On Saturday I headed to Camden to go on a street art in Camden tour with Nelly from The Hidden Streets of London Street Art Tours. I became interested in street art while in Paris, mostly because it was the first time I was confronted by it (Tampa and Davidson aren’t exactly known for street art…). London, however, has a ton of street art, especially in Camden and Shoreditch so we figured going on an actual street art tour by someone who knows what they’re talking about would be a good idea. Especially since we had never been to Camden before and neither of us knew anything about street art…
The tour was 90 minutes and fantastic. I learned so much and our tour guide, a professional photographer of street art who also goes around the city finding legal places for artists to paint, was so knowledgable and passionate about each of the artists and their artworks (which always makes a tour even better). There’ll be a lot of pictures in this post, mostly because it is a post about street art and all of it was so cool I can’t even pick a favorite! I’ll try to explain what I remember but I was pretty focused on the beauty of it all so I don’t remember everything.
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| Illegal art with a political message (painted high enough to where they won’t take it down) |
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| Bambi (an anonymous female artist) tribute to Amy Winehouse |
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| Another Bambi tribute. Winehouse lived in Camden |
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| I love this one. By Italian artist Alice. Her sister (I think) works at this Greek restaurant |
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| This artist used to paint in color but decided to switch to black & white to be original. His art has mostly to do with love. |
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| This artist partners with nonprofits and paints pictures of endangered species |
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| This guy paints from photographs (freehanded) with a giant roller. Wow. |
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| Sixonesix will paint these geometric characters on anything and just leave them around the city for people to take |
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| A woman’s face if you look closely |
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| Invisible friend |
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| John Lennon. The pub right next to this painting originally had painted its wooden walls this green but recently painted them back to a blue |
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| Amy Angel. On an outside wall of Starbucks. Originally covered over but after Winehouse died, they let the artist come back and repaint her there. Apparently this was covered by lots of news outlets. |
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| This one really gets me. This artist couldn’t get a gallery show so he just decided he would work on the street. |
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| Tribal person (innocence) contrasting with Disney/ Dumbo (corruption). Dale Grimshaw |
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| Mr Cenz paints women in futuristic ways |
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| Love these |
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| French artist Zabou. Usually paints stuff concerning social awareness |
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| A portrait of Zabou by Ala Niz |
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| More Amy Winehouse! By Otto Schade, from Chile |
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| Love the Rhino. Still by Otto |
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| Artist from Brazil |
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| my dog sighs (the artist). The irises show the city skyline of where they were painted |
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| lol |
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| A collaboration by three artists. Called Lost Souls. |
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| Another endangered animal pic |
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| so pretty |
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| another Brasilian artist~supposed to be a native Brasilian. Eating McDonalds makes your stomach explode? |
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| These little guys were everywhere. I love them! |
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| This artist always paints balloon animals |
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| Airborne Mark & Whoam Irony |
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| pointillism! Jimmy C. |
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| Vanessa Longchamp |
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| Geisha by Dan Kitchener |
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| This house will be torn down really soon |
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| Je Suis Charlie tribute. Painted a couple of days ago. |
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| This guy is huge. Like 2 stories huge. Himbad. |
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| Whoam Irony |
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| The same b&w artist that paints scenes depicting love |
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| Cenz |
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| More Dale Grimshaw |
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| Vanessa Longchamp |
Teresa says
I love street art. These are amazing pieces of art!
almathews says
They are! It was so fun going around Camden to spot some great pieces.