Artist Alexandra Gallagher and the Street Art of Blackburn • Inspiring City

We are back in Blackburn to meet the artist Alexandra Gallagher. A local to the town, she’s offered to show us around. The northern former mill town has this year celebrated it’s third Open Walls festival. An event which has left it’s mark on the area and Alexandra has been at the heart of it. Attracting artists from around the world to paint on its walls.

Originally from Bury Alexandra Gallagher has nonetheless lived in Blackburn for years. A fine artist, this is where her studio is. Her detailed and delicate work is sought after in galleries across the UK. More recently she has been creating work using digital images to make into exquisite collages.

Artist Alexandra Gallagher in her studio in Blackburn — Artist Alexandra Gallagher at her studio in Blackburn

A veteran now of all three iterations of the Blackburn Open Walls festival. The expansion of street art into her town has also helped her to expand her craft. Twice experimenting with large scale paste ups in key locations for the first two festivals. For the 2018 version she evolved to paint a full mural. Her first actual street painting.

The reason we are meeting though is partly to see the art but really to record a podcast episode for ‘Art Related Noise‘ our series with Enter Gallery. The gallery in Brighton is not exactly close. But they sell a lot of Alexandra’s work and the podcast is meant to bridge the gap. To make a connection between people who might see and buy the work and the artist themselves.

Artist Alexandra Gallagher by her mural at Blackburn Open Walls — Alexandra Gallagher the artist by her latest street art piece. Created as part of the 2018 Blackburn Open Walls festival

Street Art in Blackburn

Her foray into the world of street art has been fortuitous. It’s not everyday a major street art festival establishes itself in your town. The mastermind behind it, Hayley Welsh, is another Blackburn artist and she has been the driving force. Gathering combinations of local, national and international artists to take part. The two hadn’t met before the festival took off but now they know each other well and work together to make it a reality.

Now there are over 30 murals to see and realistically we would never be able to get around to them all. She seems proud that the murals seem to be starting conversations within Blackburn. They stimulate thought and become meeting places she tells me. “They become focal points to the town” Alexandra tells me, “people start to cherish them.”

Art by the artist Alexandra Gallagher on the side of Graham and Browns in Blackburn — Collages by Alexandra Gallagher on the side of Graham & Brown created as part of the 2017 Blackburn Open Walls

Blackburn’s Favourite Mural

The first mural she shows me is from Phlegm. The big name artist from Sheffield. His illustrative style in which he creates a whole new world is hugely popular. It was recently voted Blackburn’s favourite mural. Depicting a fantasy creature sitting at a loom, the image is clearly a nod to Blackburn’s past as a cotton weaving town.

Just around the corner is a piece from Hayley Welsh. The Blackburn local, who actually now lives in Australia, travels back to make the festival happen. She has created a work based on the cute little creatures she paints. Creatures that are meant to be representative of the thoughts in your head. Look around the town and there are plenty other murals from Hayley, all giving their own little messages.

Sheffield based artist Phlegm is well known for his black and white illustrative style.

‘This Moment is your Life’ the latest mural from Hayley Welsh in Blackburn

Favourite Views

“It’s one of my favourite views in the town” says Alexandra as we look at Hayley’s cute creatures. Then up towards the work by Phlegm a little bit further up. Nearby we get to see other works from artists such as Case Maclaim, Mr Christa, Curtis Hylton, AddFuel and of course more from Alexandra Gallagher herself.

The murals are helping to rejuvenate the town she tells me. Blackburn is an area which has suffered more than most following the economic crash which began in 2008. The Open Walls Festival she says is a way of bringing culture into the heart of the town. She has seen how street art has helped to bring life to other places and already she notes how the people in the town seem to appreciate the work and take care of it.

Alexandra Gallagher

But it’s not just benefiting the culture of the town. Street art can also bring attention to the town’s heritage Alexandra tells me. “I think that’s one thing that the street art does do. It makes people look at the town and the architecture and the buildings in a different way. Because we actually do have some amazingly beautiful Victorian buildings but we don’t really look at them above the shop fronts.”

“It took me about a week and a half” she tells me when I ask about the street piece she created for the 2018 festival. Her first foray to actually painting onto the street. It’s a giant mural featuring two cranes crying out against the backdrop of golden spheres and flowers. Ambitious for sure considering the fact that all her previous work is really studio based. “I loved the challenge of it” she tells me “I just love the challenge of doing new things.”

Alexandra Gallagher was interviewed on 5 August 2018 in Blackburn as part of our Art Related Noise (formerly Nonsense) podcast series with the Enter Gallery in Brighton.