John Dolan

Urban Fox

£2,500.00

Watercolour on paper with fine liner and acrylic 2018 67.5 × 72.4cm

John Dolan, is one of East London’s most recognised faces. For three years Dolan sat every day with his dog, George on Shoreditch High Street and documented the surrounding architecture, elevating the old, decrepit buildings that are so often ignored and under-appreciated. Dolan’s raw portrayals of the street lead a viewer to reconsider something that to them is merely a backdrop to their day. At the same time, he highlights how too often people living on the street are invisible to those walking past them. Dolan’s work asks us to open our eyes and see this city for what it really is.

In 2013, John Dolan started working with street artists including ROA, Stik, Thierry Noir, RUN, Zomby, Christiaan Nagel, Liqen, Dscreet, Pablo Delgado, CEPT, C215, BRK, and others. A street artist in the traditional sense of the word, Dolan identifies with this new generation of street artists. These artists have collaborated with Dolan by working directly onto the walls of his drawn cityscapes, creating unique pieces, which were exhibited in his solo show, George the Dog, John the Artist, in September 2013 at the Howard Griffin Gallery in Shoreditch, London which was a sell-out success. Since this debut exhibition, Dolan has been commissioned by organisations such as The Big Issue Foundation, UNICEF and The Museum of London.

Urban Fox was especially created for the Exquisite Garden exhibition addressing the urban fox being forced out of their natural city environment and our society’s tendency to disregard that which it deems unfit and tainted. Accompanying this watercolour is a poem that reads,

Urban foxes two ah penny!

Feed them scraps and attract them plenty.

Once restricted to the country

Now upon the rise and ever so rampant, and ever so plenty.

Last night from my window I counted twenty.

In our cities, how! they thrive. How I love the urban fox