SMoA brings guerilla curating to the streets of London

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The Street Museum of Art has launched its second venture in “guerilla curating” in London’s artsy district of Shoreditch. Like their first exhibition, it’s basically a self-guided street art tour with museum-like wall labels. The exhibition’s title, “Beyond Banksy: Not another gift shop“, is likely a tongue and cheek reference to the commercial attention that street art has received in London these past few years, with Banksy at the forefront of the movement. In all fairness, Banksy has become enough of a household name that he and Exit Through the Gift Shop are frequently my reference points when speaking about street art to people outside this niche community. For that, I am thankful that I get to SMoA advises that the name is not meant to undermine the work of the beloved stencil artist, rather it is to encourage those who have Banksy as their token understanding of street art to the diversity of the other talented artists on the streets. This exhibition highlights works by artists such as C215, Christiaan Nagel, Eine, Mobstr, Pablo Delgado, Phlegm, Roa, Run, Skewville, Space Invader, Stik and Swoon.

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The map of the exhibited works are available here and the hours are… well, unlimited.

Photo by Street Museum of Art

Christiaan Nagel’s mushrooms head indoors

Christiaan Nagel is the artist who has been putting up strange mushroom sculptures in London for a little while. They can be really fun to come across when you’re not expecting it. If you’ve seen them before, you’re kind of in the know, at least to an extent. Still they are a bit of a mystery. How are they made and what are they made of? Is there a message? And if you’ve never seen one before, well the first time you see one is kind of like the first time you see an Invader. But like Invader, Christiaan is probably better suited for the outdoors than a gallery setting. Nonetheless, he has a solo show at Rich Mix in London opening next Thursday, and it’s been put together by Street Art London. So we’ll see how this goes. But I’m apprehensive. There’s a lot of street artists whose stuff really only works outdoors, and Christiaan’s mushrooms seem to fall squarely within that category. That’s not a slight against him or points for him. Some artworks work well indoors. Some work well outdoors. Some work well anywhere. I’m curious to see if Christiaan can bring his work indoors successfully. More info about the show here.