On a Loop

A few weeks ago we went along to Loop Arts Fair at Marshall's Mill which promised to be a mix of work and play with live studios, art exhibitions, work for sale and a series of speakers to make the £15 price tag a snip. We weren't disappointed.

Set across one floor of the historic mill building the art fair alone featured work from an array of artists including Pogger, a regular on the Leeds street art scene.Five minutes in and there was already a list a mile long of things we'd like to buy. We did however show a bit of restraint and head in for the first speaker, Drew Millward.

Known for his gig posters carrying a street art and graffiti vibe at the likes of Brudenell Social Club, Drew has a string of music posters to his name including Flight of the Conchords and Sonic Youth. He spoke passionately about his work as a craft and his old school approach to illustration preferring pens and pencils to high end tech. Here's a few pieces of his work that had us loosening the purse strings:

Find similar at Gig Posters.

We took a break for a while and had a snoop around the gallery/shop space and discovered design delights from Lord Whitney, Jones, Maisie Violet Rees, and Nous Vous all up for grabs at affordable prices. Here's some of our favourites:

Saturday brought the live studio sessions from the likes of Sister Arrow signing guests up to make a paper plant greenhouse to Matthew The Horse's calligraphy workshop for type fiends and Catalogue's made to order book binding service.

All in all Loop Arts Fair was a awesome display of talent on one floor over one weekend. The Streeterarti Towers walls are now well stocked with work from some of the finest artists and illustrators you can expect to see spilling out onto a street near you.

On the look out in Leeds

So here's another quick and dirty post about things coming up in Leeds with a slight street arty, illustration theme that might be of interest.

First of all the jam packed Loop Arts Fair this weekend (17th-19th June) at Marshall's Mill featuring artists and illustrators including TOY, Jez Burrows, Lizzy Stewart, Yoke Books, Nous Vous, Matt Hodson, Analogue Books, Catalogue and many others. Also, as the name suggests, it's a fair so you can buy this stuff!

In other news we're quite excited to see the next Creative Networks event focusing on street art. James Jessop: Artistic Vandal is on 23rd June at Leeds College of Art and free fror creative types to attend.

Then on the 27th June keep your eyes peeled for these little things of ordinary beauty, as Situation Leeds commissioned project 'Junction' hits the streets.

And the best of it is we're going to all of them with our trusty camera so will report back with proper posts like a real blog!