Art in Cardiff

Art is everywhere right now, at least in my life. I bought my first piece of actual art yesterday. It’s a depressed pigeon. I just felt rather a lot of affection to it so decided to add it to my art collection, which until this point included a painting of Cardiff Bay at night I won in a raffle to raise money for ACE Cardiff.  I was told the artists name but my memory is like a sieve, however it was signed MP.

Depressed Pigeon by MP

Cardiff Bay at Night

Before I bought my Depressed Pigeon I stumbled upon an art exhibit in Cardiff city center. I mostly just went in because I felt sorry for the woman handing out leaflets who almost no one was paying attention to. So I headed down to see some art. It was an amazing exhibit by chinese artists looking at the oppression of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese Communist party.  I learned a lot from attending the exhibit and I intend to look into the subject more. It’s going to be that the Capitol Centre until the 6th of November and I would highly reccomend people in Cardiff visit it. Not just for the political message but also very beautiful art.

Who I Am by Xiqiang Dong

 

Determination Under Pressure by Qing Xin

 

I also bought my first art books in a charity shop for £2 each. They show amazing urban art for Brazil and worldwide.

My First Art Books

 

And finally last week was Made in Roath festival which is a local festival with loads of art, music and literature events around Roath, Cardiff. This has resulted in lots of new street art all over Roath. My favourite is a dragon on the side of the Poets Corner pub. I will probably post more about Made in Roath later as I attended a few literature events and had a midnight stroll to look at a skip.

 

Urban Art

Urban Art

The Dragon on the Poets Corner

 

 

Urban Art Number Two: The Best Street in Cardiff

My best friend and I were walking to the camping store last week to get last minute festival necessities and we stumbled upon the best two streets in Cardiff (except for any street with a bookshop, they obviously trump any other street). This is some of the best urban art I’ve ever seen. A five minute walk took us almost twenty as I spent time looking at all the art and taking copious amount of photographs. So here are some of my favourite pieces of art and I would highly recommend you find this street. I won’t tell you the exact location because things like this are always better stumbled upon.

This one give you a bit of an idea where we are at, love all the empty barrels and the awesome art behind it

Gangster Daffy Duck – didn’t know Daffy was hip in the spray painting world.

This one completely snuck up on me. Can’t believe it was done with spray paint.

He must be more cool than I thought!

This is awesome! and reminds me of Karl Pilkington when he visits Mexico in An Idiot Abroad, Although Karl is a bit thiner and looks alot less tough.

He’s going to eat me

It’s beyond me how people can do this, so much talent!

Dog and Bombs

This reminded me of a Dr Who villain

Running Robot?

Don’t have a clue what this says but I thought it was beautiful. And it was the last piece of art in the street.

Urban Art

Outside of science and writing something else I love is what is a bit of urban art. These may be painting by known artists or scribbles on the street closer to vandalism. They all bring me joy.

I love walking down the street and stumbling across something interesting and out of place. It brightens my day and makes me look at the world around them more closely. Most of these pictures were taken around Roath, Cardiff and made me smile,

This work by Scotto was found on the 30th of July 2013 as my flatmate and I walked into Cardiff city centre for a friends birthday dinner. I came home that night and had an almighty wine hangover and a carry out bag of left over curry.

 

This one I found just around the corner from Richmond Road.

 

The two above photos were taken as I cycled around near to Roath Park. I have since seen several other electricity boxes painted similarly but I was sadly without my phone to take a photo.

 

This anti-Tesco art was painted on an old shop on the Taff Trail.

 

Found next to a bus stop. Hope their bus came soon!