IN A YEAR THE RECOAT GALLERY HAS SNOWbALLED FROM ITS WEST END CORNER TO bECOME
a hub for Scotland’S graffiti and ever bloSSoming Street art SceneS. gum met with
OWNERS AMY AND ALI TO FIND OUT HOW THESE ARTISTS GOT TO WHERE THEY ARE AND LEARN
where they hope to go.
Friday is fast becoming Saturday and the to come up from London. It went really come up and got involved with our years
smell of spray paint lingers at 323 North well”, concludes Amy with an obvious sense anniversary celebration.” Ali’s excitement is
Woodside Road. An enthusiastic yet of pride. justified as his name drops are those of some
subdued crowd stare into a torch lit alley way of the global graffiti scenes most important
but passersby seem somewhat bemused by A gallery dedicated to street art and graffiti trail blazers and brightest talents.
the spectacle. is somewhat new in Scotland, with Ali and
Amy being the proud owners of Scotland’s Outside talents aside, I ask how they feel
I grow acutely aware of the ever increasing first dedicated space. “How did you come about the current Glaswegian graffiti
strength of the fumes as I wriggle and to open the gallery?” Again Amy is the first scene and unsurprisingly Ali is the first to
to speak. “We had seen galleries like this in answer.“It has got a good structure that has
WE ARE DOING THIS
London and Melbourne but Scotland was kept going in Glasgow while other cities
TO bRING THE ART TO
SCOTLAND TO ALLOW
missing out. We live very close to what is have not been so lucky. There are guys
PEOPLE TO ExPERIENCE
now Recoat and one day we noticed that it that do amazing pieces and if there were
IT FOR THEMSELVES AND
had a to-let sign on the window.” Ali quietly more legal walls people would be able to
ALLOW SCOTLAND
sits listening at his desk, a delicate ecosystem appreciate the talent in the city.” “There
TO SHOW THE
of letters, scrap paper and spray paint cans. is also a whole new generation coming
WORLD WHAT IT I notice he is absentmindedly doodling a through”, adds an excited Amy. “They are
CAN DO bubble letter on a bill as he listens to his the age that Ali was when he started so that
partner. makes them the third or fourth generation
excuse my way to the front of the late night of Glaswegian graffiti artists.”
throng - and the reason for this noire affair? “Ali had always wanted to open up a place
A birthday party of course. Yet unlike most called Recoat and suggested that we check it During the 1990s Glasgow City Council
one-year-olds the Recoat Gallery was not out”, continues Amy. “We set up the gallery once supplied graffiti artists with spaces
content to allow its first anniversary to be to promote Scottish artists work, there is so to create their art without fear of breaking
defined by teddy bears and kisses from an much talent here and so as we could bring the law, aka a free wall. However the graffiti
army of aunts. Instead it flew in some of the exciting graffiti and illustration artists to eventually moved from the legal to the
UK’s best graffiti talents, hosted a late night Glasgow and let Scottish people see their surrounding illegal spaces as artists battled
live paint, held a ground-breaking exhibition work. That way the scene can improve and to outdo each other. In response the Council
of Scottish and global talent and gave out we can help to inspire - the kids do seem to shut down all the free walls.
free beer – hazza. be responding.”
“There will always be people who are as
I return to the gallery the following week to Suddenly Ali cuts Amy off, gesticulating much into painting as they are into tagging
meet with Ali and Amy, a couple addicted to mock quotation marks in the air as he does and bombing”, highlights Amy. “That is the
street art and graffiti culture that effortlessly so. “For want of a better phrase ‘keeping it way it is in Scotland but Glasgow clearly
exude its style and craft. The live paint is still real’ is quite high on our list of priorities.” wants to be perceived as having shed its
on my mind so I begin by asking how such Amy laughs and picks up her sentence. rough image. The council do not want
an event came to materialise. “Once you start selling out you lose what people going through Charing Cross and
you were trying to do in the first place. We seeing graffiti like it was back in the day, so
“Scot Wilson is a manager at Manifesto wanted to make owning art more accessible the graffiti has gone underground. Yet, if
Clothing in Dundee”, begins a softly spoken but this is our livelihoods, we also need to you open up the city, as has been done in
Amy. “He is famous for being a collector make money.” San Francisco or Melbourne then you get
of street wear stuff and Ali knew him graffiti everywhere and it can make a city
loosely so we asked him if he would like to “I can’t believe that we have work by Crash famous.”
co-curate a show with us. He agreed and and Daze” adds a wide eyed Ali. “They are
decided to put together an exhibition of the early early New York pioneers who started The Council’s distain for graffiti has thawed
friends he has met along the way. We were the scene and we have their work hanging as of late and they have even recruited Sam
very lucky to have work by Fatsarazzi, Futura on our wall. We also have work by guys like Bates, an Australian graffiti artist famed
and Dave White and Jahan. Red Bull also SHEONE and O. Two from the live paint, for his photo real work, to produce a series
supported the event and paid for three artists real ground breaking UK artists who have of murals for the Commonwealth games.
GUM•
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