Street Artists of

Birmingham

There are many well established names in Birmingham’s street art, with their work over the last few years on view for all to enjoy in places such as Digbeth and Southside. Others are still working to establish themselves and arrive on the scene in a variety of ways. A key means of keeping in touch with new street art is on the social media accounts of the artists, in particular Instagram. Here are some links to some of the artists that we have been following while researching Birmingham’s Public Art. We can only feature a representative sample of the considerable depth of street artists - and have chosen ones that show different styles of street artistry and backgrounds. Annatomix moved from a training in music and job as a sound engineer into the world of spray painting around 2010. She is certainly now one of Birmingham’s most recognisable street artists, with work in the city centre and also the suburbs. Her instantly recognisable geometric wildlife street art is complimented by fine art, including prints and originals, available from her website. Gent 48, AKA Joshua Billingham’s work includes a stylised mix of perplexed and startled cartoon style characters, often with teeth in need of a dentist. His work is seen across Digbeth and with a huge display also along Smallbrook Queensway, installed just before the Commonwealth Games. Josh trained at City University in Visual Communication and graduated in 2013. Ginger_Dan is very much based in Digbeth. His external work can be seen outside the Red Brick Market and he has a stall inside selling things such as decorated planters with his characteristic androgynous faces. He also runs ‘Drink and Draw’ evenings at The Ruin in Digbeth - search Eventbrite for tickets. His Cyber Drag Queen in the Nightingale Club is very diferent. Robbie Jeffcott went to Bishop Challoner school in Sutton Coldfield and graduated in fine art from Westminster University in 2018. He specialises in portraits including large scale street art, with his impressive Ozzy Osbourne and Mike Skinner facing each other, close to the Old Crown pub off Floodgate Street in Digbeth. Lucy McLauchlan (b. 1977) has a characteristic monochrome style with spot colours and curvy semi- abstract forms. Her large scale street art and exhibition work can be seen around the world. A series along the Grand Union and Digbeth canals were commissioned by the Canal and River Trust, with some still existing between Camp Hill Locks and Typhoo Basin and with earlier work in Shaw’s Passage by the Friends of the Earth garden. n4t4 is a prolific Midlands based artist whose work includes naturalistic faces and birds. Nuneaton based, AKA Nathan Parker, his impressive Digbeth work from the High Vis festival can still be seen around the River Rea by Gibb Street and is well worth a view. Zinzinahh (Ziner!) has a very stylised graffiti writer style. His works in Digbeth include collaborations with Gent 48. Dont be surprised to see his work when you next visit Nottingham, Banbury of even Tenerife! Dave Brown (aka: Panda, Flake): Dave is a rock of the Birmingham street art scene. At school Dave remembers his art teacher letting him paint the classroom walls - the start of large scale installations perhaps! After a course in graphic design at Solihull Tech and supported by the Prince’s Trust, Dave started Graffitiartist.com. The business includes support for street artists, with retailing consumables at Red Brick Market, to fun parties learning the basics of street art. In 2014 David tried his luck on Dragon’s Den and despite not getting a business partner his business continues to flourish. @VoidoneUK: Works in several genres including 3D faces and robotic imagery. Void One returned to painting quite late after dabbling in his teens, having produced music, run labels, events and sound systems for over 15 years. Developing a more graphic style through the production of digital artwork for various albums and labels led to attempts at taking lessons from Photoshop. This has seen a more vector style with physical studio work and painting jams across the UK.