muffin, playing the fool,
Here comes Muffin, everybody sing:
Here comes Muffin the mule!

Envision Peace | Artist - Shepard Fairey. Installed June 2012

2020-12-04T18:20:00.005+00:00

In essence, a cornerstone (or foundation stone) is the first element set within a structure. From here the developing space around it works with direct reference to that single piece.

We feel privileged at The Turnpike Art Group to have had one of the vanguards of the urban art scene create the first, and therefore cornerstone artwork within our ongoing street project. The process began with a local shop owner granting us permission to restore, and redevelop a large, obsolescent Victorian 'billboard', located on the side of his property. This large-scale concrete framework was ideal for a challenging visual intervention. TAG then spoke with one of London's leading street art galleries - Stolen Space. They suggested a few potential candidates, then cut to the chase, asking who our ideal artist would be. Without hesitation, we proposed American Shepard Fairey. A few weeks later, TAG were given notice that he agreed.

Stolen Space generously covered the hire cost of a cherry picker. Before installation, members of TAG proceeded to clean and repair the fissured surface of the wall space. We liaised with Fairey's assistant Dan Flores, and prepped the area for artworking with a suitable colour match to Fairey's signature red pigment.
br /> Both Fairey and Flores laboured for over eight hours, on a typically gnarly London day. They gave their time for free; placing the ENVISION PEACE installation outside of the more fashionable and acknowledged street art habitat of Brick Lane, in London's East End.

Renowned street artist Shepard Fairey commissioned for north London mural

Read The Guardian article above.

Sudan • London 2015 | Installed May 2015

2020-12-04T18:03:00.000+00:00

“It is sad what human greed has done and now we must keep watch every minute because it would be unimaginable if the poachers succeeded in killing these last few animals.”
Mohamed Doyo
Patrol ranger, Ol Pejeta ranch, Kenya

The Rhinoceros has walked the earth for 5 million years. Modern humans have only been in existence for around 200,000 years; long enough to subvert the natural balance of the ecosystem, tinkering with the delicate ecology of our planet to often dramatic effect.

By 2011, the Western Black Rhino was declared extinct. The majestic Northern White Rhino is now also teetering on the edge of extinction - this entirely due to poachers, feeding the far east's voracious appetite for Rhino horn - a commodity now more prized than gold.

There are only five Northern White Rhinos remaining. Four of these are female. The last male on this planet is called Sudan. He is old; living out his final years on the Ol Pejeta ranch in Kenya, protected by patrolmen on 24-hour armed guard. His once magnificent horn has been removed to 'devalue' his worth to poachers.

The clock is ticking. IVF a potentially final option to rescue a species.

We value Sudan's steely stare, as he gazes out onto the turf of north London.
Please help support the Ol Pejeta ranch rangers click > HERE

Read more about the global Extinction threat HERE

Artwork created by James Straffon

Art @ The Westbury • London 2020 Artist - James Straffon.

2020-12-04T17:50:00.001+00:00

The Turnpike Art Group, under the curation of James Straffon, have installed a rolling exhibition of street art at

The Westbury
57 Westbury Ave, Wood Green, London N22 6SA

All the artworks are available to purchase, as well as new commissions welcome.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by THE WESTBURY (@thewestburyn22)

Jam in a JarArtist - TAG. Installed August 2013

2020-12-04T16:03:00.000+00:00

TAG were asked to create the first in a rolling series of artwork installations at the Jam in a Jar Bar, Green Lanes, London. Taking inspiration from the vintage Underwood Typewriter which greets you as you enter, we scaled-up the time-worn keys, and stencilled them across the front awning and down onto street level.

Artwork created by James Straffon

Jam in a Jar
599 Green Lanes
London N8 0RE

The Ritz • London 2015 | Artist - TAG. Installed October 2015

2020-12-04T13:40:00.009+00:00

On 30th December 1935, The Ritz Cinema (designed by Major W.J. King) opened as part of the scheme which included the new Turnpike Lane tube station and bus station, designed by London Transport’s architect Charles Holden.

The opening 'picture' featured Clark Gable in “China Seas” and Ricardo Cortez in “Sing Me A Love Song”. The Ritz Cinema was built for and operated by Associated British Cinemas (ABC), with seating for 1,271 in the stalls and 579 in the circle. It was re-named ABC from 9th October 1961, updating to the triple-screen ABC 1,2,3 on 29th September 1977. The final incarnation as a picture theatre came in July 1988, when it was taken over by the Independent Coronet Cinemas chain and re-named the Coronet Cinema.

In August 1999 London Transport demolished the 1930’s bus station to make way for a larger depot, the cinema also consumed as part of the new scheme.

Based on the success of TAG's Palace Gates artwork, we began a dialogue with UK Power Networks to adopt a similar heritage-focussed installation at their larger substation site two streets away on Carlingford Road, London N15. It seemed obvious to commemorate the former Ritz Cinema - with a celebration of the Golden Age of Movies.

This began a year-long process to obtain the usage rights for some of the characters we proposed to incorporate. With a to-and-fro dialogue between London N15 and east and west coast movie studios based in the United States, consent was eventually given to allow some classic movie characters to form The Ritz.

As well as extending our gratitude to UK Power Networks, TAG would also like to thank:

Roy Export S.A.S./Bubbles Inc SA Felix the Cat Productions Cinematographische Commerz-Anstalt Larry Harmon Pictures

Artwork created by James Straffon

Art in the Community - our 'Doorstep welcome'Artist - TAG. Installed December 2012

2020-12-04T13:06:00.002+00:00

It is fitting, after a year of great change, that 2012 should close with the installation of the 'Art in the Community' element of Sustrans' DIY Streets Turnpike Lane/West Green project.

After a series of meetings, residents agreed on a heritage-based redesign of the neighbourhood's street names. Broadening this concept, these scaled-up installations feature a 'doorstep welcome' reference to the many and varied Victorian tiled porchways within the area, as well as fine typographic letter plates, and ochre end caps - these commissioned from Craven Dunhill Jackfield - 'the most complete Victorian tile factory in England', a company who have worked in conjunction with London Underground to faithfully restore the tiled splendour of the capital's tube network.

Placed at eight key locations, these beautifully-crafted bespoke installation pieces - commissioned from North London fine art framers John Johns - have already garnered very positive feedback from both residents and visitors.

Our 'Art in the Community' project encapsulates some of the core principles of urban regeneration - through Sustrans' drive to unite the residents in a dialogue of change; the confidence from the TAG group to research solutions, present ideas, commission suppliers and manufacturers, and harness skills in the visual arts; residents willingness to grasp the opportunity to make a difference; contractors able to show flexibility with the new.

This is our 'Doorstep welcome' to Turnpike Lane.

COLINA • London 2015 | Artist - James Straffon. Installed September 2015

2020-12-04T09:47:00.001+00:00

On 26th September 2015, a small backstreet in N15 London hosted the Unit 25 Block Party - a special street event created 'by the people of N15, for the people of N15'. Created and organised by Chiara Mckee-Gunnell, this day-long event included a host of street food vendors, a rosta of talented DJs, and a interactive street art backdrop created by The Turnpike Art Group and DONK London, with each party goers name tagged onto the space as a roll call of the days attendance.

Gloria | Artist - James Straffon. Installed December 2018

2020-12-03T20:02:00.004+00:00

Pantera pardus | Artist - James Straffon. Installed November 2019

2020-12-03T19:57:00.001+00:00

Spray paint and graffiti marker on recycled wood panels.

64 x 160cm

Panthera pardus is available to view at The Westbury, 57 Westbury Ave, Wood Green, London N22 6SA
Available as a bespoke artwork.

A Rhino in the Herb Garden | Artist - James Straffon. Installed June 2018

2020-12-03T19:51:00.005+00:00

On 4th June 2018 the enlightened pupils at North Harringay Primary School, London returned from a half-term break to discover a Rhino in the herb garden. Further exploration of the outside zones of the school uncovered a climbing Red Panda, a majestic Tiger, an enquiring Red-eyed Tree Frog, a glorious Giraffe, bending to take a drink from one of the playground’s child-proportioned water fountains, and a mature Rhino, casually chewing on a clump of fresh Oregano shoots. A mini-menagerie had magically appeared in their absence.

The five animals in this collection were chosen to introduce the children to the diversity of the animal kingdom, and more critically bring focus to the plight of those species in danger of extinction, along with the rapidly disappearing flora on which they depend. The Sixth Mass Extinction is now a recognised phenomena - this a disconcerting and destructive component of a new epoch known as the Anthropocene - in which human activity on our planet has become the dominant influence on climate and the environment; polluting the oceans and altering the atmosphere.

This influence has set a new and different trajectory for the Earth system. As the children grow up, and in time produce families of their own, will animals painted on walls be how we remember the creatures which once existed?

This series of artworks created with the generous help of the North Harringay Primary PSA, along with the assistance of staff members.

A Rhino in the Herb Garden is partly created in the memory of Sudan - the last male Northern White Rhino - who passed away in March 2018.

Painted by TAG Co-Founder James Straffon.

Project limited edition prints available from the TAG SHOP.

Pride and The Peacock | Artist - James Straffon. Installed October 2019

2020-12-03T19:43:00.010+00:00

Pride and the Peacock
(spray paint and graffiti marker)

Commissioned by North London residents Lena and Kashaff.

Painted by TAG Co-Founder James Straffon.

The national bird of India introduces a bold splash of colour to an urban side street in Tottenham.

Available to buy as a limited edition print.

The Heron | Artist - ATM. Installed March 2015

2020-12-03T19:30:00.002+00:00

Love Symbol #2 • London 2016 Artist - Pegasus. Installed April 2016

2020-12-03T17:49:00.000+00:00

On June 7 1958, jazz singer Mattie Della, and her husband pianist and songwriter John Lewis Nelson had a son. They decided to name him after his father’s stage name ‘Prince Rogers Nelson’. Years later, this young Minneapolis music protégé would shorten the spotlight to just Prince. This in time was further abbreviated to which was dubbed ‘Love Symbol #2’ - a combination of the symbols for male (♂) and female (♀).

During a vibrant music career, Prince recored a string of epoque-defining albums, including ‘Purple Rain’, ‘Sign o’ the Times’ and ‘Diamonds and Pearls’. Both musically and visually, he challenged the perception of rock and roll personas, adopting the same shape-shifting abilities of those few rarified artists, many of whom are longer with us.

On April 21, 2016, the man who had sung “I am something that you'll never understand”, and who had converted himself into a sensuously-creative, hybrid being, was found unconscious at his home at Paisley Park. He died moments later.

TAG turns Inside Out - Free to Play | Artist - TAG/JR. Installed March-August 2013

2020-12-03T16:54:00.010+00:00

"Awesome video!" - Inside Out Project, NY.

'There are many threats to the innocent pleasures of play in our streets. Generations before could kick a ball, chase a hoop. But now the tarmac outside our houses runs with fast cars, the threat of mugging, drug dealing, and violent crime. FREE TO PLAY is the utopia we wish for - where our children can get fresh air, and develop a sense of fair play, sharing, and genuine human interaction.'

Twenty-one young people from our community braved the cold weather to bless us with a collection of enigmatic portraits. These will be on display in the neighbourhood noticeboard (under the Shepard Fairey mural), and online as part of the Inside Out Project. We will show one poster at a time, changing the subject every week. The child gets to keep their giant portrait, and a small piece of the biggest art exhibition the world has ever seen.

As the portraits are shown, we will reveal the subject below. And in the spirit of game-playing, we will ask one child to pick a number from 1-21, to select our first Free to Play Portrait. That individual then gets to pick the next number, and on until 21 weeks later, our project will be complete.

Living for Love | Artist - Pegasus. Installed February 2015

2020-12-03T16:29:00.000+00:00

It was over 80 years ago, when a coquettish, and somewhat salacious cartoon character slinked onto the silver screen, courtesy of Fleischer Studios, 1600 Broadway, New York. Her name was Betty Boop.

Her enduring symbolism - as an independent, autonomous feminine icon - has continued to this day; the power of the caricature suddenly a resurgent token as the 21-st century struggles to find credible role models for society's leaders. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Betty Boop, a symbol of the Depression era, can communicate such simple, yet effective messaging.

The appropriation of the cartoon and comic figure has evolved, through Pop Art in the 1960s, via the work of Lichenstein and Warhol, into the modern era, with street artists such as Keith Haring, and more recently the likes of Banksy, D*Face, Bambi and a legion of media-mocking urban art practitioners.

It is no coincidence that a Chicago-born, London-based street artist named Pegasus cites Warhol as an influence. He feeds from the Pennsylvanian's maxim “In the future, everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes”, manipulating the transient limelight of celebrity through a provocative portfolio of sharp, graphic vignettes, sprayed in cartoon-palette colours across the doors and walls of our city.

In only a few year's, Pegasus has been likened to a Warhol for the post-modern era - objectifying popular culture - with works spanning Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, Elisabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Kate Moss, Queen Elizabeth II, Angelina Jolie, and Amy Winehouse. In 2011, it was an artwork commemorating the tragic death of singer Winehouse (Fallen Angel) that acted as a springboard for the American's own rise to fame.

Despite the apparent luster of comic-strip parody, Pegasus' subjects are not pure; there is a underlying undertone, a dark side; his chosen subjects nearly all touched by the ill-fated consequences of fame and fortune. His work holds a mirror up to the mythology of the modern era; even the chosen icon of this esoteric artist cleverly manifests a mythical creature - one with its feet on the ground, yet free to escape the material plane, and aspire to greats heights; a symbol of poetic inspiration.

Valentines day, 2015. TAG meets Pegasus outside the House of Beauty, N15, and an octogenarian icon speaks of Living for Love. The artist works quickly, and precisely. The end piece a showpiece of savvy spraying, despite the artists suggestion that he is still learning the trade. As ever, with any artwork placed within our walls, the locals are more than enthusiastic and grateful. Given the broad range of ages within our community, it is fitting that such a universal message can be delivered by a grand-dame who transcends time, and appeals to all. As Warhol said "Everyone needs a fantasy."

TAG would like to thank Trea Clenaghan, and The House of Beauty for the generous donation of a wall, and cup of tea!

Straight from the horse's mouth | Artist - STEWY. Installed March 2013

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Less is more. Particularly when one imagines the gossamer presence of what was once before. To the cat who sat waiting for the moment to pounce. Or the old nag (or old Meg), having passed through the tollgate at Turnpike Lane, heading for pastures new. The animals that share our world often pass on, into anonymous memory. But the spirit remains. We are lucky. We have two such beasts, courtesy of urban artist STEWY, whose life-sized animals form part of an ever-expanding library - his 'A to Z of Indigenous British Animals'.

STEWY places animals in an urban setting to highlight the notion of nature reclaiming the city. His artworks are compelling - in their apparent subtlety, and paired-down minimalism; capturing the purest essence of a form. His enthusiasm is also contagious. We hope Volume I of his A - Z is soon expanded. And to anyone visiting our urban menagerie - please respect the animals. And the artist - buy STEWY screen prints HERE

The Bullfinch | Artist - ATM. Installed June 2014

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YOU ARE A MONSTER !! | Artist - Art is Tra$h. Installed October 2013

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Palace Gates | Artist - James Straffon/Veronica Bailey. Installed September 2013

2020-12-03T15:19:00.005+00:00

Of key interest to TAG is the heritage which forms the foundations for our cities, and its citizens. Wherever possible we wish to acknowledge the values of times gone by. That is the basis for our Palace Gates Project.

On 7th October 1878 the Great Eastern Railway Company opened a line which ran through Noel Park and Palace Gates (Wood Green). This line ran in competition to the Great Northern Railway line, from Kings Cross, and linked to Alexandra Palace. It was closed on 7th January 1963, after competition from the new Piccadilly Line extension to Cockfosters killed off its passenger traffic.

In 2012, as part of Sustran's DIY Streets Turnpike Lane, a memorial to the Palace Gates line was created in the form of two sections of steel track, set into the paving at Langham Place; adjoining the Mannock Road Allotments - whose plots run along the very land which once saw steam trains whistling to and fro.

Our Palace Gates Project is formed from two parts. Part I concerns colour memory - and the trackside semaphore signals which once directed the train drivers through this section of track. We have adopted the red and white STOP signal, and yellow and black DISTANT signal; recreating their form in soft, cable-tie forms, spanning the tracks. We thank Mannock Road Allotments for allowing us to transform their boundary railings.

Part II will complete this romance-of-rail intervention.

Incorporating the original detailing from the Palace Gates Station, TAG will be decorating the side wall of an electricity sub station. For this we have carefully consulted with UK Power Networks and Haringey Council, both of whom generously gave their permission for this artwork to proceed.

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Salt & Pepper • London | Artist - Chinagirl Tile. Installed September 2015

2020-12-03T14:22:00.002+00:00

The practice of street art continues to be a genuinely mixed media experience. From the quotidian mode of spray paint, to paper paste-up, through traditional brush and pigment, via tape, string, or marker pen, and then clay and porcelain… the scale of invention and application is endless.

With a brief visit from NeSpoon, back in 2013, TAG became aware of the ceramicist having a voice in this oft brutal art movement; the best examples of which seem to fuse fine art finesse with urban execution. So when ATM put us in touch with Austrian street artist Chinagirl Tile we were keen to provide the London wall she keenly sought before returning home.

Chinagirl Tile's eponymous project began in 2010, with deployment of sometime subversive artworks now located across the globe - comprising around 180 artworks, in cities such as London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Auckland, Tokyo, Seoul, Cologne, and Vienna. Her work also resides in the more rural locations.

TAG are fortunate to now host 'Salt & Pepper' - two gloriously vibrant, mischievous urban foxes.

We would like to thank local resident Ali for the kind donation of his wall.
UPDATE
In 2019, structural redevelopment of the wall sadly saw the loss of Pepper.

ATM - The Lapwing | Artwork installed - April 2014

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Sensitive dependence on initial conditions • London 2015 | Artist - James Straffon. Installed July 2015

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The Monarch (or King of Butterflies) is on the endangered list due to high use of herbicides used in GE Crop production across its native American habitat. Sightings in the UK are rare.

Chaos theory, aka the butterfly effect, is stated as 'the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state'.

The Swallowtail is our largest native butterfly, and also one of our rarest.

To a Butterfly
I've watched you now a full half-hour,
Self-poised upon that yellow flower;
And, little Butterfly! indeed
I know not if you sleep or feed.
How motionless! and then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!
This plot of Orchard-ground is ours;
My trees they are, my Sister's flowers;
Here rest your wings when they are weary;
Here lodge as in a sanctuary!
Come often to us, fear no wrong;
Sit near us on the bough!
We'll talk of sunshine and of song;
And summer days, when we were young;
Sweet childish days, that were as long
As twenty days are now.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

Artwork created by James Straffon

Turnpike Art Group - Shop

2020-12-03T11:25:00.003+00:00

A limited edition print series, featuring street art works created by TAG artist James Straffon, placed within the urban environment.

For buying enquiries email shop@turnpikeartgroup.co.uk
[include the print name. For overseas orders there will be extra for postage.]

Shanti.

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.
[plus postage]

£150

Let's Stay Together [The Mandarin].

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.
[plus postage]

£150

A Giraffe at the Drinking Fountain.

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.
[plus postage]

£150

A Red Panda up the Drain Pipe.

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.
[plus postage]

£150

A Tiger in the Tree House.

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.
[plus postage]

£150

A Rhino in the Herb Garden.

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.
[plus postage]

£150

A Leopard guards the Landlord.

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.
[plus postage]

£150

A Tree Frog by the Snakes and Ladders.

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.
[plus postage]

£150

Dear Old Muffin.

Limited edition of 25. Signed.
Hahnemühle German Etching pigment print.
42 x 29cm.
[plus postage]

£150

Perpetual movement • London 2016 Artist - TAG. Installed June 2016

2020-12-03T10:46:00.001+00:00

From the Maori word for ‘loop’, Koru is a system of symbolic ancient art form which takes the spiral structure of a new unfurling silver fern frond as its central motif.

This spiritual emblem suggests growth, new life, development, and peace, as well as the concept of - perpetual movement - the inner coil suggesting a return to the point of origin.

Koru is exemplified within beautiful Maori bone carvings and tattoos; also in a stylised form as the logo of Air New Zealand.

The Perpetual movement mural was commissioned by a New Zealand family, who were creating a new home in north London. Within one of the UK’s most culturally-rich urban enclaves, it was a significant process to be asked to add this inspirational and deeply personal image to a family residence.

Whakawhetai ki a koe. TAG would like to thank the family members for the generosity and support. Artwork created by James Straffon

"Excalibur!" | Artist - Christiaan Nagel. Installed August 2013

2020-12-02T20:50:00.000+00:00

Getting art on walls its not so difficult. Getting art ON walls is a whole different matter.

Mid week provided a strong sense of deja vû - waiting expectantly at our hub junction, as a member of the street art haut monde headed to the Turnpike, charged with installing some unique pieces of urban expressionism. It's the old adage …"If you don't ask…"

Via a brief email exchange, TAG had provided South-African born Christiaan Nagel sufficient architectural clues to whet his appetite for installation. Resident in the UK since 2007, Nagel, a former Psychology student from Pretoria, has rapidly established a reputation as one of they key players in the urban art scene. Whilst his muse is not quite as quotidian as the Toasters Toaster, his iconic mushroom forms punctuating city skylines are very much a signature statement.

What differs from the Toasters' continual re-interpretation of a readymade form is another more oblique criteria - location. Nagel seems to have engaged in his own personal crusade - challenging himself to find more obscure, and seemingly unattainable locations in which to locate his creations. And the effect is contagious. Sharing a post-installation beer at Jam in Jar, our eye found a number of distant plinths and parapets, ideal platforms for a poster-palette 'shroom. You meet the nicest people on rooftops.

Therein lies the magic of Nagel's open-ended assault on our urban skyline. This the sublime paradox of placing art 'out of view' - given our tendency to look down these days. In 2007, British artist Anthony Gormley began a series of artworks later known as Event Horizon - placing his ubiquitous life-size body casts across the 'roof tops' of London's Southbank, Gormely later suggested this approach should "activate the skyline in order to encourage people to look around. In this process of looking and finding, or looking and seeking, one perhaps re-assess one's own position in the world and becomes aware of one's status of embedment". Here, Nagel brings an extra sense of belonging; as a sprouting fairytale vista challenges the very notion of time and place.

Like his peers, he reaches for similar heights. Or on occasion depths - having once fought the fast-rising Thames tide, in order to prominently locate a piece on a mooring post close to Tower Bridge.
Generously given a long leash by our friendly community police officer, TAG assisted in placing two sumptuously-coloured fungi within our own street gallery - the second of which proudly sprouts from the roof of what was once a brothel. Earlier, the first baby-blue effort was firmly thrust home by its creator, with a defiant cry of "Excalibur!"

Perhaps the Holy Grail does reside in N15.

NeSpoon • London 2013 | Artist - NeSpoon. Installed August 2013

2020-12-02T20:27:00.001+00:00

Street Art can arrive through many channels. Its application can arrive through stencil, paper, spray paint, marker or even sponges. Mostly, there is an immediacy. One gets a sense of time. And apropos with the oeuvre, a certain anonymity.

These many and varied forms of expressionism make this the most modern, and vibrant of artistic movements; now accepted as a bona fide category for the visual arts. A recent conversation with one artist came to the consensus that the street is now where the best examples of artistic endeavour are to be found. The gallery is dead. Long live the avenue, road, crescent, lane…

Within the rapidly-expanding vista of our own Turnpike Art Gallery, we are blessed with a plethora of such varied and vibrant artworks. There is no fee to visit. And the artworks on show were all donated (created) free of charge. This paradoxical state of being was highlighted with a new, and powerful wall installation recently created by Polish artist NeSpoon. Although, we would argue, this enigmatic of artists is not a street artist. She is simply an artist.

At our request, NeSpoon came to us for five days, from her home in Warsaw, following our proposal that she embellish our Roof Garden Project, with an appropriate organic creation. What followed seemed to defy the notion of time, as we observed her working, conducted lengthy conversations about all that matters, and also touched the walls of both Tate Modern and Shoreditch. Only five days. Yet we shared a lifetime.

Talking as she painted, NeSpoon suggested her rightful place on the street art scene was its kindergarten. Yet in less than five years she has fashioned her own niche, and made a genuine impact, from both the geographical perspective, and more importantly as a woman able to have a voice in this very virile of art forms.

Her first installation was for children - a collection of ceramic lady birds, set free onto the streets where she lived. NeSpoon recalled making them in winter, and patiently waiting for a sunny March morning in which to begin a new journey. This moment opened her eyes - more to the contours of her home town, than the potential for making more ceramics. Not intending to make street art, this first venture triggered a chain reaction where she says "I saw everywhere places where I should do it [place art]. Good places… here… and here …and here". And in due course, NeSpoon very literally saw the light, summed up with a very poignant remark "In one minute you start to see the city like a gallery."

Most compelling is a link she shares with many established street artists - their adoption of the quotidian as a form of muse. Think the Toasters Toaster, Nagel's mushrooms. NeSpoon found inspiration in the fine-spun structure of lacework, first through ceramic fabrication, then latterly huge stencils and hand-painted delicacy. Her means of making is prolific. Yet each speaks of a universal familiarity. Somewhat self-depricating, NeSpoon laughs at the moment when lace entered her artist consciousness - "I never thought I would make such stupid, easy going things!"

Therein lies the paradox. These monolithic fractals followed her escape from a dark place, into a more transcendental reality. Once more dismissing her own importance, NeSpoon suggests that she is merely the conduit for the placement and form of her work, and that when she 'listens' to the feedback whilst making, a form of subliminal guidance controls how much water or paint or pressure is applied to her work. "I didn't choose them. They chose me," she says.

What is undeniable, is the critical end desire for NeSpoon. She wants her pieces to evoke positive emotion. And they do. Five days in her company, and you feel as if you've spent two weeks on a Goan beach. This artist channels herself through her creations; with a very real and genuine desire to make people happy. Even if only for one second.

Her rebirth came some time in the past, with a conscious decision to change herself. No self-help manual for this lady. She found solace in a scene from The Matrix, with the character Neo discovering "There is no spoon". Embracing this notion of a new, limitless reality, NeSpoon was born.

So it is key when looking at her work, that one forms ideas. And as the artist suggests "jump where you want". It was at this point in our discussion, as the paint began to dry, that a very real picture began to form of how art can change lives. NeSpoon is a living example of this. Of such change she summarises "Most people think they can't do it. And they don't do it. The most important thing is to start to try. Because when you don't try, you will never go where you want to go."

In NeSpoon's signature lace artworks, one is reminded of Native-American dreamcatchers. And similarly, ancient diagrams of Indian Chakras, such as the thousand-petalled Lotus - Sahasrara. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Chakra is the Sanskrit word for wheel, or turning. And that Sahasrara is the chakra for pure consciousness, within which there is neither object nor subject. Associated themes of rebirth and the colour white also seem to strongly reflect the artworks created by NeSpoon.

When she stepped back from our Roof Garden wall, and declared "She is finished", the end artwork seemed dripping like some gossamer fishing net, one which had caught every positive comment from the passers by who felt compelled to tell the artist how much they loved the piece. More than a dreamcatcher, this lacework holds energy, and shares its bounty. Our gallery has its own portal to positive emotion, in whatever form the viewer desires.

Let's Stay Together [The Mandarin] | Artist - James Straffon. Installed December 2020

2020-12-02T19:46:00.004+00:00

Painted by TAG Co-Founder James Straffon.

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Three Cool Chicks | Artist - Binty Bint. Artwork installed - June 2014

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in The Frame | Various artists - 2014-15

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Our aim is to showcase a diverse and eclectic mix of original artworks, presented within the heart of our urban gallery at N15. Every few weeks the Frame will be refreshed with a new artist, this alongside a small information point providing a short biography and relevant links. Over the year we hope to provide visitors to our streets with an opportunity to engage with a free gallery experience, and in turn promote the artist's featured.
in The Frame is about the moment; it displays a snapshot or vignette; a window to another place.

Bombshell

Michelle Eva May
in The Frame January 2014
Oil, acrylic, spray paint, charcoal, Conte, pastel, coffee on board.

Jaix

Mario Oleari
in The Frame February 2014

The Hen's Tooth

Melissa Gardiner & Fionn Maris
in The Frame March/April 2014

Self Portrait II (Nwanebuni)

Kelvin Okafor
in The Frame May 2014

Graphite, charcoal & black pencil on archival paper.

The Butterfly

DONK
in The Frame June 2014

The Key to Enlightenment

Esra Duzen
in The Frame September 2014

Penumbra

Elise Wehle
in The Frame May 2014

Paper cut collage.

Framed Cascade

The Toasters
in The Frame November 2014

Untitled

Fio Silva
in The Frame March 2015

Missing the Moment

Peter Evans
in The Frame April 2015

Know Yourself

Joyce Treasure
in The Frame June 2015

Darling Look | Artist - Mobstr. Artwork installed - May 2014

2020-12-02T12:32:00.001+00:00

In the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, there is an inscription on one of the walls of the basilica. It roughly translates as "O walls, you have held up so much tedious graffiti that I am amazed that you have not already collapsed in ruin." After more than 2,000 years of cultural progress, it is heartening to observe that the joy of text still burns strongly. Further parallels can be drawn between the somewhat salacious musings of Roman society, and the title of a thought-provoking debut exhibition by the British artist known as Mobstr - SEX, DRUGS & PAINTING CANVASES (An indoor collection of thoughts).

For over 12 years, this highly-engaging creative has applied his own personal ruminations on the world we now live in, to the everyday structure our urban world is constructed from. Using a very deliberate, paired-down minimalist vernacular, Mobstr engages the onlooker in a brief, manipulated moment of communal collusion. Much like the best examples of great art, when allowed inside the mind of the artist, we can briefly enjoy a mutual sense of elevation.

SEX, DRUGS & PAINTING CANVASES is similarly fleeting in its 15 minutes (or rather three days). And as a debut exhibition, dares to step beyond the street into the traditional display environment of the artist. Located among the pigment-saturated walls of London's Shoreditch, this monochrome, literal display of artistry wraps a guilt frame around the eternal building blocks of our world - language.

Your work seems to form a neat subversion of the notion that a picture paints a thousand words. Has the seemingly limiting approach of simplicity and standardisation allowed you to seduce the onlooker into your own view of the world?
This is probably a question the onlooker can answer better than myself.

Have you always created text-based work?
No but the first work I put up on the street which was when I was eleven years old was text based. I traversed styles and techniques until about five years ago when I started working under the alias Mobstr. With this identity came a concise realisation of direction and a focus on text based works.

Do you test the potency of your work before it is painted into the public domain?
Now and again I run it by a trusted friend.

When creating your artworks do you place your focus on the precision of each letter form? Or do you see the bigger picture?
With the text based outdoor work I stripped the aesthetics and style in order to differentiate from a scene that I felt was being filled up with overused imagery. As such it’s really about the message more than anything. The indoor stuff, of which there is very little in existence, has more focus on the finish.

With site-specific artworks, would you say you are creating a dialogue between yourself and the viewer, or the viewer and the world they live in?
I would say the latter. The more I can remove a personality from the work the better.

Given the message-saturated times that we live in, does your work provide an ironic narrative on contemporary society's obsession with communication?
I never like to say that my work pulsates with deep meaning or anything like that but i think it’s safe to say that some of the work reflects on or mocks the method, style and attitude that modern society communicates with.

Artists such as Edward Ruscha, Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer, more recently Martin Creed and Fiona Banner, have positioned text-based art firmly on the gallery wall. How do you feel about transplanting your highly-contextual pieces from daylight to spotlight?
I open my debut exhibition this month. I have not moved into the indoor environment until now simply because I was enjoying painting on the street too much. Recently I wanted to see a body of work amassed under one roof. I felt like I had hit the streets enough so an exhibition was formed.

Are there artists who have influenced your own creative process or understanding of the world?
I read some works by Aldous Huxley when I was younger and I think that in particular had an impact on my thought processes. I could list other authors but I feel that the culture, attitude and logistics of society are some of the strongest influences.

You often form a dialogue through the interventions you place in the public domain. Is this deliberate interaction an intrinsic part of what you do?
More than often it is a planned interaction but on a few occasions some unexpected events happened which I worked with to form a dialogue.

Where, and what, would provide the ultimate Mobstr installation?
The arctic circle and a lot of black paint.

Your work seems to present an ironic twist on the notion of graffiti. Whilst simultaneously embracing the origins of the street art oeuvre, and the creep into modernity, you present an acceptable face of illicit and anti-establishment disfigurement. How key is heritage and finding one's 'voice' within the street art scene?
There is a backlash from the traditional graffiti movement i.e “writers” against the street art movement which not only gained acceptance from society but also saw it’s notable artists getting paid quite handsomely for their work. People try to put rules on a genre of art that was formed on breaking the rules. Graffiti isn’t UK culture. It was imported from New York.I feel it’s important, as with everything, to understand heritage but there is a danger in getting tied up in it. Unless you allow for new movement things will become very stale.

Much like the work of Rene Magritte, the transformative nature of what you place on walls engages the onlooker in a brief moment of mutual collusion. Are we all in on the joke?
Only if you laugh.
Is less more?
I once spent a huge amount of time doing this animation and once finished I realised it was shit. I then go paint one word somewhere and it has a much better result. To state the obvious: I think you need to do whatever works best for you. If that involves five brushstrokes opposed to five thousand so be it.

Test

2017-01-01T18:19:00.000+00:00

This is a paragraph.

The Bag of Tricks VIP Corridor

2016-11-01T12:57:00.000+00:00

As part of our Bag of Tricks exhibition at the Green Rooms 2016, a group of select artists generously gave their time to create a unique gallery experience within the hotel’s inner corridors. Although dubbed the ‘VIP Corridor’ this vibrant space is open to the general public, with all works also available to buy.

Featuring DONK, Aida Wilde, The Toasters, Perspicere, and TAG, this space represents an example of what can be achieved when architecture meets street art, in the name of transient largesse.

There is the argument that urban art needs to be seen as such - exposed to the populace at all times, yet a prime example of such ‘hidden’ gems lies within the basement car park of The Swiss Embassy in London. For here, back in 2001, Bruno Spinner (the Ambassador of Switzerland during that period), had the foresight to allow a group of fledgling street artists loose of the walls and columns as "part of a series of events organised at the beginning of this century aimed to engage with the next generation of people and artists who will largely shape and determine the future".

Among them was Banksy. The rest is history. The space has since been used by a variety of organisations, some being Foundations aimed at helping young people who might be at risk of getting involved in gang culture, gun crime or substance abuse. As such, street or urban art can be a multi-purpose activity, with a wide-ranging faculty for producing change.

TAG would like to thank the artists for their contribution to this altruistic activity.

The VIP corridor will remain largely in situ until early 2017.

Muffin

2016-10-08T10:23:00.000+01:00

TAG at The Green Rooms - Autumn 2016

2016-10-06T16:59:00.000+01:00

The Turnpike Art Group presents ‘Bag of Tricks’ - a diverse group show of selected street artists, and their assorted visual delights.

Artists include:

AIDA (WILDE) • DONK LONDON  •  PERSPICERE
GARY STRANGER  •  THE TOASTERS
TAG  •  SKELETON CARDBOARD

What's the Bag of Tricks VIP Corridor?

Bag of Tricks - spread the news

2016-10-05T18:00:00.000+01:00

Eager to help spread the news at the opening night of Bag of Tricks, singer Sim Virdi dropped in to serenade the crowd with a brief cameo of tunes, opening with a homage to one of the works on show - Aida Wilde's glorious 'The Lion from Zanzibar No.1'

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee | Artist - Pegasus. Installed June 2016

2016-06-03T10:04:00.001+01:00

In memory of
Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016)

I Would Be Your Slave • London 2016 Artist - Pegasus. Installed January 2016

2016-01-12T20:31:00.001+00:00

During the summer of 2012, notorious British street artist Banksy placed a large-scale street art piece above a bookshop in Maudlin Street, Bristol. His trademark anarchic commentary on society was depicted through an alternative tribute to Queen Elizabeth II; celebrating her Diamond Jubilee year - by subverting another modern British icon, Ziggy Stardust; one of the more esoteric manifestations of singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, painter and actor David Bowie.

During that same year, Banksy would visit Turnpike Lane, London N15; more specifically Whymark Avenue, and create another Jubilee protest piece - Slave Labour. This small scale artwork would, one year later, spark a UK-wide outcry - having been carved from the wall which housed it, for sale to an American collector for the reported sum of $1.1 million. Among many commentators at the time, the Turnpike Art Group were interviewed by TV news channels for a view on the 'scandal' surrounding Slave Labour. During the intervening years the space slipped to urban decay, and lost its soul.

One might argue both Banksy and Bowie wore a cloaked veil of masked identity; the facade of an artist speaking through carefully crafted marionettes - agents for beliefs - a manteau through which to counter the world we live in. Just as Ziggy was a messenger for extraterrestrial beings, have the legions of rats and monkeys not done the same for Banksy's wish to expose the raw nerves of our society? Such artist's talent for camouflage can sometimes deliver Zeitgeist-defining sounds and visions.

On 10 January 2016, David Robert Jones passed away. His legacy a back catalogue of sublime musicianship, which would define multi-eras, and leave an art world bereft of one of its high priests. As an arbiter of rebellion, and arguably the UK's greatest ever Pop Artist, tributes to his legacy have been manyfold. For TAG, it seemed entirely appropriate to revisit a Bowie track - I would Be Your Slave - and ask a prolific, skilled practitioner of rebellious art - Pop artist Pegasus - to fashion a genie for our walls. We worked together - laying a new artwork over the site where Slave Labour once broadcast its original message - with a tribute to the leper messiah, who all too briefly played guitar.

RIP David Bowie (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016).
I Would Be Your Slave

I bet you laugh out loud at me
A chance to strike me down
Give me peace of mind at last
Show me all you are
Open up your heart to me
And I would be your slave

Further reading:

BOWIE LANDS ON WALL WHERE A BANKSY WAS
By Susan Hansen - Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Chair of the Forensic Psychology Research Group at Middlesex University

Thriller • London 2015 Artist - Pegasus. Installed October 2015

2015-10-28T16:01:00.001+00:00

It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark,
Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart,
You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it,
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes,
You're paralyzed...

This thrilling piece courtesy of Pegasus 2015

TAG BAZAAR. Street Art Fair.

2015-10-19T13:10:00.000+01:00

Artist: Art is Tra$h
Title: Pink Pony
40 x 40 x 4.5cm.
Graffiti marker and paint on 18mm marine ply - cut from an original perimeter fence hoarding placed around the London Olympics building site 2011/2012
SOLD
To purchase send an email to shop@turnpikeartgroup.co.uk

Artist: Art is Tra$h
Title: Tabla pulido (Polished table)
68cm diameter. 3cm thick. Graffiti marker on rosewood table top.
£180
To purchase send an email to shop@turnpikeartgroup.co.uk

Artist: Art is Tra$h
Title: Untitled 48 x 43cm.
Graffiti marker and paint on refrigerator top.
£180
To purchase send an email to shop@turnpikeartgroup.co.uk

Artist: Turnpike Art Group (TAG)
Title: Alix (bronze) 70 x 50 x 3cm.
Spray paint over acrylic on canvas.
£450
To purchase send an email to shop@turnpikeartgroup.co.uk

Artist: Turnpike Art Group (TAG)
Title: Alix (coral) 70 x 50 x 3cm.
Spray paint over acrylic on canvas.
£450
To purchase send an email to shop@turnpikeartgroup.co.uk

Artist: Turnpike Art Group (TAG)
Title: Alix (gold)
70 x 50 x 3cm. Spray paint over acrylic on canvas.
£450
To purchase send an email to shop@turnpikeartgroup.co.uk

Artist: STEWY
Title: Pig
76 x 122cm. Original - spray paint on canvas. Signed.
£450
To purchase send an email to shop@turnpikeartgroup.co.uk

The Ritz • London 2015 Artist - TAG. Installed October 2015

2015-10-11T13:42:00.000+01:00
More on this artwork HERE

Artwork created by James Straffon

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Visit our online gallery shop HERE

COLINA • London 2015 Artist - TAG & DONK. Installed September 2015

2015-09-25T09:58:00.000+01:00
More on this artwork HERE

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Artwork created by James Straffon

Thoughts @ Night • London 2015 Artist - James Straffon. Installed September 2015

2015-09-01T12:01:00.000+01:00

In September 2015, TAG artist James Straffon was commissioned to decorate a Sebestons upright piano. As inspiration he looked to Chopin. And proved not all street art is on the street...

"Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when you have overcome all difficulties. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art."

Between 1827 and 1846, Frédéric Chopin wrote 21 pieces of music for the solo piano - his Nocturnes series. One of these was Nocturne No. 2 in E flat Major, also known as 'Thoughts At Night'.

If you are interested in a commission get in touch HERE

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Artwork created by James Straffon

To be wise and beauty full • London 2015 Artist - Anna Laurini. Installed September 2015

2015-09-01T11:58:00.000+01:00

TAG had arranged to meet Italian artist Anna Laurini at our regular spot - Cafeteria, on Langham Road N15. She arrived on her dual-powered bicycle. So we discussed the merits of having a battery-back up; Anna expounding the advantage of often being first away at traffic lights, much to the chagrin of the more 'sporty' velomaniacs. For the painting to follow she had travelled light - just some choice acrylic pigments, a few trusty brushes and her notebook.

We were keen to engage Anna Laurini with her very distinct urban style before the open doors of zeitgeist-hungry galleries tempted her in. It is always heartening when you chance upon those rare moments of newness - when an unsung face on the block makes a mark; made all the more uplifting when what they are doing stands out with its difference; and because it is good.

Laurini is a very direct, yet open individual. Her steely-tinted eyes often shining with emotion. A recent, self-proclaimed 'bombardment' of London streets has opened our eyes to her very distinct style - somewhat reminiscent of a Picasso cubist portait; simplified, almost pseudo-primitive in application, with either single or face-to-face charicatures telling a story. These masquerading vignettes are hand-painted, with an accompanying aphorism introducing a connectivity with the viewer - inviting an element of complicity - as we entertain Laurini's desire to elevate the soul. You can read her work.

Most often the words are not her own, she explained. With philosophical maxims appropriately researched and acknowledged. Somewhat reminiscent of American street artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, Laurini asks questions of the viewer through the written word; with text applied using the same brush that formed the artworks other shapes and structures. On face value, her installations may appear immediate and simple. Yet they quickly reveal more complex, almost spiritual subtexts. We are taken on a journey through post-modern commentary and social meaning.

As Directror of her production, Laurini soon positions the players across the stage set. She paints in a very focussed manner, while we talk about the usual suspects who comprise the current street art scene. Her likes and dislikes are apparent. One senses Laurini never set out to be a street artist; using paste-up as an initial means to test the water, or wall. Having spent time in New York, she now wished her current painterly approach had come sooner. And briefly meditated on the idea of revisiting old haunts, perhaps now armed with the genuine article.

We found a semblance of Laurini's work in the practice of veteran street artist Frenchman Thierry Noir. Both have developed uncomplicated, two-dimensional, reduced-palette depictions of people. They share a formalised visual language. With Laurini embracing Noir's insightful statement "You need two ideas and three colours."

The sense of theatre amplifies as we move the props in order to make the production happen - our ladder is slid right or left to open up space, pots, cups and lids are engaged in the transportation of paint. Eyes open as Laurini paints them into life. Pouting ruby lips punctuate the black and white. We witness the friction between her chosen cast members - deliberate coupled-combinations of 'boys and girls' bring passion. Perhaps the larger, principal actor is Laurini herself? With blue her principal pigment, the metallic, flowing azure mane suggests this might be a beguiling self portrait - councelling us "To be wise and beauty full".

It is always a privilge to discuss their craft, as artists contribute to the free art space we have curated. There is no better way to spend an afternoon - in the pursuit of artistic excellence; enriched by the appreciation of passersby; satisfied with a curtain call from passing, eager Fireman, who had previously spotted Laurini's work in Tottenham Court Road, captured it on an iPhone, then made the connection. Street art can feed the soul on many levels.

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Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Visit our online gallery shop HERE

Ghetto Butterflies • Bristol 2015 Artist - TAG. Installed July 2015

2015-08-30T07:32:00.000+01:00

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Artwork created by James Straffon

Ta-ra Chuck • London 2015 Artist - Pegasus. Installed August 2015

2015-08-27T14:24:00.001+01:00

Celebrity, much like life itself, can often be fleeting. Yet some stella performers seem to leave a lasting glow of limelight once they depart for that big Green Room in the sky.

So when Priscilla Maria Veronica White, aka Cilla Black, gave a final 'Ta-ra' on August 1st 2015, her legacy was only just beginning. Cilla's eventful life was neither black, nor white. And now the portal of popular culture has swung open to pay tribute to the career of a British pop icon, and national treasure, there can be few more suitable candidates than UK-based street artist Pegasus.

C3 • London 2015 Installed August 2015

2015-08-02T23:28:00.000+01:00

Street art, perhaps even mainstream art in the wider context, seems to focus the viewer with the old adage ‘two ideas, three colours’. Here, colour, stripped back to the primaries, exposes emotional energy and a spectrum of impulsive responses. And red, more than any other colour, evokes a bold passion and excitement.

Add the female form into the mix, and fireworks flow. Artists across time have been drawn to the power of the red-headed muse. Think Sandro Botticelli's 'The Birth of Venus', and the varied masterpieces by Dante Rossetti, Egon Schiele, Toulouse-Lautrec, Amedeo Modigliani, Gustav Klimt.

Is British street artist C3 following this long line of tradition, with her carmine-curled second self, often found 'chilling out on various windows and ledges'?

Four years on from her launch in 2011, Sheffield-based C3 leaves her delicate, diminutive sitting ladies out in the urban landscape, pensive, engaging and sanguine.

With red hair occurring naturally in only 1–2% of the human population, it is no coincidence that these seemingly flimsy, gossamery figures are fashioned from the rare and bygone.

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Visit our online gallery shop HERE

Monarchy - The Exhibition

2015-08-02T23:00:00.000+01:00

TAG is proud to present a right Royal collection of urban art - at The Alex Pub and Restaurant
120 Park Road, London N8

Featuring the work of the Turnpike Art Group, DONK London, Prefab 77, Joyce Treasure, STEWY & D7606. And a host of noble aristocracy, including Queens, Kings, Princesses, a Duke, a glow-in-the-dark corgi, and a Mad Monarch!

Exhibition opens Tuesday 11th August 2015.

Opening times
TUESDAY 16:00 - 23:00
WEDNESDAY 12:00 - 23:00
THURSDAY 12:00 - 23:00
FRIDAY 12:00 - 00:00
SATURDAY 11:00 - 00:00
SUNDAY 10:00 - 23:00

Special open evening Thursday 13th August - from 6.30pm.

View the MONARCHY Gallery and Shop HERE
For all buying enquiries, email shop@turnpikeartgroup.co.uk

Nearest Underground station - Turnpike Lane or Archway.

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Visit our online gallery shop HERE

D7606 • London 2015 Installed August 2015

2015-08-02T10:35:00.000+01:00

More work from D7606 is a Class 25 British Railways diesel locomotive. It's also an impassioned urban artist, famed for his bold, high-chroma paste-ups of iconic 'British-ness' - this the timeworn street furniture of yesteryear - the red telephone boxes and postboxes, now an endangered part of our landscape.

He interfaces these with pop icons of past and present.

D7606 work can be viewed HERE

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Visit our online gallery shop HERE

Homeboy • London 2015 Artist - DONK. Installed August 2015

2015-08-01T14:37:00.000+01:00

Homeboy by DONK London, available to buy HERE.

More work by DONK for TAG can be seen HERE

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Visit our online gallery shop HERE

Blue Suede Shoes Quadtych Artist - TAG. June 2015

2015-06-28T16:30:00.000+01:00

One for the money

70 x 50 x 3cm
Acrylic and spraypaint on canvas.
£325

Two for the show

70 x 50 x 3cm
Acrylic and spraypaint on canvas.
£325

Three to get ready

70 x 50 x 3cm
Acrylic and spraypaint on canvas.
£325

Now go cat go

70 x 50 x 3cm
Acrylic and spraypaint on canvas.
£325

Full quadtych (four pieces) £1,200

To purchase email shop@turnpikeartgroup.co.uk

in The Frame #12 - Joyce Treasure in The Frame June 2015

2015-06-07T15:16:00.000+01:00

Joyce Treasure translates concepts relating to identity, heritage and culture; working with body forms and sometimes postage stamps of The Queen and members of the Royal Family, in part as a representation of postcolonial discourse. She uses mixed media, collage and various substrates.

Using fragments of history to create her own narratives, Treasure invites the reader to examine the notion of identity through a process of internal and external content placement.

For more information visit her website HERE

Know Yourself. Joyce Treasure 2015.

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Visit our online gallery shop HERE

Ghetto Butterflies • Bristol 2015 Artist - TAG. Installed July 2015

2015-05-02T17:42:00.000+01:00
In the summer of 2015, The Turnpike Art Group were invited to be one of the participating artists at Upfest - Europe’s largest, free, street art & graffiti festival, attracting over 250 artists painting 28 venues throughout Bedminster & Southville, Bristol from 25th – 27th July. Talented artists travel from 25 countries and across the UK to paint live on 30,000sqft of surfaces in front of 25,000 visitors.

Check the bigger screen version HERE

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Artwork created by James Straffon

Memphis, Tennessee (Express) • London 2015 Artist - TAG. Installed May 2015

2015-05-01T19:59:00.000+01:00

Memphis, Tennessee
Written by Chuck Berry 1963.
This song is often shortened to "Memphis"
Recorded on 12 January 1964 by Elvis Presley at the RCA Studio B, Nashville, Tennessee.
Released on the Elvis for Everyone! album in 1965

Long distance information, give me Memphis Tennessee
Help me find the party trying to get in touch with me
She could not leave her number, but I know who placed the call
'Cause my uncle took the message and he wrote it on the wall

Help me, information, get in touch with my Marie
She's the only one who'd phone me here from Memphis Tennessee
Her home is on the south side, high up on a ridge
Just a half a mile from the Mississippi Bridge

Help me, information, more than that I cannot add
Only that I miss her and all the fun we had
But we were pulled apart because her mom did not agree
And tore apart our happy home in Memphis Tennessee

Last time I saw Marie she's waving me good-bye
With hurry home drops on her cheek that trickled from her eye
Marie is only six years old, information please
Try to put me through to her in Memphis Tennessee

Check the special Blue Suede Shoes Quadtych artworks > HERE

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

And for an authentic, epicurean appreciation of Tennesseean gastronomy…

Elvis Presley's Fried Chicken Recipe
(courtesy of Charlie Ayers, former Executive Chef for Google, who once worked alongside a former cook for Elvis Presley, at the Waldorf Astoria)
1/2 c thyme
1/4 c oregano
1/4 c basil
1/2 c onion powder
1/2 c garlic powder
1/2 c dry mustard
1/2 c paprika
1/4 c chili powder
1/2 c celery seed
2 Tbsp salt
1/2 c coriander
1/2 c cumin
1/3 c kosher salt
1/4 c cayenne pepper
1/2 c ground black pepper
1/4 c ground white pepper

3 gals. buttermilk
3 cases organic free range chicken (roughly 30 chickens, divided into 1.5- to 2-lb. sections)

Mix these amounts of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, then whisk in the buttermilk until it's thoroughly mixed.

Pour the batter over the chickens and marinate for up to five days - keep refrigerated, of course.

For frying
Now mix another 4x the above dry ingredients, and add:
2 lbs. cornstarch
8 qts. all-purpose organic whole wheat flour

Dredge the marinated chicken pieces in the dry herbs/flour/cornstarch mixture mix.
Fry the dredged chicken in a large skillet with hot peanut oil @ 375 degrees. Once chicken has reached a golden brown colour, finish cooking it in the oven.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

TAG would like to thank the Proprietor of Tennessee Express, Turnpike Lane, for the kind donation of their wall.

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Artwork created by James Straffon

in The Frame #11 - Peter Evans in The Frame April 2015

2015-04-24T19:16:00.000+01:00

Collage and mixed media artist Peter Evans lives in London. His inspiration is the residual trappings of urban decay - these the transitional spaces - that point of realignment where unformulated chaos absorbs the propaganda of commerce; where the original message becomes throwaway.

He recycles the work of the profit-making visionary into new worlds - a place of flux, via a shredded reworking of the wallpaper of our society.

Evans' work can be viewed HERE.

TAG are lucky to have several of Evans' works on display, and available to buy at the Art@The Westbury show

Missing the Moment. Peter Evans 2015.

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Visit our online gallery shop HERE

Upfest 2015 - TAG Limited Edition print

2015-04-23T11:31:00.000+01:00

Golden Silence 2015

40 x 46cm
Archival pigment print on Hahnmühle German Etching 310 gsm, with hand finishing.
Signed and numbered. In a limited edition of 70.
£120

In celebration of TAG's inclusion in the Upfest 2015 Festival, TAG are releasing a limited edition print of the artwork we will feature at the event - Golden Silence. This visually-interactive intervention had its debut within our main gallery at Turnpike Lane. Variants will appear at the Upfest Festival.

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Visit our online gallery shop HERE

Golden Silence • London 2015 Artist - TAG. Installed April 2015

2015-04-01T22:06:00.000+01:00

Much of the TAG ethos is extracted from a desire to reinvent spaces, and alter their meaning through the introduction of artistic expression. To that end, Golden Silence takes that reframing paradigm one stage further - in making the framework the artwork itself, and asking the viewer to look again at the notion of 'empty', and the potential beauty of the unfilled or unfinished.

Building such gilt-framed fanfare around a moment of seemingly unoccupied surface acts as a metaphor for much of the modern art scene - with the emperor wearing his new clothes while conducting an orchestra playing John Cage's 1952 masterpiece 4'33". Likewise, the curator's choice - in placing any given representation within a frame - calling to question the edict 'this is art'. If a picture can paint a thousand words, what happens when the pages are empty?

Perhaps we are asking the viewer to open their eyes and reignite the power of the imagination. Much like artist Martin Creed's Turner Prize-winning piece Work No. 227, empty space can often evoke a myriad of interpretations. As any image may be more powerful through its absence, so too silence can be golden.

Golden Silence is now available to buy as a limited edition print > BUY

TAG would like to thank Cut-Tec for the generous stencil-cutting used on this artwork.

Golden Silence (over tags) 2015
This original TAG artwork is available to buy from Art@The Westbury

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Visit our online gallery shop HERE

Orchard Pig • London 2015 Artist - STEWY. Installed March 2015

2015-03-29T11:52:00.001+01:00

Foraging among the varied apple trees planted at Mannock Road Allotments, London N22, is a very contented pig - courtesy of a TAG favourite STEWY.

.

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Visit our online gallery shop HERE

La Próxima Gran Cosa Artist - Fio Silva. Installed March 2015

2015-03-08T08:23:00.001+00:00

More on this artwork HERE

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Visit our online gallery shop HERE

Tape art Artist - Anonymous. Installed March 2015

2015-03-06T10:22:00.000+00:00

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in The Frame #10 - Fio Silva in The Frame March 2015

2015-03-04T14:25:00.000+00:00

More artwork for TAG by Fio Silva HERE

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Visit our online gallery shop HERE

Living for Love Artist - Pegasus. Installed February 2015

2015-02-13T09:50:00.001+00:00
More on this artwork HERE

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Visit our online gallery shop HERE

J. G. Bollard - Crash Artist - TAG. Installed December 2014

2014-12-15T14:29:00.000+00:00

Memphis, Tennessee
Written by Chuck Berry 1963.
This song is often shortened to "Memphis"
Recorded on 12 January 1964 by Elvis Presley at the RCA Studio B, Nashville, Tennessee.
Released on the Elvis for Everyone! album in 1965

Long distance information, give me Memphis Tennessee
Help me find the party trying to get in touch with me
She could not leave her number, but I know who placed the call
'Cause my uncle took the message and he wrote it on the wall

Help me, information, get in touch with my Marie
She's the only one who'd phone me here from Memphis Tennessee
Her home is on the south side, high up on a ridge
Just a half a mile from the Mississippi Bridge

Help me, information, more than that I cannot add
Only that I miss her and all the fun we had
But we were pulled apart because her mom did not agree
And tore apart our happy home in Memphis Tennessee

Last time I saw Marie she's waving me good-bye
With hurry home drops on her cheek that trickled from her eye
Marie is only six years old, information please
Try to put me through to her in Memphis Tennessee

Check the special Blue Suede Shoes Quadtych artworks > HERE

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

And for an authentic, epicurean appreciation of Tennesseean gastronomy…

Elvis Presley's Fried Chicken Recipe
(courtesy of Charlie Ayers, former Executive Chef for Google, who once worked alongside a former cook for Elvis Presley, at the Waldorf Astoria)
1/2 c thyme
1/4 c oregano
1/4 c basil
1/2 c onion powder
1/2 c garlic powder
1/2 c dry mustard
1/2 c paprika
1/4 c chili powder
1/2 c celery seed
2 Tbsp salt
1/2 c coriander
1/2 c cumin
1/3 c kosher salt
1/4 c cayenne pepper
1/2 c ground black pepper
1/4 c ground white pepper

3 gals. buttermilk
3 cases organic free range chicken (roughly 30 chickens, divided into 1.5- to 2-lb. sections)

Mix these amounts of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, then whisk in the buttermilk until it's thoroughly mixed.

Pour the batter over the chickens and marinate for up to five days - keep refrigerated, of course.

For frying
Now mix another 4x the above dry ingredients, and add:
2 lbs. cornstarch
8 qts. all-purpose organic whole wheat flour

Dredge the marinated chicken pieces in the dry herbs/flour/cornstarch mixture mix.
Fry the dredged chicken in a large skillet with hot peanut oil @ 375 degrees. Once chicken has reached a golden brown colour, finish cooking it in the oven.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

TAG would like to thank the Proprietor of Tennessee Express, Turnpike Lane, for the kind donation of their wall.

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Artwork created by James Straffon

Art@THE WESTBURY

2014-12-15T09:34:00.000+00:00

TAG have curated an eclectic extension to the street art gallery we have created around the Turnpike Lane area. To coincide with the opening of a local, newly refurbished London pub - The Westbury - we are presenting a capsule exhibition of stimulating street art.

All artworks are available to buy.

Artists include:
Toasters  Mobstr  Bambi  DONK  MyDogSighs
Art is Tra$h  ATM  Binty Bint  STEWY  Zabou

Plus some new faces...

SPECIAL LAUNCH EVENT - Thursday 16th October. From 6.30pm.
57 Westbury Avenue, London N22 6SA

Opening Times
Monday to Friday - 4.30pm-11pm
Saturday & Sunday - Midday to 11pm

Nearest Tube - TURNPIKE LANE (Piccadilly Line)

MAP

Just some of the artworks on show:

'…a thousand crashing cars, the stances of a million passengers.'

2014-12-14T14:26:00.000+00:00

At the end of 2014, TAG elected to dance with the devil, and proffered the question 'How long will this protective structure be safe from Ballard's 'nightmare angel of the expressways'?'

Exactly thirty-nine days later the divine motorway-messenger gave his reply. The self-fulfilling prophecy experienced by our J.G. Bollard artwork would have no doubt pleased the author himself. For, given the very transient nature of street art, this piece was in some fashion 'incomplete' until the question had been answered, with the artwork violently relocated from one side of the road to the other; front-grilled, and the lights turned out. Art imitates life. Or vice versa?

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Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Visit our online gallery shop HERE

ART at The Westbury - in pictures

2014-12-12T12:07:00.000+00:00

16th October 2014
The Westbury. 57 Westbury Avenue, London N22 6SA

in The Frame #9 - The Toasters - Framed Cascade in The Frame November 2014

2014-11-11T18:06:00.000+00:00

The final artwork in our 'in The Frame' Series 2014 sees the return to Turnpike Lane for The Toasters. Their 'Framed Cascade' artwork refused to be bound by the confines of our box. exploding out onto the wall behind, in a glorious celebration of colour.

Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

Visit our online gallery shop HERE

Framed Cascade | Artist - The Toasters. Installed November 2014

2014-11-09T18:27:00.001+00:00

TAG strive to confidently work within the acceptable parameters provided by an urban, but also residential environment. On occasion we like to gently push the boundaries. Above all, we continue to engage those who travel through our 'turf' with a diverse mélange of street art. So when it came to the final artwork for our 'in The Frame' Series 2014, we decided to quite literally paint 'outside the box'.

And so it was, in damp mid-November, we spent two days in the company of street art nobility - The Toasters.

With one eye to the ominously heavy passing clouds, a new Toaster masterpiece took shape - Framed Cascade. Whilst painting, we discussed Polish Cabbage Stew, Toaster Tuesdays, the differing drying rates of colours, and ultimately invented an ingenious new method for applying precision paint drips. The final artwork is an avalanche of graphic grandeur. Its bold, semi-transparent, colour-forms flow out from the central structure; seemingly drifting over the rough concrete render; one passerby tempted to steal a toaster, peeling it away from the composition.

Whilst diggers and dump trucks toiled at the end of the road, attempting to improve our streets with slabs of grey concrete, and swathes of grisly granite, it took The Toasters a mere two days to bring a kaleidoscopic splash of optimism to all those who visit Turnpike Lane.

in The Frame #8 - Elise Wehle - Penumbra in The Frame October 2014

2014-10-07T10:52:00.000+01:00

Penumbra  2014
126 x 88 cm. Paper cut collage.
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www.elisewehle.com
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You suggest a conscious decision to counter our absorption into the digital age, through a time-intensive, hands-on process. When and how did this resolution manifest?

It happened while I was in college. At the time I was experiencing artist’s block. Actually, it wasn’t artist’s block because I had a million ideas for different art pieces that seemed super exciting, but I just couldn’t will myself to make any of them. I’d try and try, but every time I came home from my classes, I found myself in front of my computer or phone, and the evening suddenly disappeared into a series of web pages. During exhausting all-nighters, I’d rush to complete my art assignments right before their deadlines. This chaotic routine left me discontent, but I just couldn’t find the discipline to make art consistently. Then one day I decided to make art to specifically counteract what I was experiencing, to somehow reduce the consuming affect technology had on my life. I accomplished this by creating art that demanded a lot from my hands, and I experimented with paper cutting for the first time. I never banished my computer or became a Luddite, but by making art that required meticulous movements I rediscovered both my self-discipline and my passion for art. It was renewing and exhilarating.

By electing to embrace a very time intensive means to make your artworks, is their some element of catharsis or meditation experienced as you work?

Definitely. The meditative affect of my artistic process is what keeps me coming back for more. Every day I crave the chance to breakaway from all the distractions and noise around me and just cut patterns for hours. I love it.

How do you select the images which root your compositions?

I wish I had a better answer for this, but it’s a very visceral method. There is just something about the photograph that connects with me, and I get instant ideas about how I would modify it. That immediate inspiration is what tells me I have to use that photograph and not another.

The layered, ephemeral landscapes that you create seem to suggest a friction - between regularity and order, classic and modern, our 'constructed' architectural world, and the free-flowing chaos of the natural world [which we are perhaps losing connection with]. Can you explain how this engagement came about?

I believe this derives from my own preferences within my creative process. I like having elements that are out of my control. For example I start each collage by transferring a photograph, and the transfer method never produces consistent results. In fact it often blots out the photograph in really inconvenient places, something I’d never do if I were in control. Yet the unpredictability helps me be more creative as I am forced into working with whatever happens. If my entire process was like this I’d go insane, but fortunately I regain control as I cut out structured shapes into the artwork. I like when you can see these two opposites working together within a single collage.

There's a strong introspective narrative to your artworks. The sharp, ordered apertures that you cut, create fantastic labyrinthine masks, or screens; faces and key features cut away, revealing an empty void. Can you describe your preparation and thought process. And explain the rationale behind creating these highly-patterned apertures.

I’ve always associated handcrafted pattern with an artist’s dedication. Creating a pattern is tedious, time-intensive, and at times both mind-numbing as well as finger-numbing, but the evidence of the artist’s passion imbues itself into every line and shape. I love that. I love that you can see the artist’s commitment right in front of you. I think that’s why I gravitate towards pattern. I need the validation that comes from seeing a completed pattern in my own work. As for the meaning of the pattern, I’ll leave that open to interpretation.

Who are the artists that have influenced your artistic career?

There are so many! And I find more and more all the time. I’ll try to just name a few though. First I have to mention Donna Ruff. It was her work that first inspired me to experiment with paper cutting. Her newspaper series is lovely. Laura Plageman’s paper manipulation taught me a lot about the potential of paper as a medium. I admire her landscapes from her series Response. The work of Emma Van Leest has motivated a lot of my current work. Her compositions are simply stunning.

Despite an apparent suggestion of decay and turbulence, your work seems to exude a sense of calm, almost deep-seated spirituality. Does theology or bygone devotional imagery have an influence on your making?

As yet I’ve never made art directly about religion, but I am a deeply religious person. It makes sense that it would impact my art. Because I see life as a trying yet richly beautiful experience, I can see how my artwork would adopt the same perspective.

Are you constructing or deconstructing?

By the time I finish the artwork I have done both. I take away from the original image through my transfer process and cut outs, and then for my final step I reintroduce parts of the photograph back into the collage. I certainly take more than I give back, but the artwork isn’t complete until I restore pieces of the original.

Which artwork has taken the most time to create?

Genesis. It was essentially two completed artworks combined into one. I never grew tired of working on it, but it took me so much time.

How would you like to develop your approach?

I’d like to feel less limited by the rectangular shape a lot of two-dimensional art adopts. I hope to free at least some of my art from those boundaries and let it spill all over the frame.

What is more important - what you reveal? or what you obscure?

Within my art I think the two happen simultaneously, which makes it hard to pick one over the other. As I obscure the original photograph, a pattern is revealed. Since you can’t have one without the other, I consider them equally essential.

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Sown by the Mountain - Elise Wehle

2014-09-19T19:53:00.000+01:00

"I make the art I do to pull me away from the increasingly digital world that surrounds me. Every day I spend so much time in front of a glowing screen that sometimes I forget I possess five bodily senses and not just one or two. Making art makes me conscious of my hands again, and all of my work requires time-intensive, redundant movements that remind me that not everything is as instantaneous as a click of a mouse. By weaving together paper, cutting lines, and folding shapes, I manipulate drawings, photos, and prints to create new landscapes for me to explore."

Elise Wehle. Visit her website HERE

In September 2014, artist Elise Wehle and the Turnpike Art Group collaborated on a unique, one-off art piece. Read more HERE

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Sown by the Mountain - Making the art

2014-09-18T19:43:00.000+01:00

The Turnpike Art Group agreed a special limited contract with artist Elise Wehle, which entitled us to reproduce, by means of stencil, her artwork 'Sown by the Mountain'. The total quantity of reproductions was not to exceed one, as a one-time use.

We liked this approach a great deal. The fascinating 'construction' method for this unique cross-Atlantic collaboration involved the artist sending a digital file to TAG, which was then resized, and printed onto A0 paper sheets. These were then combined into a single composite, roughly 1.5 metres square. Then began the time-intensive process of hand-cutting the intricate design into a delicate paper stencil.

When completed, the stencil was then temporarily glued to the wall in question, before being sprayed with our chosen colour treatment.

Such a process is reminiscent of artists such as Sol LeWitt, and his instruction-based artworks of the early 1970s. A set of detailed instructions allowed a remote group of individuals to work to the artists 'blueprint' and execute a certified artwork without the artist being present.

With Wehle 'pushing' her piece of art to us via the internet, from her studio in Orem, Utah, TAG were then able to receive it in London, and fabricate the work nearly 5,000 miles from its origin.

TAG would like to thank Trea Clenaghan for her generosity and support, in allowing this artwork to be created.

View the completed artwork HERE

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in The Frame #7 - Esra Duzen - The Key to Enlightenment in The Frame September 2014

2014-08-29T13:19:00.000+01:00

TAG have worked with Turkish artist Esra Duzen before. So we were keen to give her an 'in The Frame' moment, this autumn. This highly-symbolic, hand painted artwork is best understood through the artist's own words

"When I painted this I thought about all the inequality and injustice in the world and how we are all enslaved to some degree, be it physically, spiritually or financially.

These black octopuses are representing our enslavers, who are hiding the key. But that the key to enlightenment and freedom is always to be found for those who search for it. We should look for what is being hidden from us and what actually belongs to us. We are stronger than we think."

More of her work can be seen HERE

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in The Frame #6 - Jennie Pedley - Afro Combin The Frame July 2014

2014-07-12T14:25:00.000+01:00

Jennie Pedley is a Tottenham-based artist and physiotherapist. Her artwork is inspired by broad issues surrounding health, often involving collaboration with scientists, health professionals, patients and the public; such as The National Trust, Great Ormond St Hospital, and The Wellcome Trust. She has also been a judge for an art science prize run by The Natural History Museum, London.

Pedley has created films investigating an a-z of ageing, as well as virtual reality multimedia projects allowing the viewer to navigate the life stories of people with cerebral palsy. Her striking silhouette-strewn creations derive from shadow theatre techniques, where she finds ‘The screen provides anonymity, allowing even the most self-conscious people to relax in front of the camera.’

For our 'in The Frame' artwork, Pedley worked with Belmont Junior school and the Vale Resource Base for students with physical disabilities. They explored the history of the afro comb; from its use in ancient Egypt to the arrival of the 'Windrush' ship from the Caribbean; and the provision of afro hair products by local company Dyke and Dryden. Assisted by local performer Angela Baker, Pedley facilitated the workshops and composed the final image. The project is funded by an Arts Council Grant for the Arts.

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Funded by a grant from the Arts Council, Pedley is working on a new series of artworks to be placed in locations around Tottenham, London. Assisted by four local performers, she will be working with at least 200 local people.

The first artwork 'Afro Comb Adventures', placed beneath a railway bridge on the West Green Road, London N15, was created with pupils from nearby Seven Sisters Primary School. This artwork was inspired by an exhibition 'The Origins of the Afro Comb', shown at Bruce Castle Museum, February 2014. The exhibition honoured Dyke & Dryden, a Tottenham-based African Caribbean hair and cosmetic business which produced and sold afro combs at their West Green Road shop between the 1960s and 1990s. Pedley ran two day workshops, each one assisted by a local actors Benedict Martin and Angela Baker.

Bruce Castle Museum are assisting with this project, which has been funded by The Arts Council and Haringey Council. The frame was installed by Matt of Bolden Signs.

Further afield, her short film 'On Aristotle as a Biologist' has been purchased by The Art Fund for the D'Arcy Thompson Museum of Zoology, and is currently being exhibited at Dundee University.

Pedley's Mini Shadow Theatre is available to buy HERE

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in The Frame #5 - DONK - The Butterflyin The Frame June 2014

2014-06-19T19:55:00.000+01:00

“Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince.

It seemed wholly appropriate that the fifth artist to grace our 'in The Frame' project, our friend DONK, should install a piece of the longest day of the year. His latest artwork very much speaks of the passage of time, and the essence of the captured moment. One gets a sense of the leeching of all that is glorious, as the fleeting brilliance of nature drips away. This artwork engages the viewer with a tangible picture of fading glory; the pigment stained pavement beneath trampled by the passing of people.

The artwork is a fusion of the natural world, and man's urbanisation of that place. The butterfly image was captured by DONK on a visit to the Sensational Butterflies exhibition, East Lawn, Natural History Museum, London (3 April - 14 September 2014).

'Butterfly' will be on show, 'in The Frame' for the same period that the average butterfly beats its wings.

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Binty Bint - Three Cool ChicksArtwork installed - June 2014

2014-06-19T13:22:00.000+01:00

For a number of years, female street artist Binty Bint has hatched a growing clutch of highly-stylised, candy-coloured chicks. Her brood adorns urban spaces from London to New York, Mexico to Japan. With a very distinctive, and highly-recognisable style, her artwork is a perfect embodiment of the Pop Art oeuvre. Think Warhol's Campbell's Soup; latterly Haring's Radiant Baby; Fairey's Obey Giant. Each refuse to shy away from Warhol's edict that "…everybody only does one painting anyway." Indeed, allowing herself the apparently narrow parameters of a recurrent form and palette, Binty Bint has freed her creativity to focus on values of abundance and distribution. As she said during a post-painting slice of cake "Paint little. And paint everywhere."

In 1957, British pioneer of the Pop Art movement Richard Hamilton declared "Pop Art is: popular, transient, expendable, low-cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, and Big Business". Binty Bint ticks all of those boxes, with the added criteria of 'fun'.

If you like your eggs sunny side up, visit Turnpike Lane's Three Cool Chicks, and keep a note of Binty's Boutique - set to open its barn door some time soon...

Photo © Bintism 2014

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Alleluia! 2 | Artist - Zabou. Artwork installed - May 2014

2014-05-10T19:55:00.001+01:00

Would you say, as a street artist, you are largely self taught?
I would say mostly. The first time I went painting, I had a friend who taught me how to use a spray can, explaining the technical side of it (pressure, caps etc.). When I started my stencils, I literally just taped some cards together, started drawing, cutting, and it worked. By meeting other artists over time, I got some extra tips. But really it's experiencing it that made me learn and improve my technique.

How does working as a graphic designer, and having an MA in Digital Arts influence the work that you create?
I think working as a graphic designer and having studied visual arts influence the way I compose my artworks, how I use colours or the space for instance. The digital tools makes my work faster to be designed or create visualisations, but I still want to keep that handmade touch by drawing my stencil onto the card and cutting them myself.

Alongside fellow compatriots Thierry Noir, C215, Invader, Ashes57, Thieu are french street artists adopting London as a home from home?
We're invading!!! London is a great place right now to paint or being a creative in general, there is so much going on and so much potential. I'm not surprised it attracts artists from all over the world.

Your work conveys a bold cartoon narrative, sharing a similar melodramatic undertone to American Pop artist Roy Lichenstein. Likewise, there exists a bold, iconic narrative which engages the viewer. Can you explain more about the graphic dialogue your artwork creates.
I like viewers to interpret what they see freely. What I could say is that I like producing artworks with a cheeky or satirical message. I sometimes re-use imagery from the past like 50's ad or religious paintings to create contrast by mixing them with a more contemporary message or graphics.
I want my style to be illustrative, compared to the usual photography aesthetics that stencils have. In that purpose I draw everything, even when based on photographs. Characters are black and white, wether human or animals, and can be surrounded by colours. My paintings also include drippings and splashes.

Presenting strong feminine characters, you also manage to subvert the fragile stereotypes Lichenstein centred much of his tragic girls series around. Is this sense of empowerment an ongoing theme you are exploring?
So I've never heard the words 'esprit de corps' before hahaha, you're teaching me French!
To be honest I don't really know, every woman has a different experience with street art. For me it was great to be part of this event to meet other female artists, I simply knew only a couple before that. I've been painting with mostly male artists since I've started, but I don't mind.

Are the growing legions of female street artists presenting a different urban landscape to their male counterparts?
Probably. It's great to have more girls taking part, but the important to me is their vision and work as an artist. The gender doesn't really matter in the end, the artworks do. Actually, seeing what I do, a lot of people think I'm a guy!

Is gender equality something you work towards?
That's not the purpose of my work, but if it encourages it then let it be!

Do you see a time when you can engage in street art as a full-time occupation?
When London become cheap?! I'd love to be a full-time artist but for now I need a job to support my art and my life here.

What does a spray can represent to you?
Creation. Possibilities. Power.

www.zabou.me

The Lapwing • London 2014Artist - ATM. Installed April 2014

2014-05-01T15:33:00.001+01:00

To view the larger screen version go HERE

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in The Frame #4 - Kelvin Okaforin The Frame May 2014

2014-04-18T13:36:00.000+01:00

Self Portrait II (Nwanebuni)
Graphite, charcoal & black pencil on archival paper

Our 'in The Frame' project was created to give a voice to artists we thought were in some way prodigious, virtuoso, yet also untainted by the lure of commercialism. So it was a joy to share a coffee in our local Cafeteria, and spend a few minutes with our fourth artist - Kelvin Okafor, who appears genuinely gracious and affable.

With his first major solo exhibition only a week from opening, there was a tangible relief in his gentle banter. Kelvin had more or less just emerged from a concentrated period of creativity, one resulting in a rarified body of new creations, all bearing his signature highly-detailed, photo-realistic pencil portraiture.

Since leaving Middlesex University with a Degree in Fine Art, Kelvin's trajectory from studio to gallery has been rapid, and meteoric. Yet none of this seems surprising, when one takes the time to look through his many stunning drawings.

His working method explores the notion of the carbon copy - with a semi-obsessive eye for detail quite literally spiralling out from the tip of his pencil. "Perfection is an illusion," suggestions Kelvin. Which seems to confirm that his meticulous portraits are actually not just copies, but transformations; the original elevated to something almost spiritual.

An ability to visually explore the facial contours, and facets which make an individual, and then almost mechanically purge this information onto a canvas or piece of paper is an extraordinary process, limited to few. Put simply, Kelvin has a gift.

TAG would like to share that with all those who pass by his 'in The Frame' self-portrait this spring.

We also urge anyone with an interest in the arts to visit Kelvin's exhibition - Portraits, which opens on 9th May at the Albermarle Gallery, 49 Albermarle Street, W1.

Q&A to follow.

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Get a lifebuoy!Artist - TAG. Installed March 2014

2014-03-18T14:46:00.000+00:00
Occasionally at TAG we like to go overboard. So with a need for more colour and plant life in our streets, why not create some life savers?

With thanks to Captain Cat and Midshipman Simon

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in The Frame #3 - Melissa Gardiner & Fionn Marisin The Frame March/April 2014

2014-03-17T08:49:00.000+00:00

From West Green to New Orleans…

In November 1978, the genre-defying British band Ian Dury and The Blockheads released a single called 'Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick'. The rest, as they say, is history. Co-written by Chaz Jankel and Ian Drury, the song's lyrics take the listener on a percussive global tour of beats. The opening lines read:

In the deserts of Sudan

And the gardens of Japan

From Milan to Yucatan

Every woman, every man

Fast forward thirty-five years; the venue London's Barbican arts centre; a live performance during the EFG London Jazz Festival "Next Generation Takes Over", and that global beat tour continues with that next generation:

From West Green to New Orleans

TAG watched with pride, as the Freestage rocked to the sounds of the Rhythm Sticks, at one point feeling transplanted from the cold, grey concrete of the immediate surroundings to a vibrant, many-coloured jazz hang out in the deep south. As the Blockheads lyrics suggested, we were among many felt compelled to 'Move their body to and fro'.

From their humble beginnings, in 2008, North London's cutting edge youth ensemble Rhythm Sticks have rapidly become a tour de force. Masterminded by Andrew Plummer from World Sanguine Report and drummer Tom Greenhalgh, what began as an after-school music club at Tottenham's Park View chool, has developed into a unique sound, one which fuses many musical influences, set against a foundation of 'eccentric improvisation'. Their musical output is entirely their own, via a collective melting pot of original material. With a name taken from seemingly elementary music-making components, this percussive provenance sits well. From such simple beginnings, rare artistic excellence can often come about. Further anomaly lies in this band's origins - as well as the Barbican, the Rhythm Sticks have performed at Jazz On 3's Jazz In The Round at The Cockpit Theatre, the Vortex Outdoors Festival; have been played on BBC Radio London; won two awards at the 2012 National Music-For-Youth Festival - these moments seemingly some distance away from an area of North London which only hits the headlines through adverse news stories. Yet scratch the surface, and Tottenham provides an entirely optimistic back beat.

Using Kickstarter as a funding mechanism, Rhythm Sticks, in partnership with Good Move! Music, were able to record a debut nine-track album entitled The Hen’s Tooth. Officially released at The Barbican gig in 2013, this astonishingly polished production fuses diverse musical influences, providing a refreshing antidote to the anodyne output of their music industry peers. For, despite their current age group, this ensemble create a sound of rare maturity. Perhaps this is the nub - much like the punk explosion of the mid 1970s, it takes a counter-culture evolution to bring new light. And just as the raw, hard-featured shell of an oyster can fashion the rare, multi-layered beauty of a pearl, so too an urban inner city corner of Tottenham create musical excellence of similar rarefaction. As the Rhythm Sticks album and title track suggests, what seems impossible to obtain can sometimes come about. And as unlikely as a handicapped, bohemian misfit anarchist from north London getting a number one hit, through music we can defy the odds. Toothed hens can lay golden eggs.

For the third instalment in our 'in The Frame' program, TAG are proud to have enlisted two artists whose work graced the Rhythm Sticks first album - band member Fionn McGuinness Maris (who co-wrote the Hen's Tooth track), and Melissa Gardiner, an artist who created the album artwork, and this special collage for our exhibition space.

Melissa Gardiner
What do you find appealing about collage as a medium for producing art?
Collage is captivating for its ability to dismantle and integrate a series of images to create something new. Every image used comes with different colours and depth, which introduces a whole other dimension of abstraction. I find this is something painting could fail to achieve. Using collage is almost an alternative for me to express my creative side. Since I don’t paint or draw as much as I create collages, scrap images become a crucial, pictorial element in my works as paint would do for an artist.

Are there artists who have influenced your work?
My works are primarily inspired by artists such as Beth Hoeckel, David Delruelle, Alexander Rodchenko and even Surrealist artists like Max Ernst.

Do you use traditional scissors and knife methods, or are the artworks you create digital compositions?
I occasionally use the scissors and knife method depending on my supply of images from magazines. Most of the time my works are digitally based since its more convenient to manipulate size, quality and even alter images to match certain demands.

Describe the process you used to create the border artwork for our 'in The Frame' commission.
Firstly, I collect images from different sites or even magazines, and start cutting around the selected images on photoshop. I then adjust the size and create different layers so they all overlay one on top of the other and then manipulate its position so it frames the outskirts of the image.

Do you intend to pursue a creative career?
I do hope to continue making album art, but in the meantime I hope to pursue a career in curating or working in a gallery.

How did you get involved with the Rhythm Sticks Hen's Tooth cover artwork project? What was the brief?
When I heard Rhythm Sticks were making an album and were in need of some artwork I thought it would be a good opportunity to put my collage skills to the test and incorporate it into an album piece. It was important to me to reflect and condense their musical creations into a work of art. I thought they would have wanted something quite surreal to match their equally eccentric music.

What would be your ideal artistic challenge?
I would love to devise a three dimensional collage piece that appears to be emerging from the canvas it derives from; as well as something that is interactive and identifiable with the onlooker - that would be the ultimate challenge.

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Fionn McGuinness Maris
How did the Rhythm Sticks project come into being?
Rhythm sticks was founded about 5 years ago by Andrew Plummer and Tommy Greenhalgh as an after school music club for students in Park View. However, in it's early stages, it comprised an entirely different group of musicians and it is only in recent years that all of the current participants have come together to make music.

What is your role within the ensemble?
I am one of the lead guitarists.

What are your personal musical reference points and inspirations?
Well, I try not to obsess over particular artists so as not to imitate their style but I can't help but idolise some like David Bowie, Tom Waits and Marc Ribot. Some specific pieces of music that I draw inspiration from are 'Ziggy Stardust', 'Jockey full of bourbon' and 'For Malena'.

Describe the creative process which resulted in the Hen's Tooth track.
For the Hen's Tooth, I approached the band with a few guitar/bass parts that I had written and we then learnt and adapted them collectively. The instruments I hadn't written for either devised their own lines and/or imitated the guitar parts and the structure was decided upon once all of the sections were tight enough.

Is a follow up album planned?
Though it hasn't been formally discussed, I'm sure none of us would be opposed to the idea. We have a few new songs on the way, so it's not unlikely that rhythm sticks will be entering the recording studio some time in the near future.

Given the Rhythm Sticks adherence to improv, is working within such a large ensemble of musicians a challenge?
It is, at times quite a demanding task to improvise in front of an audience and those who have seen us perform will know that members of the band often have to do so at a moment's notice. I know I have felt daunted countless times when, without forewarning, I have found Andrew's decisive finger aimed directly at me in the middle of a performance, at which point I have had to try and pull notes out of the air and arrange them convincingly. However I think that the band offers a very supportive atmosphere and one that is conducive to improvement for aspiring improvisers. The adrenaline that comes from it is also almost addictive in nature, as is the applause that follows; so though it makes one become tremulous, it does so with both fear and excitement.

As for the largeness of the ensemble, yes it can be difficult to know what or when to play but usually the band will adapt the music to allow space for the improviser, for instance by sitting out or getting quieter. Also, certain sections are often dedicated to improvisation, meaning they are inherently sparse and therefore good for noodling.

Is now a good time to create music? Or is there an era which would have been your ideal?
Well, for a while, nothing stylistically new has really become popular among young people and it feels like the time is opportune for something like that to make its way forth. It feels like formulaic rap and R and B songs are stagnating at the top of the charts and so I think perhaps something new would be appreciated right about now.

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Support new art - buy your own copy of the fantastic Hen's Tooth album by clicking HERE

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in The Frame #2 - Mario Oleari - Jaixin The Frame February 2014

2014-02-08T22:43:00.001+00:00

The Italian city of Modena has a rich cultural heritage. It boasts two locations designated by UNESCO as contributors to the 'Wealth of Mankind'; was the birth place of tenor Luciano Pavarotti; introduced the world to Balsamic vinegar; also became the provider of the fast red sports car sporting a 'Cavallino Rampante'.

In the 1920s, Enzo Anselmo Ferrari branded his famous, eponymous automobile with the prancing horse emblem, as a talisman for good luck. He sat the horse on a yellow background, in recognition of the colour of the city of Modena, his birthplace. Modena, it would seem, is a fount for the idiosyncratic, and original. And loves animals.

So why not make your street art follow the Ferrari formula. Modena-based designer and artist Mario Oleari does. His own golden calf is in fact a dog. But not just any dog. Jaix is Oleari's companion, and artist's muse.

Fully-embracing the Pop Art idiom, Oleari has ingeniously transformed the physical form of his four-legged friend into a simplified, reduced symbol, or more accurately found the bare essence of dog as logo. Jaix is Oleari's tag.

The dog as artist's muse ripples through art history. Egyptian wall paintings are littered with versions of Anubis, guardian of the dead; latterly Picasso spent his later years in the company of 'Lump', a much-painted Dachshund; Warhol too favoured this breed, making canvases of Archie; so too David Hockney, with Stanley and Boogie. American artist Jeff Koons took the dog motif further, exploring the effect of popular culture and iconography, with his famed ballon dog and Puppy - an enormous West Highland terrier carpeted in bedding plants. On street level, artist and social activist Keith Haring provided 'Barking dog' - applying a new visual language to the counter-culture scene of early eighties New York. Over a decade later, British Street artist Banksy would reference Haring, in a homage piece called 'Choose Your Weapon'. And only last year, in 2013, Banksy opened his month long 'residency' on the streets of New York, with a typically ironic artwork entitled 'You complete me…'.

Yet Oleari takes the paradigm further. His entire working oeuvre is constructed around the Jaix deconstruction. He avoids direct abstraction, by maintaining the barest essential graphic forms necessary to complete the picture. Jaix appears on walls and signposts; posing, yawning, preening, and on occasion peeing. From the latter depiction we can ascertain Jaix is female.

She wears her fifteen minutes of fame well; often seen applying a paw of approval to a new artwork. Oleari's muse, mascot, and proxy pseudonym is reminiscent of the Toasters adoption of a quotidian form (the domestic toaster), and subsequent exploration of its plastic form, into a state of progressive transformation. Such semi-obsessive modus operandi is the hallmark of the dedicated artist.

Through an ongoing inventive exploration, Oleari has made his own unique contribution to the urban art scene, with a keenly observed beauty, and refined motif, built around an economic use of form. This has been recognised with links with the ICONE Graffiti International, who run a street art festival in Modena. Perhaps Oleari's prolific output is best summarised by Enzo Ferrari himself, when he said "I believe most things can be said in a few lines."

When did you first start producing street art? I started practicing street art in '97, with the stickers on Clan TV, with the intent to reach the greatest possible audience thanks to landscape of large urban areas, thereby promoting my art. I made posters and stickers using photocopies and double-sided tape; spray cans and stencils to make t-shirts. I liked to ride a bike at night through Modena, placing posters and stickers in the downtown streets, which I later photographed.

Can you describe how Jaix came into your life?
One day, by chance, in the summer of 2002, thanks to a friend of mine, named Junior. He asked me to accompany him to the Modena kennel. It was the first time I went there. Arriving at the shelter, I went to a cage of puppies, put my hand in the cage to pet them and the first puppy that met me her, Jaix. It was fate. I immediately adopted, it was love at first sight, and since then she has become my muse.

How, and when, did you decide to make Jaix the subject of your street art?
I attended the Art Institute Venturi in Modena, studyinggraphic design, and photography. I've always had a passion for art in general. Certainly the feelings and emotions I feel for Jaix allow me to make art. I think, then, the street was the most natural way to expose my art. Jaix gave me immense potential, from a human's artistic point of view, as a constant figure in my life.

How do you see the evolution of the Jaix depiction? Will you continue to create new ideas from the one source? The evolution is taking place. I'm already creating new and different ideas from the Jaix project. I move according to my taste, just for fun... It is interesting Jaix relating to this performance. Compared with graffiti and the dog next door, almost like a game of mirrors. A single photo capturing both the work and the subject.

Does having one subject allow you to explore ideas easier?
I like simple designs. They remain more faithful to reality. The Jaix project is applied both as art on canvas, as well as stickers and graffiti.

What (and where) would be your ideal place to create a Jaix artwork? I see the city as a canvas to decorate, no matter where, the important thing is that it is affordable for everyone.

What does she think about her fame? It helps to know the way I see things, and to bring even more users to the project. The fame is a consequence of 'interest. It's nice to be followed by the fans! His fame is mine.

What has Jaix taught you? He taught me that art is very simple in its content. The emotions we live, love and the feeling that I feel for Jaix allow me to create art. Being a pet, what do I care to emphasize is that often we do not realize that art is simple. Life, love, family. Living everyday between imagination and reality.

Are there artists, or street artists, who you admire? My focus is on certain artists that have influenced me from the artistic point of view. Such as Keith Haring.

How far can you take this simple idea?
The idea of propaganda dog, man's best friend, is a simple and original idea. Jaix is the result of nature and the emotional impact is important for me.

Is there any message or subtext to the art that you create?
Mankind is drawn to dogs because they are so similar to humans; loyal, confused, easily disappointed, eager for fun... The message is love!

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in The Frame #1 - Michelle Eva May - Bombshell in The Frame January 2014

2014-01-04T16:57:00.000+00:00

Bombshell  2013

126 x 88 cm. Oil, acrylic, spray paint, charcoal, Conte, pastel, coffee on board.

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American actress Jean Harlow was known as the "Blonde Bombshell". In 1935 the movie China Seas was released, with Harlow co-starring alongside Clark Gable. She played 'Dolly 'China Doll' Portland'. In that same year China Seas would be the debut movie projected at The Ritz cinema - originally located at the top of Carlingford Road, N15, on the site now occupied by the Turnpike Lane bus terminus.

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As the first exhibitor in our 'in The Frame' series 2014, the Turnpike Art Group are proud to present a female artist who lives and works in north London.

Michelle Eva May is an artist who harnesses the power of paradox and complementary opposites. Her large-scale mixed media compositions counter the traditional notion of portraiture, presenting a contemporary cropped window into the dark and light world which she captures as a 'construct' of her own emotional journey.

She studied fine art in Johannesburg, at the National School of Arts and the University of the Witwatersrand, and has been living in the UK since 2000. Among her influences, Eva May cites Frida Kahlo, Van Gogh, Lucian Freud, Da Vinci, Maya Kulenovic, Roberta Coni, Marco Mazzoni, Guy Denning, Lionel Smit, Derek Eli Sterkel. Alongside these individuals she shares that rare ability to present an emotional connection to the real world, through a combination of vulnerability and strength; plus also portray the dreamlike state of mortality and the subconscious.

TAG visited Eva May's studio in autumn 2013, where her work stood out among the broad spectrum of creatives presenting as part of an Open Studios event. Although her mixed-media compositions are more traditionally displayed within the gallery environment, TAG are interested to show them within our own urban exhibition area, which in itself heightens the sense of vulnerability which Eva May explores within her work.

Krystal 1

The Prayer

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Can you broadly describe how you approach a new portrait?

Before I start a new piece I spend a long time looking at my subject. I allow ‘feeling’ and ‘emotion’ to guide me and try not to be too analytical. It’s important for me to feel a sense of connection with the person immediately. I rely on intuition and instinct to lead the way. I work mostly from my own photographic reference and occasionally from life drawing.

At times I feel very ‘alien’ and vulnerable in life and to my environment, so painting has become an outlet and a form of therapy for me. A journey and expedition to try and make sense of this world I live in...

Given the scale that you work at, allied to your very immediate brushwork, how do you find the 'physical investment' in each piece effects the end result?

The larger the scale of the work the more I feel connected because it allows me the opportunity to move freely and feel less inhibited. The physical act of movement creates a sense of freedom and passion in itself. I believe it takes the work to a different dimension, elevating it by ‘letting go’, both physically and mentally.

There exists a gripping polemic evident in some of your work - where an apparent stillness exuded by the subject is countered by the chaotic application of its composition. Is this use of paradox key to your work?

Definitely, yes! I think, to be honest, there is a lot of self conflict and self exploration going on and it becomes apparent in my paintings. I also recognize this in others. I see ‘darkness and light’ in all of us and everywhere and attempt to capture this is my work. The one cannot exist without each other. A metaphor of life……. My pieces are an expression of what I see in my subject beyond his/her surface. It’s a visual representation of what lies beneath – people are complex!

Your paintings have a very visceral quality. One gets a very engaging sense of 'moment' - with us the viewer allowed a snapshot, seemingly post-event; the calm after the storm. Is this charged undercurrent a conscious part of your work?

I think there’s a consciousness and and sub consciousness involved. I think the ‘calm after the storm’ is a great way to describe my work. It tells a story (of my journey in life thus far and others’) emotionally and visually that I cannot express enough in words … Darkness and light, conflict and peace, and ultimately hope!

On another level, your large-scale portraits convey the traditional notion of an artist and sitter - with may hours spent contemplating the minutiae of a personality before committing paint to canvas. Yet the fluid sense of space and immediacy that literally drips from your canvases counter that process. What made you adopt such an expressionistic approach?

This approach gives me great freedom to express what I see and feel in the person. Working too perfect, precise and realistic in technique and style removes some deeper sense of ‘soul’ in my work. I want to capture the essence of the subject. Looking deeper and working in this expressionistic approach is key to my work. I also think it’s what I’m trying to achieve that dictates the approach. Every layer of mixed media I apply is done in anticipation of the result

Emotion plays a big part in your work. The viewer is aware of a subtext. And although not quite voyeuristic, the composition dares us to dip into another individual's exposure. How do you find this approach affects the way you paint or compose?

I allow instinct and intuition to help me compose the piece. If it ‘feels’ right, it works. I don’t analyze too much. I guess a lot of my subconscious informs the way I compose and paint.

On another level, your large-scale portraits convey the traditional notion of an artist and sitter - with Much like the British artist Jenny Saville, you focus on female subject matter, presented with a rawness, and vulnerability. Who are the mentors or inspirations that you relate to?

I list a few: Frida Kahlo, Van Gogh, Lucian Freud, Da Vinci, Maya Kulenovic, Roberta Coni, Marco Mazzoni, Matt Small, Guy Denning, Lionel Smit, Andrew Salgado, Gabriela Bodin, Derek Eli Sterkel and more……

Time is evident in your paintings. Your works portray an almost filmic framework of captured moments. How does this notion of story telling evolve when confronted with a blank canvas? Is it the event that controls the visual? Or does your mixed-media, multi-layered style build its own story?

I think a bit of both really. There’s always a story to be told and the use of mixed media and multi-layered technique allows for the story to surface. It brings the piece of work to life – makes it ‘breathe’. I sometimes feel like I’m just a vessel and the pieces become their own entities. Existing freely and powerfully. My art is a construct, like film. I’d say I play a director’s role…..

Your portraits have a classical undertone, reminiscent of Head of a Woman by Leonardo da Vinci, 1508; both convey a mood of melancholy or self-reflection; similarly you create that same enticing, ephemeral quality of the 'unfinished artwork'. Given your technique allows for much layering, when do you know that an artwork has reached its completion? And how much do you allow subconscious, chance events to form a part of your process?

Good question, I don’t think I ever feel a piece of work is finished. I think the art lies in knowing when to stop! I’ve ruined many pieces by overworking them. I feel they’ve lost some depth to them that I’m so desperate and inclined to express. It is important for me to step back and take breaks from the work regularly … ultimately gives me a fresh perspective and allows the piece to ‘breathe’.

Collectively, your artworks also seem very contemporary in their composition. The camera lens plays a role. They exude that 'safe eroticism' brought into being with the phenomenon of the 'selfie', and perhaps a sense of control being fashioned by women willing to reclaim their self-regard though sharing all that they are. Is there any form of feminist subtext to the paintings that you produce?

Maybe subconsciously, yes. There is a lot of self exploration involved in the work I produce…. Having a ‘voice’ as a woman is very important to me. Ultimately beyond the vulnerability and emotion, you peel back the layers and behind it lies a classic and strong individual / woman. I think our battle scars are all part of the overall beauty of a person.

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A limited edition print of Eva May's 'Krystal 1' is available to buy HERE
For more information, including commissions, contact the artist through her website www.michelleevamay.com

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Time and TideArtist - TAG. Installed December 2013

2013-12-19T18:34:00.000+00:00
In October 2013, TAG artist James Straffon submitted a design proposal for a 27-square-metre installation artwork. This was in response to a commission initiative organised by Fourth Wall Creations in conjunction with Urban Space Management, both based at Trinity Buoy Wharf, in London's docklands. The Time & Tide Public Art Commission would involve three chosen artists, creating a series of arts based interventions intended to enrich the visual journey from local transport hubs, through Orchard Place, and into the Wharf itself.

Fourth Wall Creations received a considerable response; Straffon's submission chosen as one of the three appointed artists. His proposal embraced the core focus of the commission, as well as one of the fundamental principles of TAG's ethos - that of heritage, and stories:

'My proposal concerns a historical commemoration of the surrounding vista, more specifically the Corporation of Trinity House, and the industry established at Trinity Buoy Wharf as a Thames-side melange of activity - with engineers, platers, riveters, pattern makers, blacksmith, tinsmiths, carpenters, painters, chain testers and labourers, creating the iron buoys which would safeguard those who travelled the waters of London, the United Kingdom, and indeed the world. Their long gone voices of the past can be embedded within this artwork.

I propose to create a number of graphic representations of the iron buoys, featuring the form and markings contained in their various individual purposes. This could include the Cardinal Marks (indicating deep water, junctions or bends), and Safe Water Marks (showing the best point of passage).

The forms would be very bright and bold, and every bit as noticeable as the functional objects to which they reference. This suggestion of navigation can broadly imply the passage of visitors through the space'.

The fabrication process would involve attaching in excess of 4,000 industrial nylon cable ties to a nine-metre stretch of steel fencing. This weather-proof screen would form the woven canvas, itself a three-dimensional embellishment to the space, onto which a graphic landscape of semi-abstract forms would be applied via paper stencil and spray paint. Work began on a frosty morning in mid-December, when the first ties were locked tight against the steel uprights. Over a number of days the process unfolded. Misty mornings brought a surreal and somewhat otherworldly quality to proceedings; low winter sunshine occasionally peering over the now dormant East India Dock. It was that bygone industry which made this project particularly resonant for the artist, as his own Grandfather - William Ella Straffon - spent his entire working life toiling on those very same waters as a Thames Lighterman.

It is to him that Straffon dedicated this installation piece - FOR WILLIAM ELLA.

With special thanks to Ana & Clara.

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Merry TAGmas

2013-11-23T12:39:00.000+00:00

It has been an extraordinary year of achievement, with a host of international street artists contributing to our ever-growing urban gallery. From Warsaw to Barcelona, each has added their own unique style to our corner of N15.

STEWY returned with his menagerie of British fauna, allowing for many a "But have you seen the pig?" moment. We had flora too - TAG Flower Boxes flourished; a little mushroom sprouted here and there. And then the Roof Garden blossomed, next year sure to see it burst into colour. Finally a peaceful oriental landscape brought tranquility, with its majestic cranes and rolling mist across Mount Tai.

We spent much of 2013 turning Inside Out, took time to B.Brave, and were also the Toast of the Town. And its not every day that you get to reopen a railway line - Palace Gates got a green flag of its own (not forgetting Milli the station dog).

TAG would like to thank all the artists who graced our streets, Community First for funding some of this year's projects, Cafeteria for allowing the Toasters to pop up (plus looking after NeSpoon while she was in London, and allowing us to fill a watering can or two), Mollusc Music, UK Power Networks, Veolia, Sustrans, Haringey Council, the Chinese Community Centre, and each and every person who took the time to simple utter "Thank you" to the artists at work.

We already have some very exciting projects in planning for 2014. And would like wish a very Merry TAGmas to all.

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Palace Gates - our platform to the pastArtist - TAG. Installed September 2013

2013-09-26T16:17:00.000+01:00

Some of our larger TAG installation pieces have arrived via a journey. And our Palace Gates project is no exception. It has been a six to seven month process; now completed at the end of September 2013.

These last few days saw the various paper stencils, cut to form the multitude of compositional elements to our tableau, taped, trimmed and sprayed; with reel after reel of masking tape applied as both concealment and support.

With the process comes that natural sense of theatre. As artist your stage is set. Your audience a continual passage of street life, moving through the vista to which you turn your back. And as ever, the many and varied citizens of this pocket of north London, have an unbelievable appreciation of what we are trying to achieve. The countless passing expressions of gratitude are heartwarming - "Thank you for making Turnpike Lane nice!" just one example; a tiny bouquet of hand-picked flowers another.

We spoke with individuals who could recall trains running through the space; found time to explain the artwork which would appear; offered tuition on how spray artwork is achieved; engaged with anyone who expressed an interest. And with so many people travelling through this thoroughfare linking central London [via the Underground station] and Tottenham, our art installation gave many a daily engagement with the creative process, as they returned on the homeward path to see what development had occurred.

New friends have been made also. Tea and cake was offered on day one. A wonderfully ripe allotment-tomato donated on the last. This from a droll individual who had earlier shown me the demise of his tomato crop from Blight. Returning half an hour later with the words "This one is sound," such generosity speaks volumes of the older generation. This moment succinctly illustrates a glimpse into the past, through a consequence of being on the street, making our art - one gets to meet people. And if you make an effort to talk, ask questions, learn of what used to be, community actual becomes a tangible form. "I'm glad you're not Banksy" said our tomato-grower, "because otherwise someone would steal that wall. And we'll all be without electricity."

TAG would like to thank UK Power Networks for allowing this artwork to be applied to one of their substations.

Our gratitude to Christopher Chapman, for sharing the vision. And similarly Haringey Council for pushing the final green button. Lastly, to Spacehive, and all the generous funders who met our project target, allowing the materials to be purchased.

With Stan the Station Master proudly waving his green flag, Elsie smiling through her ticket office window, Milli the eager station dog looking on, our Palace Gates artwork brings the romance of travel to this north London platform.

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Milli the station dogArtist - TAG. Installed September 2013

2013-09-24T19:27:00.000+01:00

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Inside Out • 2013Artist - TAG/JR. Installed March-August 2013

2013-09-20T15:38:00.000+01:00

To view the larger screen version go HERE

Sound by Mollusc Music

"Awesome video!" - Inside Out Project, NY.

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Palace Gates gets a Green FlagArtist - TAG. Installed September 2013

2013-09-20T13:35:00.000+01:00

Stan, our Palace Gates Station Master stands proudly on his platform.

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Click DONATE to support the Turnpike Art Group

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Ticket to Ride

2013-09-10T19:03:00.000+01:00

On a bright, and unusually warm autumn day, work begins on our Palace Gates project.

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CouponInstalled September 2013

2013-09-10T16:49:00.000+01:00
A vacuous coupon. Which ostensibly has no value. It's an interesting proposition.

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D'Oh!

2013-09-06T11:22:00.000+01:00
Street artist Banksy meets Matt Groening...

Null the Cull T-shirt

2013-09-02T17:16:00.000+01:00
Wear your heart on your sleeve. And a badger on your back...

Hand-stencilled with sponges, and fabric dyes, our urban badger has pride of place on any recycled T-shirt. This the ubiquitous vehicle for personal expression, which spans each successive era.

VWArtist - TAG/VW. Installed August 2013

2013-08-29T14:55:00.000+01:00

When a new apprentice arrives on her Brompton, sporting a tangerine, monogramed satchel, you know you're in safe hands.

From an earlier conversation, when we met VW whilst working on an artwork, she expressed a desire to have one of our Flower Boxes created in her neighbourhood (a mere half mile from the TAG hub). Such enthusiasm was bolstered, when we suggested she help make the artwork.

So on an early autumn morning, we met over an expectant telecom box, eager to plant some flowers. Over the next hour-or-so we dodged falling apples and pears from a nearby tree, applied seven colour variations to our stencils, and discussed critical street art theory - such as whether Banksy applies suncream, and if so, what factor?

It was a joy to observe VW's confidence grow, until by the third panel, she was spraying like a pro. Hopefully our tutelage was sufficient. Judge for yourself...

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Positive EmotionArtist - NeSpoon. Installed August 2013

2013-08-24T18:42:00.000+01:00
Street Art can arrive through many channels. Its application can arrive through stencil, paper, spray paint, marker or even sponges. Mostly, there is an immediacy. One gets a sense of time. And apropos with the oeuvre, a certain anonymity.

These many and varied forms of expressionism make this the most modern, and vibrant of artistic movements; now accepted as a bona fide category for the visual arts. A recent conversation with one artist came to the consensus that the street is now where the best examples of artistic endeavour are to be found. The gallery is dead. Long live the avenue, road, crescent, lane…

Within the rapidly-expanding vista of our own Turnpike Art Gallery, we are blessed with a plethora of such varied and vibrant artworks. There is no fee to visit. And the artworks on show were all donated (created) free of charge. This paradoxical state of being was highlighted with a new, and powerful wall installation recently created by Polish artist NeSpoon. Although, we would argue, this enigmatic of artists is not a street artist. She is simply an artist.

At our request, NeSpoon came to us for five days, from her home in Warsaw, following our proposal that she embellish our Roof Garden Project, with an appropriate organic creation. What followed seemed to defy the notion of time, as we observed her working, conducted lengthy conversations about all that matters, and also touched the walls of both Tate Modern and Shoreditch. Only five days. Yet we shared a lifetime.

Talking as she painted, NeSpoon suggested her rightful place on the street art scene was its kindergarten. Yet in less than five years she has fashioned her own niche, and made a genuine impact, from both the geographical perspective, and more importantly as a woman able to have a voice in this very virile of art forms.

Her first installation was for children - a collection of ceramic lady birds, set free onto the streets where she lived. NeSpoon recalled making them in winter, and patiently waiting for a sunny March morning in which to begin a new journey. This moment opened her eyes - more to the contours of her home town, than the potential for making more ceramics. Not intending to make street art, this first venture triggered a chain reaction where she says "I saw everywhere places where I should do it [place art]. Good places… here… and here …and here". And in due course, NeSpoon very literally saw the light, summed up with a very poignant remark "In one minute you start to see the city like a gallery."

Most compelling is a link she shares with many established street artists - their adoption of the quotidian as a form of muse. Think the Toasters Toaster, Nagel's mushrooms. NeSpoon found inspiration in the fine-spun structure of lacework, first through ceramic fabrication, then latterly huge stencils and hand-painted delicacy. Her means of making is prolific. Yet each speaks of a universal familiarity. Somewhat self-depricating, NeSpoon laughs at the moment when lace entered her artist consciousness - "I never thought I would make such stupid, easy going things!"

Therein lies the paradox. These monolithic fractals followed her escape from a dark place, into a more transcendental reality. Once more dismissing her own importance, NeSpoon suggests that she is merely the conduit for the placement and form of her work, and that when she 'listens' to the feedback whilst making, a form of subliminal guidance controls how much water or paint or pressure is applied to her work. "I didn't choose them. They chose me," she says.

What is undeniable, is the critical end desire for NeSpoon. She wants her pieces to evoke positive emotion. And they do. Five days in her company, and you feel as if you've spent two weeks on a Goan beach. This artist channels herself through her creations; with a very real and genuine desire to make people happy. Even if only for one second.

Her rebirth came some time in the past, with a conscious decision to change herself. No self-help manual for this lady. She found solace in a scene from The Matrix, with the character Neo discovering "There is no spoon". Embracing this notion of a new, limitless reality, NeSpoon was born.

So it is key when looking at her work, that one forms ideas. And as the artist suggests "jump where you want". It was at this point in our discussion, as the paint began to dry, that a very real picture began to form of how art can change lives. NeSpoon is a living example of this. Of such change she summarises "Most people think they can't do it. And they don't do it. The most important thing is to start to try. Because when you don't try, you will never go where you want to go."

In NeSpoon's signature lace artworks, one is reminded of Native-American dreamcatchers. And similarly, ancient diagrams of Indian Chakras, such as the thousand-petalled Lotus - Sahasrara. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Chakra is the Sanskrit word for wheel, or turning. And that Sahasrara is the chakra for pure consciousness, within which there is neither object nor subject. Associated themes of rebirth and the colour white also seem to strongly reflect the artworks created by NeSpoon.

When she stepped back from our Roof Garden wall, and declared "She is finished", the end artwork seemed dripping like some gossamer fishing net, one which had caught every positive comment from the passers by who felt compelled to tell the artist how much they loved the piece. More than a dreamcatcher, this lacework holds energy, and shares its bounty. Our gallery has its own portal to positive emotion, in whatever form the viewer desires.

Eager to give something back, we took NeSpoon on two contrasting, yet linked cultural trips within London. We took a tour of Tate Modern's collection, almost causing a coronary, as NeSpoon found herself at close quarters with paintings only ever seen in text books. Catching breath, after several successive Picasso masterpieces, we both found the Gerhard Richter room containing his Cage series somewhat overwhelming. A day later, we took NeSpoon on a rain-soaked rush through Shoreditch's many and varied street art scene. This experience provoked similar awe, as any street art fan would sense. Pausing briefly, she generously contributed a beautiful porcelain artwork of her own, bonding it to a well-chosen item of street furniture, before delicately etching a miasma of graffiti-pen marks around the plaque's contour.

Our street gallery at N15, London, has seen the first artwork created by NeSpoon in a major metropolis. We are lucky.

And perhaps to summarise the emotions of a fantastic five days spent in her company, we should look to Gerhard Richter himself, when he said 'Art is the highest form of hope'.

TAG are creating a short film on NeSpoons artwork.

We would like to thank Community First for funding this extension to our Roof Garden Project.

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Stop the cullArtist - TAG. Installed August 2013

2013-08-24T13:41:00.000+01:00
TAG supports the coalition to stop the UK Badger cull. Give your support HERE & HERE

www.facebook.com/stop.the.cull

Chestnut Chippendale

2013-08-23T19:18:00.000+01:00
Spotted in Notting Hill...

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Artistic ties connect two cities

2013-08-23T12:25:00.000+01:00

Located in an appropriately artful corner of central Warsaw, this cable tie installation by NeSpoon was created in response to a tacit brief set by TAG, when the artist visited London in August 2013.

Very much making the artwork her own, these vertical, downward plunging strips appear perfectly harmonised with NeSpoon's own paint-dripped wall installations.

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TAG Çiçek KutusuArtist - TAG/Esra. Installed August 2013

2013-08-17T13:24:00.000+01:00

Never underestimate the power of flowers. And their inherent ability to open new doors and opportunities.

Only recently TAG were applying the finishing touches to our Chinese Centre artwork, with a petal-painting initiative designed to engage passer-by with ownership of the art in their streets, when we discovered a hugely talented artist living only a few hundred yards from the hub. After receiving some sample artworks, a date was set to work with Esra Duzen, on our very first collaborative installation - a TAG Çiçek Kutusu.

Originating from Istanbul, Esra's style proved to be a perfect blend - as she overworked the initial flower stencil piece with her own, illustrative melange of quirky ornamentation. Esra was left to her own devices, completing her sumptuous contribution many hours later. Somewhat reminiscent of the early-incarnation of surf brand Mambo, Esra's free-flowing fantasia landscapes feature other-worldly forms. Without any accompanying sketches, the highly-detailed end artwork literally flowed from the tip of her pens, in an appropriately organic inscription of subconsciousness. In conversation, we found it unsurprising that Esra's ideal would be to illustrate her own children's books.

TAG hope this artwork receives the respect it deserves. It is an absolute pleasure to incorporate such talent into what we do. The language of art is indeed universal.

Mushroom soup

2013-08-15T18:54:00.000+01:00

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The TAG Roof GardenInstalled August 2013

2013-08-15T12:31:00.000+01:00

Almost a year ago, TAG members began discussions focussed on the introduction of a roof garden, to be located beneath our Shepard Fairey artwork. Over Cafeteria coffee we began the momentum for a major project; one which would provide a steep learning curve, and with it a good few changes of heart. Yet the core ethos remained intact - to soften the street corner with vegetation and visual embellishment, create a bee-friendly pocket of London, and introduce positive emotions through natural formations.

This August we finished installation.

Many hands have helped to make this project work. Critically, we must mention the Community Development Foundation, and Community First - without whose funding this urban micro-garden would not have been possible. There is much ongoing maintenance to come; the spring and summer of 2014 a time when the full visual effect is most likely to be realised. Yet already the bees have found us. And the sight of various fronds waving in the cross wind a welcome diversion from brick and concrete.

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Small but interesting outdoor taskArtist - TAG. Installed September 2013

2013-08-10T15:55:00.000+01:00

We like a challenge at TAG. And a recent advert posted on Craigslist was all together too intriguing

CREATIVE VISUAL ARTIST REQUIRED FOR SMALL BUT INTERESTING OUTDOOR TASK

Fast forward a few weeks, and we found ourselves just south of the Elephant and Castle roundabout, installing three fine variants on the TAG Flower Boxes, as a commission piece courtesy of the York Mansions Residents Association, located on a side street off Walworth Road.

As the second of three artworks were being installed, progress was halted by a woman cycling up to the nearby traffic lights. "Is that guerilla art?" she enquired. Having informed her there was permission granted for the work, TAG responded "Would the artwork be better if it was?" Remounting her bike as the lights turned green, the cyclist left a challenging repost "Possibly. Yes."

Through a very successful dialogue, three kerbside placements had been created - these as masking decorations to what was once a trio of lighting wells to the York Mansions basement. This kind of intervention can very easily transform an everyday eyesore into a punctuation point of visual interest. Such seemingly small artworks can create a world of difference.

TAG would like to thank Stuart Whatton for his precision and insight.

Commission TAG

2013-08-09T17:22:00.000+01:00
With a broad portfolio of projects already placed within the public domain, the Turnpike Art Group are keen to expand our ethos into other locations. We can create bespoke artworks, or seek to commission other street artists; in an effort to enhance pre-existing sites, with artwork that can both lighten the everyday journey and incite a sense of wellbeing.

All our interventions are carefully researched, with permission granted from both local businesses and residents alike. Our aim is to embellish the streets with original material which counters the oft-accepted perception of street art being somewhat anarchic and ego-driven. We reintroduce elements of heritage, the artisan and the natural world.

From simple panels to decorate an eyesore, to full-scale shop or bar fronts, TAG can work with a client to provide a bespoke solution. We welcome your blank canvas, and open mind. TAG can also create a bespoke street art show within bars and public venues - such as The Westbury in north London.

Email TAG at james@turnpikeartgroup.co.uk

Fees will include consultation, designing, artwork and materials.

Toasters in Hackney. July 2013.

2013-08-08T22:12:00.000+01:00

Fragrance clings to the hand that gives you flowersArtist - TAG. Installed July 2013

2013-07-29T21:36:00.000+01:00

In mid-April 2013, TAG submitted an artwork proposal to the Chinese Community Centre, N15. Over three months later, its final brushwork was completed, by the people who walked by this stretch of paving, on Sunday 4th August. It was a very special day spent painting.

Once finished, the full breadth of the task became apparent. As did the emotion, at journey's end, when a vision which was once just paper, became reality. A journey had been played out on the grey slabs fronting 211 Langham Road, N15. A month of glorious summer had gifted the conditions for growth. Scores, maybe more, had passed by. Many compelled to give thanks. The positive reaction, at times, overwhelming.

And so it seemed only right, as we sensed the final phase was entered, that the individuals sharing our streets should share in the picture we were forming. And over a long afternoon, TAG stopped the people in the street, and put a brush in their hand. We wanted this artwork to be about them.

Thanks to all those who painted petals - Vivien, Sarah, Esra, Anne-Marie, Colin, Zara, Shannon, Reniah, Alexia, Ruby-Rose, Clara, Monika, Catalina, and many more.

Artwork created by James Straffon

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The artist at work

2013-07-29T09:21:00.000+01:00

Photo © Nevs Hamling 2013

Our Cranes fly in to the picture

2013-07-28T19:05:00.000+01:00

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home

2013-07-27T18:40:00.001+01:00

Pegasus

ATM

Fio Silva

Palace Gates

ART@THE WESTBURY

The Toasters

DONK - B.brave

Shepard Fairey

Mobstr

TAG Movies

Art is Tra$h

Binty Bint

Trinity Buoy Wharf

NeSpoon

STEWY

Zabou

COMMISSION TAG

Turnpike Toscana

Chinese Community Centre

TAG Flower Boxes

Christiaan Nagel

Inside Out Project

Central Saint Martins

Jam in a Jar

Notes

Doorstep

Roof garden

Elise Wehle

Doorstep Welcome

in The Frame

Palace Gates project open to funding

2013-07-27T11:49:00.000+01:00

Palace Gates Project now open for funding https://t.co/GoWO0FWg68 via @spacehive
— Bailey Straffon (@TurnpikeArt) August 1, 2013

Working on a knife edge

2013-07-23T22:41:00.000+01:00
Hand-cut masking tape stencils. The ultimate test in artistic temperament.

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Late summer blossom not far away

2013-07-22T11:57:00.000+01:00

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B.braveArtist - DONK. Installed July 2013

2013-07-21T18:25:00.000+01:00
One of the primary pleasures gained from curating our own street gallery is getting time with the artists, and observing that very satisfying post-installation warm glow.

So it was very recently, sharing a beer with DONK, and his erudite assistant Christine, having witnessed one of the artist's seminal pieces - B.brave - being pasted-up under the watchful eye of Shepard Fairey.

The work itself is almost theatrical. Yet emanates a tranquil charm and devil-may-care serenity. Featuring DONK's own son, this sublime composition is soon to be released as a limited edition screen print. More on this when the new DONK website is up and live.

During our conversation, it was satisfying to hear of the reaction that passers-by had fed back into the duo as they worked - this the same very positive vibe that our community dispels over quality interventions placed within our streets. Our residents have a very discerning appreciation of the arts. And frequently utter gratitude when new work is appearing.

Sat on the low wall bearing Stewy's cat, our discourse meandered though street artists working past and present, 'spreading the love' through paste-up, and the possibility of bigger things to come. It was a privileged discourse. And a reminder that art can lead to so many rewarding liaisons.
TAG thanks DONK for his donation, and Christine for help with installation.

For more on his work, read our interview, conducted before B.brave was in situ.

The B.brave artwork is available as a limited edition screen print. Buy HERE

Ticket to Ride - Palace Gates Project - Part II

2013-07-21T14:54:00.000+01:00

With Part I of our Palace Gates Project installed, Part II will complete this romance-of-rail intervention.

Incorporating the original detailing from the Palace Gates Station, TAG will be decorating the side wall of an electricity sub station. For this we have carefully consulted with UK Power Networks and Haringey Council, both of whom generously gave their permission for this artwork to proceed.

For this project TAG are trialling the crowdsourcing platform Spacehive. To donate funds to make this project happen visit our dedicated funding page HERE

"I have kind of a love hate relationship with paper"

2013-07-20T18:27:00.000+01:00

It's a continual thrill, scanning the shifting horizon of street art, eager to spy whats new and evolving. Recently, it was a pleasure to be able to discuss old world painting, alternate personas, and a sumptuous new body of work, with London artist DONK.

TAG: How important is exploration of the alter ego? Given your works seem to play around with alternate identities, and a theatrical sense of play.

DONK: Well, I am quite interested in the alter ego. It is a great way of freeing up & playing with notions of identity. You are able to concoct visual elements which lead you to a final sensibility. That final Sensibility being very important to my work.

TAG: You yourself have elected to present DONK as your pseudonym. Is anonymity and masks a conscious feature?

DONK: Apart from the convenience of not being easily tied to the unsanctioned street work, it is also as you say more theatrical and lends an air of mystery, which I personally think adds something to the mix. It's not as if it's really important to know who I am anyway. The Donk pseudonym was a bit of added fun really, I wanted something to tie the works together that was unpretentious, childlike and little gonzo. I like the idea that Donk could be a non-age specific and non-race or gender specific thing, just a kind of imaginary thing!

TAG: Your more better known works - including B.brave - have a wonderful sense of romanticism, and a very anachronistic styling, as if advertising the kind of touring circus oft sung about by Tom Waits; do you enjoy playing around with this kind of paradox?

DONK: I do. I try to create genuinely emotive image's whilst at the same time trying to avoid over sentimentalising or taking things to seriously. I think this contradictory process creates a natural conflict within the imagery which in turn results in a kind of pathos or mixed emotion! I like this sense of something happy and simultaneously a bit sad, like our occasional awareness that we are in specific moment just as that moment shifts and is suddenly gone.

I think music is great at opening these emotional connections. I suppose I am trying to do something similar but in visual terms. Ultimately I try to communicate something quite soulful and authentic. Music is definitely a major influence and I have tried to incorporate musical reference here and there. I stencilled John Grant lyrics onto a piece a couple of years ago. I thought the lyrics added an extra layer of potential meaning.

TAG: Similarly, there is something in your paste-up creations reminiscent of Dutch Master painters - particularly given the use of your own son as a form of muse - much like Rembrandt's 'Titus, the Artist's Son'. Do you envisage continuing the genesis of this approach?

DONK: I do feel there is some visual relationship between my work and old world painting or religious imagery, I guess I am attracted to the melodrama of it all and the idea that these old works would have carried so much power in their day, you can still feel it to some degree. I would like to continue using my son in the work, though that is really entirely up to him. I'm sure he will humour me for a little while yet.

I think it would be amazing to have pieces he was part of which spanned from his early childhood through to adulthood. My sons arrival really did bring about a lot of self-realisation and new found purpose for me, and also brought a lot of fun too.

TAG: It is suggested that location is a key factor in your artworks, and their placement. Can you elaborate on this?

DONK: I guess location isn’t as important to my work as it is to the purest of street artists, who try to create a dialogue with structural elements of the street itself or attempt to make some kind of social comment. I think my images work on a more subliminal level by playing with mood's and atmosphere's. Location is important though, as i'm trying to communicate with a street audience via a poster based language devised specifically for the street.

I think context is as important to me, by placing the work out into the city I grew up in, and where my son is growing up, I feel I can connect directly with an audience and hopefully communicate a positive desire to belong and stake a claim in the community. A sense of belonging or the human need to belong is key within my work.

One of my early exposures to this idea came via the book subway art which came out in the eighties. I was at school in Hackney when this crazy book turned up with all these amazing maverick graffiti writers in it, some with incredible individual style's others with prolific or daring output, but the one that really got to me and stayed with me was the Puerto rican writer Lee Quiñones who painted train cars with giant tribute messages to his mum and girlfriend. I just connected with the simple, emotional honesty and commonality of these touching messages. I hope there is something of this spirit in what I am doing.

TAG: Likewise, do your paste-up installations offer a dialogue of any sort to the onlooker?

DONK: I hope so, in as much as I think people are naturally curious and surprisingly in tune with the subtle changes in their environments, so I hope, from time to time, my work might inspire someone else to take their own ideas out on the street. I have regularly had people bomb my posters with tags which is a kind of dialogue. If nothing else I hope the onlooker gets a sense of someone trying to communicate something heartfelt.

TAG: What would you say drew you to paste-up as a delivery method for your work?

DONK: My work comes out of photography so the next natural step for me was always Xerox. Yes, I think paper on the streets has it's own challenges, strengths and weaknesses. It's definitely the most transient of street mediums, it's incredibly vulnerable in some way's and surprisingly durable in others. I have kind of a love hate relationship with paper. I am still experimenting with it's potential really.

TAG: Is the ephemeral nature of paper on walls something that concerns you?

DONK: Yes, as I said the paper I use is super vulnerable in an outdoor environment and as such it does get a proper battering by the elements particularly in this country. To me this fragility complement's and at times amplifies the emotive nature of the work and helps to distinguish it from the high end advertising posters. It does mean however that posters will disappear on impact sometimes, which can be frustrating and a little embarrassing. I do sometimes cut strips or tassels at he bottom of the the posters as a form of added decoration. The idea was to create an element of movement as they catch the wind, but also to add a touch of added melodrama.

TAG: Tell us about your new series of hand-dyed prints.

DONK: It's my first edition screen print and i'm really pretty excited about it. It's my B.brave image, and I've developed a screen printing technique that remains quite true to my street work. I basically hand colour wash each sheet of paper with indian inks then hang, dry and flatten them before cutting cropping and screen printing the image over the top. I use a similar process with my posters where I colour wash the photocopies. What I like about this process is you end up with the continuity element of screen printing combined with a process that results in something unique to every print.

TAG: Is there a plan of action for the years ahead?

DONK: Plans for the future are to continue making new pieces of work in a similar vain and keep pasting and pushing the work on in the right direction. A friend of mine has made a Donk a website so I can update people on new projects and screen prints as they become available.

I really want to explore the possibilities with screen printing in general and gradually print up may back catalog of images. I have an idea for a new image which concerns the diminishing returns of substance abuse, which I am really keen to get done along with some other ideas which have be cooking away. I hope to do some collaborations and to have some kind of show at some point too, possibly in a pub!

I like pubs!!

TAG: Are they available for art collectors to purchase?

DONK: Yes, they are from www.donklondon.com {website to go live soon}

Original photographs © DONK 2013.

Ssssh

2013-07-18T21:27:00.000+01:00

No. 599 Green Lanes, N8, has a relaxed, door ajar vibe.

Jam in a Jar has only just opened. Yet one gets the feeling, as Hiyal said to us, "It's going to stay". Reminiscent of New York's Lower East Side cafés, this shape-shifting venue's charm is indeed the devilish detail; these the arcadian hints at the unfinished - dusty brick, rusty metal, worn leather, cracked windows, weather-beaten hoarding. Everywhere you look you will find a tangible texture, and consequently some sense of belonging; the best kind of déjà vu. Maybe its the old Underwood Typewriter, that greets your entrance with its smiling set of keys. Or the soft filament-filled lighting, glowing easily. Or the voluminous button-back leather Chesterfield, that makes standing a tricky task. Jam in a Jar is the kind of place you want to keep secret.

Quto has been there and done that before. He's got previous with regards to setting up a trendy bar in London town. Yet, as he mentioned through half-smiling eyes, this kitchen thing was new, and one sensed more of a challenge than expected. Their menu parallels the bar's eclectic interior - its tapas framework fused with other elements of mediterranea - Chorizo meets Salami; Shrimp Quesidilla on the same page as Turkish Eggs. Apparently the Brazilian chef has been given carte blanche to make the menu his. From what we saw, he's enjoying the challenge.

Estrella is on tap. Ground coffee a day-time essential. Wi-Fi of course. And then there is music.

Jam in a Jar encompasses a core ethos. Quto explained that live music, an open invitation for improv, and jam sessions would keep the raised wooden staging beating as the venue's pulsing heart. Bands have already begun to introduce themselves. The next big thing almost certain to cut their teeth at 599 Green Lanes.

Hiyal is contagiously unfazed. Sometime photo-journalist, she has the ability to see the big picture. And although lens-shy herself, makes Jam in a Jar sparkle.

One gets the sense that some fairy dust has been wafted up Green Lanes from its southern end. With Stoke Newington and Dalston now at bar-saturation point, our N8 and N15 locality is starting to fashion a new breed. We have that urban edginess. And great transport links, as well as green spaces. Now we have Jam in a Jar - which we discovered was almost called 'Collywobbles' - a name which might have keep this urban oasis a secret just that little bit longer.

Jam in a Jar
Tapas Bar & Restaurant • Concert venue • Art gallery
599 Green Lanes N8
07951 769 981

TAG have been invited to create an artwork for the Jam in a Jar frontage. View the finished piece HERE

Roof Garden takes shape

2013-07-12T22:16:00.000+01:00
An eclectic mix of plants constitute the planting for our Roof Garden Project. A host of visiting bees have already logged their approval, as work begins transferring the flora to our recycled containers. Next stop...the roof.

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Palace Gates Project - Part IArtist - TAG. Installed July 2013

2013-07-12T00:17:00.000+01:00

Of key interest to TAG is the heritage which forms the foundations for our cities, and its citizens. Wherever possible we wish to acknowledge the values of times gone by. That is the basis for our Palace Gates Project.

On 7th October 1878 the Great Eastern Railway Company opened a line which ran through Noel Park and Palace Gates (Wood Green). This line ran in competition to the Great Northern Railway line, from Kings Cross, and linked to Alexandra Palace. It was closed on 7th January 1963, after competition from the new Piccadilly Line extension to Cockfosters killed off its passenger traffic.

In 2012, as part of Sustran's DIY Streets Turnpike Lane, a memorial to the Palace Gates line was created in the form of two sections of steel track, set into the paving at Langham Place; adjoining the Mannock Road Allotments - whose plots run along the very land which once saw steam trains whistling to and fro.

Our Palace Gates Project is formed from two parts. Part I concerns colour memory - and the trackside semaphore signals which once directed the train drivers through this section of track. We have adopted the red and white STOP signal, and yellow and black DISTANT signal; recreating their form in soft, cable-tie forms, spanning the tracks. We thank Mannock Road Allotments for allowing us to transform their boundary railings.

Part II will involve our recreation of a Palace Gates station, replete with Station Master and traditional station detailing.

Tokyo Colour-In

2013-07-11T22:53:00.000+01:00

Chris Berthelsen runs a-small-lab. Based in Tokyo & Mairangi Bay, he combines 'research into creative climates for cities, organizations, humans and tools with practice in (non)design, making, publishing, and consulting'.

One of his latest projects is Tokyo Colour-In - a colouring-in book of Tokyo street art. Developed from the Tokyo street art research project, this intriguing tome was 'created to introduce little hands and minds to the fine-grained hand made aspects of human(e) creativity on the street'.

From a survey of 5,500 real examples of street art, spanning a broad area of Tokyo city, users of this book are encouraged to 'Add your own colours, lines and text and create new life amongst the debris of society. Realize that the city is not fixed by the violence of commercial development and the radical monopolization of space but actually a dynamic and fluid mix of ingredients and platforms for the human hand. Take this opportunity to sharpen your senses to another aspect of the hand made city'.

It is very apparent that the graffiti oeuvre is steadily forming a very credible niche within the art world, and through publications such as Tokyo Colour-In its mainstream acceptance now transcends the formative years of street art, which so often are depicted as mere acts of vandalism. Parallels can be drawn with movements such as Dadaism, eager to cruise the back roads of counter culture, as opposed to the more public thoroughfares of gallery fodder.

This presents a paradox; legitimising the practice might erode any sense of chaos. Will colouring-in blank-out the bigger picture? Or will these early-learners extract some tangible benefits from sampling creativity on the cutting edge?

Caisse à fleurs sur Graham GreenArtist - TAG. Installed July 2013

2013-07-08T20:24:00.000+01:00

In recognition of this summer's fabulous display of lavender on Graham Green, it seemed only right to create an appropriate Flower Box at this location (with a dash of island life for friends).

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Tale of the tape

2013-07-07T23:42:00.000+01:00
Further advancement with our shutter project. Time to consider shares in masking tape...

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Branching out

2013-07-06T23:26:00.000+01:00
Progress continues on the HCC shutter project.

Photo © James Caig 2013

Flower Boxes thrive in the Summer of 2013Artist - TAG. Installed July 2013

2013-07-06T11:30:00.000+01:00

Further blooms have sprung up in our Hub.

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Mount Tai

2013-07-05T20:22:00.000+01:00

TAG's proposal for a traditional chinese-style mural to cover the shutters of our local Chinese Community Centre was openly embraced by all of its members. We received many encouraging comments on submission of our idea

"It's beautiful and a good display of Chinese art and culture."

"..a very lovely image that would definitely help the HCC build up a good image and impression to the neighbourhood."

"Very excited to see the new look."

In addition, some useful cultural suggestions helped complete our picture - water was added to the scene - this to bring good fortune and wealth.

On request, TAG had also researched the inclusion of one of China's most historical and culturally significant mountains - Mount Tai. One of the "Five Great Mountains", this land form is associated with sunrise, birth, and renewal. And has been a place of worship for over 3,000 years.

Spanning the full width of the shutter-frontage, this mountain-scape includes the tallest point, known as the Jade Emperor Peak.

We found the best means to delicately create a mist-enshrouded vista was by sponging; gradually building up layers, across a masked cut-out of the Mount Tai horizon. Our sponge-of-choice? A pack of Baby Wash Soft Sponges from Poundland.

If you want happiness for a lifetime, help someone else.

2013-07-05T19:58:00.000+01:00

With London temperatures heading for the nineties, logic suggests seeking the shade, and avoiding those UV rays. But with an exciting TAG project entering its prep phase, it was time to grab a brush, a can of primer, and a tube of Factor 50.

Our Chinese Community Centre project is well under way. Its first weekend providing a heart-warming illustration of how art can inspire; there's nothing better than a blank canvas to beckon the creatively inclined. So it was, with first-day application of metal primer over fourteen square metres of shuttering, and then Sunday's pure white brushwork; many hands made light work of readying our canvas for the illustrative splendour to follow. Paty, a former street art author from Madrid could not resist the tagging opportunity. Chinese friends alike, dragged a loaded brush in participatory glee. For two consecutive afternoons, our local act of street theatre attracted many willing players.

Eventually the sun dipped low, the weekend came to a close, and with all our tins emptied of pigment, an impromptu bar was fashioned from our decorating platform. TAG toasted its efforts. We got by, with a little help from our friends (and some Chardonnay).

Tottenham-en-Provence

2013-07-05T11:22:00.000+01:00

You'd be forgiven for thinking this was deep in the Lubéron region of France, lying in the foothills of Mont Ventoux. Mais non, an intense period of sunshine has ignited this swathe of saturated lavender, nestled at one corner of Graham Green, N15.

Chapeau to those who tend this Provencal outpost.

On a roll

2013-07-04T20:26:00.000+01:00

The two-dimensional plans for major new TAG project comprise twenty-one AO-size prints. Within this tight roll of carefully researched splendour lies three blossoming Plum trees, a sacred mountain, and two majestic crane birds.