Art / Buff Monster
Upfest announces 2017 artist lineup
Upfest, south Bristol’s world-renowned annual smorgasbord of the finest street art from around the globe, has announced its lineup for this year’s festival.
Upfest 2017 will once again welcome hundreds of talented artists from all points of the compass when it hits the streets of Bedminster and Southville from Saturday, July 29 to Monday, July 31.
Following the earlier announcement that Birmingham-based duo Pahnl will be this year’s festival artists, Upfest has revealed further additions to the lineup including Kobra (Brazil), Buff Monster (New York), Pantonio (Portugal), Eelus (Brighton), Nomad Clan (Manchester, artwork pictured top), Filthy Luker (Bristol), Will Barras (Birmingham) Xenz (Hull) and Bristol legends Cheo, Cheba, Inkie, Jody and Voyder, all of them painting alongside some 350 other artists, chosen from a 700-strong pool of applications.
is needed now More than ever
Artwork by Kobra
Highlights include New York’s Buff Monster, who cites heavy metal, ice cream, Pop Art, Japanese culture and graffiti as his major influences and whose work has been shown in galleries around the world including our own Bristol Museum & Art Gallery; Portuguese artist Pantonio, known for his huge multi-dimensional murals depicting animals in a swirling mass of tentacles and colour; Filthy Luker, known throughout Bristol for his enormous inflatable tentacle installations at the RWA and more recently St Pauls; and artist, illustrator and animation director Will Barras, who left his hometown of Birmingham to study graphic design in Bristol, becoming part of the new crop of artists working in Bristol’s street art scene in the 90s alongside the likes of Xenz, Inkie, Cheba, Cheo (all of them present and correct at this year’s festival) plus Eko, Paris and Banksy.
Inkie is among the healthy crop of top Bristol artists booked for Upfest 2017
Upfest will once again be used as a platform for fundraising for the National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACOA), which offers aid and assistance for children growing up in families affected by alcoholism.
For further updates, artist profiles and the Upfest gallery visit www.upfest.co.uk or follow the festival @Upfest on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
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