Well it has certainly been a fantastic week in London for Street Art & Graffiti with Meeting of Styles taking place last weekend in Brick Lane and slightly further out in Bethnal Green and somewhat tucked away a rather controversial and all-round jaw-dropping piece was created over the last week by between American born, but Berlin based, Street Artist Nick Flatt & German Graffiti Writer PunkOne.
For this work Nick Flatt painted the central figure entirely by brush, meticulously and quite literally building up his portrait over six days of relentless work, whilst Punkone set to work creating the funky and colourful letter work accompanying the portrait. Nick Flatt’s work really has to be seen to be believed, but you can’t argue with the pictures below either, his technical skills are absolutely of the highest calibre, and his subjects so life-like, representing the definition of photo-realism, which is certainly amazing to see executed on such a scale you almost expect them to step out of the wall and speak to you. There is a lot to take in beyond the stand-out central figure, and it is great to see such a fusion of Fine Art and Graffiti elements that combine to create this striking piece.
The duo’s latest work is entitled ‘New New Facism’ and featuring a central figure by Nick Flatt, comprising a woman dressed in the American Flag and accompanied by a diamond necklace of an assault rifle, holding a bible to her side, wearing a stocking on her head as if set to commit an armed robbery and performing a Nazi Salute. This figure is accompanied by a montage of letter work from Punkone which read ‘New’ repeatedly with the one exception in centre-place which reads ‘Facist’. What we love most about Nick Flatt’s paintings are that beyond the sense of immediate shock the imageery can provoke, this isn’t the sole reason for his works, instead choosing to use arguably outrageous subjects to convey wider political and social issues, predominantly focused around ideas of Capitalism, Commercialism and sexuality. With that in mind this work though to many may be perceived as been offensive for the sake of it, it really isn’t the case, with the idea of the piece being a defiant response to the rise of right-wing extremist and oppressive attitudes with in the United States, full of iconography some literal, some tongue-in-cheek which relates to the message of Nick Flatt’s & Punk One’s defiant and well articulated statement.
This work was put up with support from Hidden Streets Of London & Lenny Massive.
Nick Flatt & Punk One at work on Day 3 of their 6 days work.
Nick Flatt at work.
Nick Flatt at work.
Nick Flatt’s palette.
Punk One at work.
Nick Flatt & Punk One at work on Day 4 of their 6 days work.
Punk One at work.
Nick Flat at work.
Some of the many colours used by Punk One in the piece.
Nick Flatt’s paints for the piece.
Nick Flatt & Punk One at work on Day 5 of their 6 days work.
Nick Flatt & Punk One at work.
Nick Flatt at work.
Nick Flatt & Punk One at work.
The incredibly well articulated and executed finished piece ‘New New Facism’.
London Calling Blog 
Really interesting to learn more about the ideas behind this work. I find it intriguing in another way because whilst the body is clearly female, the face is more male and so is the hand. And this marks it out as different from his other female portraits.
Brilliant artwork, bold statement, we should all be wary of the creep and normalisation of the right.