London's Shoreditch neighborhood has become a newly trendy district for artists, galleries and cafes.
But it has also become home to some of the most ambitious vandalism and street art you'll ever see. While New York has long considered itself the spiritual home of graffiti as art, London's artists have elevated the form to a much higher level. Instead of mindless name-tagging, you get building-sized visual puns that take weeks of planning.
In fact, a local real estate agent tells us that landlords now commission them as murals.
This is what Banksy hath wrought.
Whenever construction starts on a building and wooden hoardings go up, street artists get to work.
It's often hard to know who the artists are. These black and white animals are probably by Roa, a Belgian artist.
In the world of street art, some painters are internationally famous. This two-part mural (see next photo) is by Paul Don Smith.
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