Zabou and the London street art trails - Shoreditch, Spitalfields & Hackney

- April 25, 2021

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 second run took me to the famous East End, famous for its street art scene, particularly around Brick Lane. I tried to get a sense of scale by getting myself in the photos, but sometimes this wasn't possible as the bright sunlight meant that either myself or the artwork were in shadow.

My research showed that there were twelve Zabou pieces to see. Two have been painted over since I visited last year. Here are my photos from the earlier visit.

Born to paint 3x3m 2019

The Ripper 4x3m - 2020

My trail started from Lewisham and took in Tower Bridge on a beautiful sunny, crisp morning in late April. From there it was a short mile to the first piece on The Bell pub in Spitalfields. This is a painting of a photo taken at the Black Lives Matter protests in London.

Racism is a virus 7x4m 2020

Next up was Salvador Dali, a refreshed working of Dali replacing the former one of him and a melting watch. This one shows the Surrealist artist with his pet ocelot Babou - only one letter off the artists own name. Note the whiskers are shaped like Dali's famous moustache.

Like owner, like pet 3.5x2m 2020

Onto Brick Lane. I have run up and down here numerous times, but always managed to miss this huge and striking piece of Audrey Hepburn.

Audrey Hepburn 9x7m 2020

Another famous face painted by Zabou in partnership with Villana is Amy Winehouse. Zabou painted the image and Villana - a yarn artist - added the ribbons and yarns which move in the breeze.

Amy with colours 4x2.5m 2018

Mr Holmes, I presume? Yes, and nowhere near Baker Street. This piece was in Hackney and shows Benedict Cumberbatch as the sleuth complete with magnifying glass and pipe.

Sherlock Holmes 4x2.5m 2019

Also in Hackney is this mural painted over two arches. It is taken from a David Ryle painting and shows Romeo blowing a kiss to Juliet.

Romeo & Juliet 12x4m 2016

My next find was a complete surprise as I didn't know it existed. Just around the corner from Romeo & Juliet was this piece. I can't find out any information about it though...

Leaving Hackney I made my way along the Regent's Canal to Haggerston. Here there are three pieces by Zabou. The first is visible from the canal and can be reached by entering a private courtyard. It shows a model named Luca pulling a canal boat by a rope.

By the canal 14x5m 2019

Around the corner and on the bridge crossing the canal in Hoxton is this piece. Sadly an awning had been pulled down cutting off the top of the image and someone had tagged over it. Its a portrait of twins called Success and Surprise.