Femme Fierce returned for it’s 2016 and it’s third annual outing in the Leake Street tunnel. This year though it was on a lesser scale from previous events and not this time taking place on International Women’s Day.
Instead the 2016 version was more of a decent sized paint jam with a variety of artists, male as well as female painting at spots in the tunnel. Gone was the background colour scheme and extras of recent years but that didn’t seem to matter to the artists who took part or the visitors who came to watch.
Artists from around the World
Still artists from all over the World and the UK turned up to paint with people coming from as far afield as France, Austria, Italy, Spain, Dubai and Finland. A variety of backgrounds were included too with what might be described as more traditional street art being combined with graffiti writing.
In fact, although it wouldn’t have been immediately obvious, there were two events running simultaneously, with the Femme Fierce 2016 artists competing for space alongside as a smaller collective of artists who had banded under the banner of ‘The Artists’, the latter being a mixed gender crew. The pictures from all the works are included in the gallery below.
Femme Fierce 2016
For us here at Inspiring City it was still a great day with some great art. Although if Femme Fierce is going to happen again to the extent that it has done in previous years, then it really will need to go back to it’s original date of March to coincide with International Women’s Day. There the combination of female street artists with the publicity that the day brings, really manages to generate the interest of the press and the public alike.
This time there were a few standouts in terms of artists for me, Tattu from France and Kamilla Lucarelli from Italy created some impressive pieces and it was the first time I’d managed to see both of these artists in action. From the more traditional graffiti side, another artist I’d not come across before, Rubie from Leeds, impressed with her lettering.
There’s no doubt that Femme Fierce is a great event with a strong brand and even with a low key setup it still has the potential to capture the imagination of the public. Fingers crossed next year it will be back to business as usual because when it works, Femme Fierce is one of the biggest and best street art events out there.
Femme Fierce took place on Saturday 7 May 2016 in the Leake Street Tunnel in Waterloo. It is the third consecutive event that the event has been held. To see art from Femme Fierce 2014 and Femme Fierce 2015 click on the links.
Femme Fierce 2016 Gallery
And it wasn’t just the female artists taking part in the paint jam
Will have to get over there before it disappears!!
I enjoyed my visit this year just like the past two years, but there was maybe not the quality as in previous years…. Always a pleasure meeting both street art lovers and the street artist. I think your summing up on the event was spot on Stuart… One thing you missed was the rabbit tile on the outside of the tunnel at the Lower Marsh Street entrance by Chinagirl Tile. I only spotted it on my way out to go home. She also painted a mauve pony at the other end! Pleasure talking to your fellow blogger Tanya at the event… I fear catab that you see very little by the time you visit… There was tagging over during the same day almost before the paint was dry!!! Very big thanks to all the artist taking part on a lovely warm day..
I didn’t realise Chinagirl Tile had been there thanks for the tip Mitch I’ll try to spot that and the pony too. Did she do it in tile?
No…The tile was a rabbit and the painting of the pony was next to Dala
Ah right I think I’ve got a picture of that somewhere I’ll dig it out and update 🙂
I had planned to go this weekend but last-minute events prevented me. I hope to get there maybe wednesday and hope most of them are still intact.
http://www.jenikya.com/blog
Always tricky with the tunnel to get there without them being completely painted over. Chances are there will still be some good work which replaces it though
No one should encourage another Femme Fierce paint jam until the problems from 2015 are resolved, by giving people what they are owed
Stardog by Nora Helsinki from Finland
thanks Tracie have updated
Hi Stuart
The artist painting the eyes and hand design next to Kamilla Lucarelli is called Giulia Menny Cosco… I gave her my black book to sign and I think she thought I just wanted her name rather than a tag or drawing (as she printed her name and nothing else).
I went back to Leake Street the following day and most of the pieces had been painted over – more were left at the open end and a few such as Tattu and the graff pieces.
All the best, Paul
________________________________
Hi Paul thanks for that mate much appreciated I’ve been trying to find out her name 🙂
Nice coverage Stuart and some great shots. I’m still sifting through my shots. Was the female graff part of Femme Fierce or the mixed jam? There were some beautiful pieces that I’ve captured which I assumed were part of FF but maybe were part of 2nd jam.
Most were painting as part of Femme Fierce but there were a few painting with the artists jam. To be honest it all got quite mixed up so pretty difficult to tell
hey! this is such an awesome piece. thank you for sharing!
Aw thank you that’s really nice thanks for commenting 🙂