Summer Loving

Here at Design Week, we’re so street that sometimes, we don’t wear matching socks. On occasion, we say ‘is it’, when we already know it is. Once, we took literally twice the recommended daily allowance of Zirtek.

All these ludicrously perilous exploits are obviously the reason behind not one, but two blogs focussing loosely on street art this week, with the next on our danger schedule opening tomorrow at East London’s Stolen Space gallery.

However, though many of the Stolen Space artists have a background in graffiti and street art, the work on display is as diverse as it is arresting – ranging from mixed media on rock, to Lichtenstein-parody, to collage and retina-wrenching pattern.

Dan Witz’s Lonesome Boat is depicted on a slab of sheet rock, reflecting his marriage of street-art with old master painting techniques. The artist has described light as one of his most powerful influences, and the little sailing boat’s desolate shadow certainly enhances its isolation.

Informed by a mixture of traditional and street art, Arth Daniels’ work is fractured, real, disturbing and quietly humorous. Picking out the expressive elements of the human face and cramming them back together, his anti-portraiture aims to convey a non-literal depiction of the face and its expressions.

Among the other artists in the show are D*Face & Word To Mother, who will release a brand new print; Shepard Fairey, Sylvia  Ji, Toshikazu Nozaka and Rose  Sanderson.

The Summer Group Show runs from 8 July – 31 July, at Stolen Space Gallery, The Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London EC1