About 10 years ago the landlord of the Prince Albert, Chris Steward, suggested that the whole exterior wall of his pub be painted with dead rock heroes. Now graffiti artists REQ and Sinna are finally turning his vision into a Brighton graffiti masterpiece.
Chris Steward is commissioning and curating the project, choosing musical icons that reflect his personal interests. The mural features 24 dead stars including Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, John Peel, Amy Winehouse and Freddy Mercury. REQ told ‘The Argus’ newspaper, “You do get lots of people walking past saying: ‘Why isn’t Janis Joplin up there? Where’s Biggie and Tupac?’ Everyone’s got their own list of icons and ultimately Chris is the curator and we’re the creators.”
REQ and Sinna are the talented graffiti artists spray painting the icons to life in the enormous, three –storey mural. Sinna One is a Brighton based artist and illustrator who works within freehand mediums and is heavily influenced by graffiti, comic culture and sci-fi.
Old school aerosol artist, graffiti doyen and experimental hip hop visionary REQ is the perfect choice for the project. Born in London, REQ is a Brighton based artist schooled in the New York subway graffiti tradition. His graffiti career started in 1984 in Brighton’s derelict areas but he soon started painting internationally on stage with the Norman Cook banks ‘Beats International’. “The two [music and art] are just different methods of saying the same thing”, says REQ.
REQ has developed a portrait style of his own within the spray can medium which he calls ‘photo-realistic’. The Prince Albert mural, featuring numerous portraits copied from record sleeves and photographs will showcase the strength of his raw spray paint aesthetics. Combined with Sinna’s bright and bold colour palette the musical mural is bound to become an urban art landmark.
The collaboration between the Brighton graffiti artists and Prince Albert owner has allowed 3 weeks to complete the project. Now in its final stages the enormous street art creation is looking spectacular. Chris Steward has said “everyday 1,000 of people have been standing outside looking at it.” With a growing portfolio of incredible street art pieces and our very own gallery, Brighton is definitely the UK’s number one destination for urban art.
