Robin Rhode

Now street art is something which really inspires JazzCakes and makes us tick. Being from near Bristol we've obviously seen the work of Banksy, and being regular visitors to East London we've come across the various styles of street art around Shoreditch such as The Great Cake Escape (see our 21st Feb post) and this little beauty... 

A tree planted in a turfed over skip, if you can't make it out. Just brilliant.

A number of months back we went to an exhibition at the Hoxton Square White Cube Gallery that really struck a chord with us.

At the White Cube was an exhibition of the work of Robin Rhode, a name I knew without being familiar with his work. Rhode is a South African artist now based in Berlin. Despite living in Germany, his playful drawings - often in public spaces - relate back to his experiences from South Africa. A lot of his work is monochromatic, often in chalk or charcoal, into which he then incorporates elements of performance.

The simplicity of Rhodes work is what we really like, and the playfulness which draws away from the sometimes negative themes in his work.

Still from Untitled Harvest, 2005