International Meeting of Styles, London 2010

Earlier today I was over at Highbury Studios to see the International Meeting of Styles, an event bringing together aerosol artists from across the world for a day of colour and creativity. Organised by Probs and Matilda from TheEndOfTheLine, more than 50 artists gathered to show us what they'd got.



I was lucky enough to chat to some of the people who were letting it all hang out on the walls and hoardings spread around, including Blam, who was spraying up a storm with a striking and fierce work. Blam, who hails from southeast London, started tagging in 2002 and, by his own admission, started to consider himself an artist by 2006. He lists famous graphic artists such as Simon Bisley as his major influences (one of Bisley's most well-known work can be found in the Judge Dredd and 2000AD comics from the '90s) and you can see this in Blam's approach - hyper-real, almost photographic work that really fizzes with energy. Just look at the amazing way that this guy can capture eyes!



I also spoke to Probs (who I've mentioned was the organiser and was clearly exhausted from all of the additional effort that's been required to put this together over a very long two months) and he takes an entirely different approach again. On the scene for the last six or seven years, he draws his ideas from manga, comic books, sci-fi and fantasy and today produced a piece straight from the heart of that last genre. Entitled 'Dark Funk', this neon-highlighted artwork is in homage to Daft Punk and their involvement in the upcoming Tron2 movie. If that wasn't enough, late yesterday he also spent several hours collaborating with popular German artist MadC on another dream-like piece featuring celestial horses galloping across galaxies of stars. I think he's earned a rest!




Next I was to meet Mark of the EssexRockerz, a veteran artist of 25 years standing, who was working with his one-time rival and now close friend Howard and a whole host of other collaborators on an enormous brick canvas stretching across about 20 feet of wall. Unlike the previous one, this big piece had a very organic feel to it. I noticed that Blam and Probs had brought along sketches to guide them today, and I asked Mark whether he had a similar approach, but it turns out that he's a great believer in going with the flow and doing whatever feels appropriate when he knows what he has to work with. Given that all of the guys working on this section had to seamlessly blend what they were doing with the person next to them, I think that was the right way to go, as I'm sure you'll agree that it all hangs together pretty neatly.



The last person I had the opportunity to chat to was Solo, another old-timer with 20 years of experience under his belt. As you can see he has yet another way of expressing himself - drawing on imagery from Asia, the Middle East and India his piece was vibrant and colourful. He also has another interesting role in the art world, as the curator of a 24-hour open-air art space on the Stockwell Park Estate in Brixton which aims to encourage young people to exercise their creativity. Looking at Solo's blog I note he's also done a stint at the Belfast peace wall in the recent past, a destination that's been popular with the international community of graffiti artists for several years now. I've visited it a few times myself, having often lain my head down to sleep just around the corner on the Shankhill Road these last few months...



I came away today really impressed at the breadth and depth of talent on show. Yes, some were doing what most people think graffiti artists do exclusively - that is creating elaborate 'tags' based on their names, but taken as a whole there were probably more people exploring everything from the surreal through fantasy to cartoon forms in their work. I took lots of photographs so you can see for yourself how wide-ranging graffiti art can be, and I've tried to organise them into timelines for each piece so that you can also observe how they developed through the afternoon. If you want further inspiration I can recommend clicking on the artists' websites I've listed above - proof if you need any that these guys have as much legitimacy as artists as anyone you'll find hanging in a gallery, and of course because they're out on the street they are infinitely more accessible.






I'll just close with a final piece of advice that if you want to go over and see these artworks for yourself, just be aware that there's an unfortunate tendency for people with inferior skills (apparently known as 'toys' in the trade) to cover over other people's work whatever its quality, so I'd suggest getting round to Highbury Studios sharpish before they disappear...