Early works

1980’s Practice

Keith Hopewell has worked with spray paint as a medium for over 39 years. His trajectory began in 1982 when he was scratching the logos of ‘The Jamm’ and ‘The Who’ on school desks, then spray painting them on local walls. At this time NYC Hip Hop culture and subway art began to be popularised in the UK media, resonating with Keith and many of his generation. The concept of the coded letter presented a new level to the notion of writing, and a natural evolution to what was already happening on the streets of Britain.

Just as bands such as ‘The Clash’ sprayed their name on walls as a method of promotion, the influence of what was happening on NYC subway trains opened youthful eyes all across the globe. It didn’t matter what you wrote, be it your name, a word or a topic, it was all about the ornamentation and giving letters a style. Many early works on council estates, tracksides or subways, contained phases like ‘Future’, ‘World War 3’, ‘Soul Power’ or ‘Freedom’. A response to an era of Reganomics and Thatcherism, contrary to the idea that graffiti was just about writing your name. What appealed to Keith was the development of technique, which remained his impetus and foundation for the coming years.

The Emergence of Photorealism

In 1989, following three events in Bridlington and one in York, the graffiti scene that had been building momentum since 1983 had begun to stagnate. This was mainly because many writers became attracted to the rave and free parties scene.  At a time when some were on the verge of mastering the medium of spray paint, the impetus for painting was dissolving quickly away.

Hopewell (known then as Part 2) along with a few other like-minded individuals around the country were beginning to explore new approaches to working with the spray paint. This quiet and clandestine period, outside of the limelight, created an opportunity to make work that transcended the NYC letter/writing formula. The traditional scene had become significantly sporadic, with many of the ‘big names’ not making work anymore. The scene in NYC was also diminishing, widely due to the ‘clean up’ of the transit system in 1989 and the knock-on influence of the crack epidemic. The media hype was gone and along with the disappearance of breakdance and scratch DJ’s, it felt like a lot of writers in the UK had experienced the ‘good old days’ and moved on.

Originally working with abstract compositions, Hopewell was painting walls that resembled the energy and dynamism of sophisticated letter pieces, although they didn’t actually say anything. These works captured the movement of letter pieces as if viewed in transit, while not being fixed and limited by any word or name itself.

In the same year (1989), along with a small group of select artists in the UK and LA, Hopewell was experimenting with painting portraits using spray paint. Due to the inferior quality of automotive car spray paint, in 1990 he began to perfect his understanding of tone in such a way that the usual reliance on outlines was no longer relevant. A natural curiosity and playful imagination led to pursuing a vast range of subjects and photo realism produced with the aerosol was born. The loose term for this work, used by writers in this period was ‘portraits’. However, Hopewell began to use the term ‘photorealism’ to describe his work. A myriad of faces, eyes, objects, Frankie Howard, lady birds, pop imagery, giant jet planes, wheels and even Coca Cola cans were juxtaposed together on walls across the UK.

Ikonoklast Movement and Blueprint Gallery

In addition to developing this practice on the walls of various locations in Clifton, York, one of the main sites Hopewell frequented was Selle Oak’s recreation ground in Birmingham. This site was managed by artist and then youth worker Robert Elliott (Juice 126) who Hopewell met at the various events in the 1980’s. Their connection lead to the creation of the Ikonoklast Movement at the end of 1989. This was a collective of some of the country’s leading aerosol artists from cities all across the UK and became a ‘life support system’ which helped keep the artform evolving.

The Selle Oak site (also known as Blueprint Gallery) was the main meeting ground for the Ikonoklast Movement, and where the group painted twice yearly. Before this time, writers from different cities were rivals in a highly competitive scene, but the Ikonoklast Movement had created a national and international network. This allowed ideas to be exchanged in a collaborative manner, a massive undertaking in an era without digital photography, social media, or even mobile phones.  

Internationally recognised as an early pioneer in spray paint photorealism painting, Hopewell’s work from this period became a major influence to many associates within the scene. At this time there was absolutely no urban or street art careers on the table, as there is today. Due to a lack of interest from galleries, re-enforced by the illegal stereotypes associated with graffiti culture, it wasn’t until 1995 that the group began exhibiting works. As the Ikonoklast members began to concentrate on their own projects the movement naturally disbanded and the twice a year paint-outs ended. It was around this time that Hopewell decided to focus more heavily on his music production, releasing his first independent vinyl before signing a 3-album deal with Big Dada / Ninja Tune.

Lo-tech Interventions and Hypertype

From 1995, Hopewell prioritised and focused on music projects but continued to paint. In 2004, he decided to re-launch his art practice from scratch and approach it from a new perspective rebranding and painting under the name ‘Part2ism’. Loyal to the grass roots and DIY ethos which had always been a common thread in his work, Hopewell set out to produce a low-tech project with high impact. Discarded cardboard was cut to re-imagine text/type that could be assembled and displayed in the public domain, anywhere at any time, leaving zero damage to the environment. Pieces of up to nine meters in length when constructed, could be packed in sections, allowing for travel and checking-in at airports. These hyper-type works were placed on central reservations, glass safety panels and even on rows of supermarket shopping trolleys across the globe, following Hopewell’s music tour routes. The works were seen and photographed in cities such as London, Birmingham, Berlin, Paris, Marseilles, Geneva, Zurich, Moscow, New York and Copenhagen.

Later Photorealism

Photorealism was never far removed from Hopewell’s practice. In 2008-9 his work became more refined and sophisticated, incorporating collage elements with his work shown in galleries and within the public domain.

CMYK and HTML Works

In 2009, Hopewell retuned to painted projects, addressing the saturation of urban art across London. His work was minimal and conceptual, featuring printer marks, CMYK blocks and colour signal tests, set against white backgrounds. The simplicity of these pieces seemed to cancel out the other existing work at these spots, causing controversy.

Another project in the public sphere involved the white washing of London walls in 2015, presenting nothing but html script in red and blue, highlighting the art has become uploaded internet representations. This more concept driven approach has led to Hopewell developing his new, performative and gestural based work, continuing to challenge what spray paint practice is or can be.