On Tuesday 13th September, we’ll be opening up Wahaca number 5 (or 5 and a half if you’re counting the taco van), and taking a taste of Mexican Market Eating to East London’s newest marketplace, Westfield Stratford City, which you’ll find right at the entrance to the Olympic park.

Right now, we’re installing all of the state of the art kitchen kit that we need to cook up our delicious Mexican market food and putting the finishing touches to our very funky looking margarita bar which will be serving cocktails, wine, beers and our award winning range of tequilas. There are also some new design elements that we’ve brought to the site so that you can eat in serious style. A table hung from the ceiling anyone?

We’re pushing ourselves even further with the sustainability of our restaurant build, monitoring our whole fit out using a BREEAM retail assessment, which means that someone is checking up on how well we do with using recycled and sustainable materials – Don’t miss the cork walls and recycled bottles that we’ve used throughout, which have earned us extra green points.

We’re especially excited to have commissioned the skills of one of East London’s most prolific street artist, Pure Evil to bring his own style and some very cool colour to the walls. We we’re looking for something raw and provocative and we thought you might like to have a sneak preview of what he got up to last night.

Looking good, we hope you’ll agree.

So if you’re in the area and need a bit of a break from the shopping, or a bite after going to the cinema, or are heading over to check out how things are going down at the Olympic site, then come and say hi. You’ll find us at number 6 Chestnut Plaza in Westfield Stratford City, open every day from midday.

Win one of 5 pairs of tickets to Gabriel Orozco’s critically acclaimed Tate Modern exhibition.

For those of you who’ve been following our blog and diligently reading ‘Ola London, it will come as no surprise that we’re pretty keen on our art, and particularly the amazing work that is being produced by Mexican artists in recent years.

The Tate Modern is currently hosting an exhibition by one of our all-time favourite Mexican artists – Gabriel Orozco. His work is described as creative, playful and inventive, often introducing beautiful geometric symmetry into everyday objects. You can check what happened when Tommi met up with him in Wahaca and picked his brains about Mexican food, culture and generally being a world renowned artist here.

To celebrate the largest retrospective of his work being exhibited here in London, the Tate Modern have kindly donated 5 pairs of tickets for us to share with you, the lovely readers of our blog.

How to enter: We don’t just want to give these tickets to anyone though, it’s our most arty fans we’re looking for, so email us an arty photo of you in Wahaca and we’ll choose our favourite on Friday 11th March. If you want to share your artiness with the rest of the gang, then you can also post your photos up onto our facebook wall for all to admire.

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With our new restaurant on Wardour Street in Soho fast approaching completion, one of the last tasks is to get someone to splash a bit of paint on the walls. You know, make it look nice.

In fact, local residents and inquisative passers by may have noticed that there’s been quite a bit of that going on, and we’ll give you the full low down on all of the artists that worked on the interior soon. But today, it was the turn of Remi Morgan or Remi/Rough (to those in the know) and we thought he deserved special mention due to his recent involvement in the often whispered about, but until yesterday never reported, Underbelly Project.

Thanks to Vandalog for the images via flickr and creative commons.

Remi was one of 100 of the worlds top street artists that was invited to take part in a one off art project, deep under the heart of New York City in a dissused and now totally un-accessible subway station. The space was transformed into a exhibition to which only one reporter and a handful of photographers were invited, and which was only on show for one night. Pretty Cool.

When we asked him about it in a break from graffiting our bar, Remi mostly recalled the fear of being eaten by mutant sized rats, and the pitch black that perpetuated the space. With this in mind, we’ve left the lights on for him and you’ll be pleased to hear he’s doing a cracking job.

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We were really excited to be contacted by Tristan Manco, author and general force-for-street-art-good, who let us know about the launch of his new book, Street Sketchbook – Journeys.

In the book Tristan explores the secret world of sketchbooks by tracing artists creative journeys, from the initial idea to its development. He features work by the most innovative street and graffiti artists from around the world, and unsurprisingly it contains a large proportion of work from the growing number of Mexican artists pushing the boundaries of street art, both in the UK and at home in Mexico.

To find out more and see a selection of the work from the artists featured, including Daniel Acosta, Daniel Berman and Uriel Marin, check out the exhibition running at the Pictures on Walls gallery, 46 – 48 Commercial Street, from Friday 1st October 6pm. For full details, check out their events page.

If you do go along, we’d love to hear what you think – just leave a comment below.

Last week we were lucky enough to get a visit from Daniel Molina, who came in to sample our wares. He’s a potographer from Mexico, Oaxaca to be precise.

Keen to support those from the area that has supported us so well, we thought we’d share some of the brilliant work he’s done, with you good people.

The selection below is taken from his gallery of pictures entitled, “This is not London”. Now, not wanting to be pedantic, but I’ve had a hard look, and I’m pretty sure it is, I guess that’s just the Mexican sense of humour. Anyway, we’ll let you decide.

If you like this small foray into Daniel’s work, then be sure to check out his website for more of the same. And indeed if you know of any other up and coming Mexican photographers or artists, please let us know by commenting below. We’d love to make it a regular feature on the blog.

Last summer we ran a competition to find a street artist to graffiti our restaurant. After being blown away by the entries we got, Claroscuro emerged as the winners and have done an amazing job. To see how it all unfolded from a selection of the brilliant entries through to final artwork watch the video below.

Thanks to everyone who entered our competition and to everyone who voted as well. We were overwhelmed by both the quantity and fabulous quality of the entries and are looking forward to working with the street art community on other projects in the future.

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We’ve been looking forward to Claroscuro transforming our space in Canary Wharf into a modern masterpiece ever since they were voted onto the shortlist of our Street Art Competition back in August.

Whilst the rest of Canary Wharf was away they spent the weekend spraying the living daylights out our new restaurant. Here’s a few pictures to give you a sneak preview of what to expect…

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We are very excited to announce that the winner of our Street Art competition is the artist duo Claroscuro.

We have had incredible entries from some amazing artists and it has been a tough decision. Thank you all for entering but also for all those out there who voted.

Watch this space as Claroscuro starts putting together some fantastic ideas for the space – we hope to follow the whole commission here on the blog! We hope to see you all down in Canary Wharf once we open at the beginning of November.

Here’s the last set of artists looking for your votes. The winner of our graffiti contest will be invited to decorate the walls in our new Restaurant in Canary Wharf. Have a look through and cast your vote on which artist you think would be the best with our new place.

35. Pikto

I’ve been doing graffiti/street art for 10 years now. I mainly do photorealistic art but I quite often like to combine it with stencil or abstract art. I love new challenges and know loads of techniques to transfer new ideas to large walls. I’ve done loads of airbrush jobs as well. Graffiti came to me as a way of expressing myself on a bigger canvas and is a way to show people that the art doesn’t always need to be inside the gallery. It can be everywhere.

36. Uberpup

Ria Dastidar aka Uberpup – makes imagery inspired by pop culture, nature, the urban environment, characters and fun. The work is playful, surreal and always uses distinctive intense color. Images take a mixed media approach, collage based, assembled digitally. The illustrations produced are often chaotic in style, unrestrained and contain a feeling of density and unbridled energy. Influences include, satirical comedy, Indian textiles, and day-glo cartoon shows. Contemporary illustrators are also very important to the Uber-style, especially Tado, Vault 49 and Genevieve Gauckler. Japanese art and anime is also an inspiration especially the artist Chiho Aoishima.

37. Rough

I am very inspired by architecture and my environment. When I used to paint in the streets I took certain environmental aspects with me into painting interiors and canvas… The way buildings interact with each other and the offsetting of sky colour against dark concrete and metal edges is integral to the similar structures that lie within my abstracts. Although based strongly on early graffiti paintings and graffiti colour schemes, my paintings rely on structure and form. Negative space is also a big factor in my work and I like to work out in my head what goes on outside of the actual painting as well as inside it.To make the innocent and beautiful dark, to find soul in stark, geometric swashes…

38. Rowan Newton

Growing up I was a fan of kids cartoons and comic books. As I got older and growing up in Brixton I became aware of the graffiti and advertisement that surrounded me in my urban environment. These things went on to influence my art, the blocks of solid colour, used in the cartoons, my use of line, like the comics. The more raw scruffier aspect of graffiti and the use of sexy young cool imagery used in advertisement.

39. Jimi Crayon

Jimi Crayon recently exhibited work alongside Banksy, Rankin and Anthony Gormley in the extremely successful Art against Knives exhibition and was the first of all artist to sell his work raising money for the charity. He has customised shoes for Theirry Henry, and Elle Mcphearson and Immodesty Blaze are both collectors of his work. He is one of only 8 artist ever to paint onto the notoriously clean walls of MC&Saatchi’s London HQ and has also painted live murals at the Tate Modern on two occasions. He has shown work in London, Barcelona, Milan and New York and has featued heavily in the press from The Independent through to Vice magazine. Jimi is signed to Britain’s biggest Illustration agency ‘CIA’ working alonside the likes of Sir Peter Blake and Ian Bilbey. Jimi’s work has an enthuastic edge focussing on the vibrance and fun side of life not commonly found amongst his piers. “Arts in a weird place at present, its seems like everyone wants to immortalise the things they hate, you cant walk the streets without seeing stencils of guns, george bush or altered coca cola signs, It can be very patronising, I prefer thinking about the way I want things to go rather than the way I’d hate them to turn out.”

40. X-teck

This is X-Teck from the famouns Monorex collective.

41. The Krah

THE KRAH is a decrepit yet talented young man who has wasted most of his youth scribbling on everything and using any medium he could get his hands on. Brought up in the Mediterranean chaos of Europe’s most ancient city, ironically the one that gave birth to democracy. The KRAH was always fascinated by the urban disorder of his hometown of Athens Greece, where the priests are the richest men and the sunstroke makes the nation think that democracy still exists.  As vandalism was the most fun thing to do, THE KRAH started painting the streets and the subway trains of Athens from 1997.  But his graffiti and street-art also be seen on the streets of a lot of other citys around the world, all over Europe and cities such as Tokyo and Bangkok. After moving to East London The KRAH is still a very active street-artist and if graffiti is about underground freestyle funky visuals in illegal spots, THE KRAH has plenty of them to offer.

42. Agents Of Change

We are Agents Of Change – a group of 4 artists who work together to create artwork that blends and melds each of our individual styles into something unique. Our work is always site specific and we draw inspiration not only from the space to be painted but also it’s past, present and future. The attached piece was created in a gallery under renovation in east Berlin as part of a project to draw attention to the changes – good and bad-  that the area and its population have experienced following the destruction of the wall.

43. SNUB

I’ve been painting many years now.Both commercially and on the street. My recent work involves pylons and vegetation under the rough title of ‘urban nature’. I also recently painted the decor at the latitude festival. I’ve been described as bringing colour back to the streets and anything else I can get my paints, stickers and paste-ups on.

44. Vicky Scott

My artwork is brightly coloured and humourous, inspired by 1920’s art deco, 60’s psycadelia ,art noveau. My pieces always have a story to tell and I like the idea that the viewer can see something different in the picture each time they look and come away from the picture with a smile on their face (I know that sounds cheesy!). I often include organic elements, animals (and cakes!) in my pieces. My pieces are a mixture of hand made paper/ fabric collages cut up with a stanley knife and scissors before being scanned into Photoshop to reproduce as a print. I have recently added paintings to my portfolio too and these are large scale acrylics or household paints canvas and also as wall murals.

Now you’ve ssen the artists. Cast your vote. And don’t forget to check back soon to see who’s the winner of all 5 heats.

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We’ve been delighted with the amount of votes so far. Please keep up the good work! Here’s the 4th heat in the contest, so please have a look and let us know who you think would be best to decorate our new restaurant in Canary Wharf. There will be a final set of artists uploaded tomorrow, so keep checking back to have your say on who goes into the final 10, from which 1 lucky winner will be chosen by the Wahaca Team.

25. Brian Masters

As a boy, I said to my father I want to be a painter. What I meant was an artist, but father got me a job as a painter/decorator. My true passion though is to create art. I am inspired to capture the essences of people’s souls and have developed my own style which some might describe as flamboyant. I am completely self-taught. My vision for the walls of Wahaca would be to showcase the passionate people of Mexico – eating, dancing, cooking in the markets and the streets – all thoroughly enjoying life to create a feeling of warmth and wellbeing.

26. Mike Newton

I was basically sick to death of walking around and seeing so many boarded up houses which i felt were an eye sore and in some ways depressing so i decided to tackle this by bringing life back to those houses with a mix of street art and photography. I would describe my work as environmental activism!

27. Miss Bonnita

I believe that my art is perfect for Wahaca!!

I am a experienced street artist and I also have the skills and experience as i have  worked with interior decorators on massive hand painted wall installations..  No space is too big.

I am also passionate about colour and design. I believe that public art has a responsibility to lift the soul and create a sense of happiness and in return vibrate that energy towards the viewer so that they can feeling positively enhanced.

28. Ministery of Design

I’m a qualified French artist from Paris and i’ve been painting on the wall since 90’s. My style is a mixture of street art, aerosol bombs, stencils and collages. I also paint canvases for a gallery in Paris. My influcenes are the fashion, electronic music, contemporay art and a lot of streets artists and graphists (Blek, Futura, José Parla, Kaws, Brainwash, Faile, Beejoir, Invader, Obey, M/M, Mode 2, Frost, Jr, Micallef and Banksy). I am the creator of the french brand MS Wear (graphic tee shirts, www.mswear.fr <blocked::http://www.mswear.fr/> ) and i’m the artisitic director of the shop Ministry Of Design Paris. I like to mix the pastels colours with the flashy. I think art is a color in the life. The Street art is The Life !

29. Octopus Ink

This is Octopus Ink from the famous Monorex collective

30. Conzo

Conza from the famous Monorex collective.

31. Alfa

Alpha, from the famous Monorex collective

32. Mu Dae

I work as a textile visual artist in London, basically I draw words and images with different materials and textile fabrics, sometimes I embroider on my art. I am very much influenced by pop art, street art and equally traditional craft art in the world, and also poetry writing is a huge part in my creative process.

33. Claroscuro

Claroscuro is a duo of two artists.  One coming from a background of fine arts and the other with a background in Graffiti.  The symbiosis of these two mediums is created with the objective of using art as a social and communicative tool.  Claroscuro has left murals and posters around Europe as well as participating in gallery shows and exhibiting in Barcelona London and New York.  Claroscuro would be honored to get busy on the commission for wahaca and would prepare something freeessshhh.”

34. Patricia Pisanelli

I like the idea of a square comprising lots of rectangles and a circle where people put their clothes in. I also like the idea of a woman swimming in purple, jelly-like liquid that could smell of flowers and sugar, and that is just another product on the shelf of the off license. One thing becomes another that refers to something else that had nothing to do with it. This big play with reality is what I’m interested in.

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