Zabou and the London street art trails - Penge

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French street artist Zabou has made quite a name for herself in recent years. She is London based but travels around the world painting realistic murals.

On her website www.zabou.me she describes her work like this:

"Working mostly with spray paint, Zabou creates large-scale black and white portraits with colourful backgrounds. Her artworks are both striking and thought-provoking, and focus on the expression and emotions of her subjects. She likes to push visual and spatial boundaries, sometimes creating playful pieces.

Zabou explores various themes, finding inspiration in the history and the surroundings of where she paints. Her artistic world revolves around humans, art, music, movies, nature, empowerment, love and many more."

She has made work in Indonesia, UAE, Cyprus, Israel, Colombia, Haiti, USA and all across Europe. Her pieces can also be found in the Saatchi gallery in London. I first discovered her work while running around my local area and this led me to find out where else I could see it. 

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My first run took me south to Penge in the London Borough of Bromley. The area is famous for its street art scene alongside neighbouring Sydenham and Forest Hill. Zabou has two pieces here.

The first is a portrait of local photographer Gordon Gibbens who documented street art in London for over 20 years. 

Gordon 6.5x4m 2020

The second piece shows a woman (model:Angela) on her smart phone, her boyfriend's arm around her shoulder. The message is about technological addiction and the disconnect this cause in our lives. 

Modern day addiction 10x8m 2020

Penge is full of wonderful pieces by other artists. Here are some of those that can be found around the area.























































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