Hasta La Ideas

Commissioned by the company that owns Karpo restaurant and the Megaro Hotel, four street artists have completed a huge 450 square metre mural immediately opposite St Pancras International station in London…

The mural, which encompasses two sides of the five storey Georgian building in which both Karpo and the Megaro Hotel are situated, was designed and painted by four members of street art collective, Agents of Change: Remi/Rough from London, Edinburgh-based Steve More, LX.One from Paris, and LA-based Augustine Kofie.

It took two weeks to complete and over 150 litres of emulsion and 160 litres of spray paint were used.

“In the building, which is immediately opposite King’s Cross station, the one-month old Karpo restaurant is on one side and the Megaro hotel is on the other, but they’re both owned by the same company,” explains artist Remi/Rough.

“When they were looking to rebrand their hotel and restaurant business last year, they saw that we had painted a hotel in Vancouver and their art direction agency, The Narrative, approached us and asked if we’d paint the building,” he continues. “We said yes, but made it clear that we wouldn’t paint any logos – because that’s completely against what we’re all about.

“Fortunately, The Narrative were on the same page as us and get what we’re about and were really great to work with,” Remi/Rough continues. “IIn terms of the creative process, they got us a studio in London so all the other artists were able to come to London to start a dialogue. Then we bounced our designs around via email for about two months before we had what we thought was the nailed version,” adds Remi/Rough. “We’re really proud of the design.”

As well as the exterior mural, the hotel and restaurant bought a total of 14 artworks from the four artists to be permanently displayed in the restaurant, and the foursome also designed and painted the reception area of the hotel (shown above).

karpo.co.uk

All photography in this post is by Ian Cox.

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