A Walk Down Brick Lane

During my recent UK visit, I was in for a treat one Saturday morning of my stay in East London.

A walk down Brick lane and the near by settings in East End, London.

Brick Lane, fondly also called “Banglatown”, came to me as a peculiar experience.

A fascinating combination of several ethnic influences, art warehouses and small chic boutiques, not to forget many curry joints.

As I strolled down the street every corner, door, window, pot-hole cover, brick was a discovery – the walls seemed to have more life than its surroundings. Their immortality increased by the passage of time making them an experience by themselves.

The effect was a seeming war of self expression – an outcome of some desire to belong to a movement or a cause, something bigger than both the subculture art and its artist.

And yet it seemed to convey a pure message of expression. Were these walls ever to be displayed in a gallery, the essence would be lost, so appropriate are they just where they are. They are a statement – a very strong statement combined with some amazing illustration skills.

Inspite of the popular status of many street artists, the masses are familiar with only a few, although graffiti artists such as Bansky and D-face are world renowned. On closely noticing the Bansky and D-face stencil art on the walls of east end, their work seemed highly influential within the subculture concentrated in this part of London.




The entire setting seemed to have a sense of owning something special, (a special secret) with the locals and artists having a shared respect and admiration for the statements and the culture itself.

My camera lens was constantly kept busy, walking down the bylanes and an Upcoming Photo Exhibit is planned showcasing my curiosity, exploration and experience of this memorable walk down the brick lane, of the feel and sense of the energy behind its artistic movement (and) of the underground scene.




Hanging out at Pure Evil gallery with its owner and artist Charlie was a pleasure that I won’t forget and an invitation to his private garage sale was a very welcome experience. Indeed a walk to be remembered!!

Untamed Faces by Anupam Tomer

The Untamed Faces has been a conduit, connected with multiple interpretations.-a metaphor, chosen to consciously assign meanings, tones and characters to my perspective of routine interactions.

'The Swirl of Freestyle'

An intrinsic urge to find the aesthetics in the mundane became a significant extension of the idea, further exploring the possibilities in a new space and a set of visuals transforming into the artwork such as ‘The Captain’, ‘The Banjaran’ etc.

'The Captain'

This engagement with my thought was an attempt at understanding attitudes, personalities and characters of the numerous faces I came across in the various walks of life. A visual representation of people's backgrounds, cultures, professions and how they relate to themselves in an interaction.


The rush of interrogating these aesthetic and cultural connotations, lead me to observe, collect, respond and capture ideological interpretations of our modern society.

The visuals are open to the viewers’ own contextualization since every individual views objects and characters differently. Thus one sees a subtle idiosyncrasy, allowing more cross-pollination of metaphors that are layered with multiple contexts.

'The Disco Ball'

The eventual artwork reflects a mix of seriousness, coolness, humour, sophistication, sex appeal and a hint of irony.

Though the visual language is constrained, it maintains several ideologies, taking inspiration from numerous social, cultural and economic connotations, often displayed through class, culture, profession and personal character. The final execution is edgy, sleek and chic.

'The Ruffian'

'The Rebel'





In many ways, this exhibit has been influenced by a number of factors such as my eye towards progressive contemporary art and design as well as fashion illustration in general. In other ways, it’s a hybridization of contemporary arts.







I would like to categorize this style of my artwork under ‘The Progressive Merger’

I feel my personal style has a lot to do with mixed media, urban lifestyle, grunge photography, popular culture and urban contemporary while my medium extends from paper napkin illustrations to digital print canvases.

'The Kid'




Rather than ideas specifically for paintings, an occurrence of an idea is usually as a note of my own response to mundane observations or simple pencil doodles, later defining how it's actually going to make that mental imagery into a painting. While these are the primary mediums which I have been usig for my narrative arts I now want to get back to exploring ideas in acrylics.



The idea (or call it drama), of things sometimes emerging out in punchy colours, (sometimes even shocking), then suddenly calm and toned down, then mushrooming in an abstract way with a faint bit of beautiful decay, fascinates me, and it’s become a dominating theme in my work over the time.

In my artwork I usually enjoy the ‘process of developing it’ more than the final result because I feel it’s more interesting to question your own thoughts, their significance and possible meanings and not view it as just an exhibited piece. That further gets me to try newer approaches at play (I refuse to call it work!)

The ‘Untamed Faces' contains pieces of work that collectively aim to offer an arresting visual vocabulary that is progressive in its content. The use of simple yet striking graphic elements with a strong colour palette results in a very contemporary appeal.

'The Joker Faced'

The exhibit was on display from the 1^st – 30^th Nov at TLR, Hauz Khas Village, New Delhi, India.

Visit for more updates- http://www.anupamtomer.com/

Special thanks to Gautam, Meghna, Harsh, Stefan, Tony and Nikhil for their great support.