Nottingham’s popular Street Art Festival set to return to gallery celebrating ten years

This year, Surface Gallery and the Street Art Exhibition are celebrating ten years in existence on Southwell Road. The gallery has issued a call out for artists and local creatives to submit their work and get involved in the exhibition. The event will open with a launch party on Friday, August 11 from 6 pm until 10 pm.

This year will see a mix of local artists, unusual artworks, DJs, street food and of course, the infamous alleyway murals. Expect artwork such as graffiti, illustration, paste-ups, graphics, yarn bombing and lightbombing among others. There are also prizes for artworks selected by a panel of judges including £25 Montana vouchers and £25 Mimm vouchers or the chance for a solo exhibition in the ‘Le Loovre: the alternative gallery within an alternative gallery.

Coordinator of Surface Gallery, Jez Kirby says the exhibition is going back to its roots by bringing back initiatives, artists and DJs from previous years to help celebrate.

“We have Ossie back on the decks for this one so in that sense it’s a return to our 2014 launch party and the origins of the Street Art Festival that people associate with Surface Gallery. The main focus of the festival will be the exhibition which we are expecting to be packed, as it is every year.”In the past, the exhibition has featured several events which run alongside the main event at the gallery itself. This year will see a stripped-back version which will focus on the artwork more closely.

“The exhibition will be a little bit more stripped back in terms of events. The pandemic stole our momentum a little but we have a great core group emerging at Surface. This year’s party is still going to be big with DJs and street food. Stick with us; it's going to be an unmissable event for all street art lovers in Nottingham.”

The event began at Nottingham Castle in the summer of 2011 where it was titled, Salon des Refusés, after the exhibition of the same name in 1860s Paris. The exhibition displayed artworks rejected by the conservative jury for the official Paris Salon, which included highly-acclaimed impressionists, such as Manet.

The exhibition moved to Surface Gallery before being renamed The Street Art Open in 2013 and has been running ever since. This year, the gallery and the exhibition itself celebrate ten years of bringing street art to the public. In the past, the exhibition has had hundreds of entries which volunteers curate and hang on the walls with the aim of, ‘If it fits through the door, we’ll exhibit it.’

“One of the most memorable years for me was 2014. In 2013, the Street Art Open was small scale; I think we had something like 90 submissions, and it was just a regular Surface opening night, a couple of hours, and closing at 8 pm.

“The following year, instead of an opening night we had a Launch Party that ran until 10 pm. Similarly, we'd managed to persuade Kevin Roach at Kemet Radio to DJ for the Caribbean Open. For the Street Art Open we got Ossie and Pete Woosh (sadly no longer with us) to DJ.”

The team at Surface work closely with different community groups, artist collectives, DJs and the local spray paint shop, Montana. The result is a growing exhibition which has, over the years, also included events at Broadway, Cobden Chambers and Sneinton Market.

“After 2014, the Street Art Open grew, eventually becoming the Street Art Festival in 2016. Most notably, we had a very successful block party over at Sneinton Market with market stalls, DJs, skateboarding, live art and street performers. We had another event called Sisters of Street for a while, an all-female painting event first held at Cobden Chambers and then on the terrace at Broadway. We also had Dr Martens involved for a couple of years. They gave us some boots that some of the local street artists customised.”

“We also had some live painting from Mimm Collective, an urban arts collective who are just about into everything street, not just street art, but street food, streetwear, and also DJing. Nathaniel manages to get Gilles Peterson up once a year from London to DJ, a real coup for Nottingham,” Jez explained.

“We also worked with Montana, the local spray paint shop. We got the artist, Dilk in as one of the judges, and he and Sylvie put the word out through Montana, a real hub for local street artists. We also got some break dancers in from QMX, which was run by Joseph Hall, who'd made it to the final of Britain's Got Talent.

The street food, art and bar along with DJs create a fun atmosphere where people can hang out and relax.

“With all these people involved submissions increased to over 300, and we just weren't prepared for the size of the crowd that descended on Surface for the launch party. They drank us dry, literally. I had to run down to Sainsbury's and get some Becks in to keep them going.”