Street art and Manchester have, in recent times, become almost synonymous with one another.
From Akse’s mural of Marcus Rashford in Withington to Qubek's giant bees on the side of Koffee Pot in the Northern Quarter, there’s exquisite designs, immersive think-pieces and stunning portraits to be found around every corner.
We’ve seen time and time again how street art can hammer home an important message or bring life to an otherwise abandoned back street.
But it’s not always been seen like that.
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Thankfully, Manchester’s street art scene is as bustling as ever. In fact, there’s a whole host of artists actively coming to Manchester in a bid to be a part of it.
We’ve spoken to two artists who hail from outside Manchester that now happily call it their un-adopted home - and it’s all down to how the city-region took them in as one of their own when starting out.
Jay Gilleard, under the name of Cbloxx, is one half of UK street art muralist duo Nomad Clan.
Originally from Huddersfield, Jay now lives halfway between their hometown and Manchester in the village of Marsden.
“It was something I picked up as a kid,” Jay explains of how they got into art.
“I just spent a lot of my time drawing. I wasn’t particularly good at school - I wasn’t achieving and I was struggling - so I had to kind of find my own roots really.
“I spent some time working at Subway and in bars all while practising my art.”
Jay, who uses they/them pronouns, said they had a ‘fleeting time’ at art school before realising the experience was ‘too abstract’ for them.
“Street art basically found me,” they confess.
“I was a fan to begin with, I was looking up to certain street artists and seeing how they were somehow managing to forge careers just by working on the streets.
“I started going out painting and graffitiing with people, all while holding on to jobs.
“It just grew from there and I just knew it was what I wanted to be spending my time doing.”
Ending up in Manchester on a more frequent basis, Jay eventually met artist Hayley Garner, also known as Aylo, who was running a paint shop at Afflecks Palace.
“We started working together more and more and we realised there were many benefits to us working as a team,” Jay says.
“Things really snowballed from there. We had the ambition and drive to want to do it full time and make it succeed.
“We’re both quite self-made, between the two of us we just started going hell for leather.
“We’d hop on Megabuses, sleeping on floors, painting wherever we could. It wasn’t glamorous, it was really hard work.
“We spent a lot of time painting for food, beer and accommodation but the more we did it, the more demand we got.”
One of the first big pieces Nomad Clan worked on together has now gone on to become a bit of an institution in Manchester’s Gay Village.
Alongside the exterior of The Molly House pub on Richmond Street lies a large mural depicting queer icons such as Alan Turing, Emmeline Pankhurst, Quentin Crisp and Foo Foo Lammar.
The mural, created in 2014, sits 40 metres high and nine metres wide and features work from artist Glenn Jones, alongside Lauren Jo Kelly, Adam Pryce and Mark Wallis.
“That mural was basically the birth of Nomad Clan,” Jay explains.
“It wasn’t our design but it was something picked by the community that we were commissioned to execute.
“Once we did that, the world opened up to us and we managed to get a gig in Liverpool where we were able to paint our own design that was executed by ourselves.”
Not long after, in 2017, the duo created ‘Athena Rising’ in Leeds which still remains the UK’s tallest mural to this day.
“That mural definitely changed things for us, and I think it changed things for Leeds too,” Jay confesses.
“It was really nice to do something that was sort of giving back and improving the arts scene within the North. It was really hard to get any traction or exposure from the north at the time.
“Most of the eyes were on London and it really did feel like we had to be seen in order to make our point heard.
“It just wasn’t happening in the same way in the North. But as it transpired, having the support from a couple of property developers really helped reduce that space where murals didn’t exist.”
In just the space of five years, street artists, like Nomad Clan, have helped transform cities in the north.
At a similar time - and in similar circles - artist Pete Obsolete, who has been compared to the likes of Keith Haring, was also making waves.
Originally from Nottingham, Pete moved to Manchester 15 years ago to study design and art direction at Manchester Metropolitan University. He’s never left since.
“I fell in love with the city pretty much immediately,” Pete explains.
“Just from the industrial heritage and the art and hip hop scenes that dominate Manchester - it’s a really exciting place and full of incredible talent.”
After finishing university, Pete started out by launching his own clothing label and a shop in Afflecks - which just so happened to be near the shop owned by Nomad Clan’s Hayley.
Pete says his artistic flair, inspired by the ‘modern 80s’, is something that was instilled on him from a young age thanks to his mum’s profession as a ceramics and arts teacher.
“I am very much influenced by her and her energy,” he explains.
“It all started out really by having little drawing competitions with my twin brother. My parents would put pens and paper in front of us and we’d compete to draw the best house or the best bike.”
He says he was drawn to Manchester because of the city’s ‘similar design and expression’ to that of his hometown Nottingham.
“Manchester just immediately felt like a second home - a bigger Nottingham - to me,” Pete said.
“They’re both stemmed in industrial and printing attributes; it just made me feel instantly safe.
“Quite honestly, the music scene and awareness of things that were going on in the north always felt like a nearer capital than London to me.”
When asked how to describe his art style, Pete says he refuses to be put into any one box.
“I've been called everything before,” he outlines.
“I’ve been called a street artist and an artist but really I class it all as art - I’m an artist. By saying that, it also gives me a little bit of freedom then as well!
“Basically, I class anything that leaves my right hand as Obsolete work. The audience can fill in the blanks for me.”
Over the years, Pete has become well-known for a host of radio shows alongside music and arts events throughout the city and beyond.
“I always say ‘real recognise real’,” he explains.
“I have a lot of energy for art and hip hop and to support what I do. If you graft and put the energy into it, it will come back to you.
“I consider Obsolete as a collaborative being. Manchester is the perfect example of a city where collaborations can work so well.
“I’ve seen the biggest companies work with some of the smaller MCs and artists, and it just goes to show there is the possibility for that to be a success.”
Juggling multiple different things at any one time is something Pete accepts is part of his nature, but when the pandemic hit, he, like everyone else, was forced into stopping his usual routine and taking stock.
“I’m a very busy dude,” he laughs.
“So the pandemic really gave me a chance to pause and focus on things. It was a chance for me to shuffle my papers and line a few things up and I really enjoyed that element of it.”
It was a similar opportunity for Jay too.
It was during a time in Liverpool in early 2020 when Nomad Clan realised that the pandemic might turn out to be a very real prospect.
Thankfully, being locked down became something that was also much needed for the artists.
“On a personal level, it kind of came at a time that was ideal for us,” Jay said.
“We were really close to suffering from burnout. It gave us time to breathe and take stock and make some massive changes in our lives that needed to happen.
“As much as there were struggles and hustling, it was, for the most part, a much needed break for us.
“We were painting murals at an almost-addictive rate for about five years. We suddenly realised we’d been running away from a lot of stuff and responsibilities and it was a much-needed break to figure all of that out.”
One of those things Jay had been running away from was their own identity.
The break of the pandemic made Jay discover they identify as non-binary. Having established their roots in Nomad Clan as part of a ‘queer female’ art duo, it was something that came with a bit of adjustment.
“Identifying as non-binary makes things a little more complicated in some respects as I’m recognised historically as a queer woman,” they say.
“I’m now experiencing another chapter and that means having to try and shift some of the narratives that have been drawn to me.
“It just adds another level of complication to an already-complicated process.”
Jay says that when Nomad Clan started up, they had to fight hard, as queer women, to be seen and be visible in the artistic space.
“It was pretty difficult to get opportunities,” they explain.
“There were very few women in the area where I was painting and there was always a certain approach to the females - it was often a tokenistic thing really.
“We’ve been accused of using our sexuality and gender to our advantage as if our skills aren’t enough.
“You really have to take a negative like that and turn it into an energy where you’re able to know your worth and transcend some of those ideas.
“Thankfully, we’ve been able to use some of the more negative experiences to fuel our path.
“In a way it’s kind of forced us to work harder and improve our skills. We’re not the sort of people who want to be in that position, we’ve always wanted to prove ourselves and achieve as much as we could.”
Jay says that, thankfully, they can see the art space become much more inclusive and diverse.
“Things are really changing these days,” they explain.
“I feel like that gap and treatment has narrowed so much. It’s just more balanced, which is beautiful and something I really want to see.
“We’ve been lucky that we had artists, like Faith 47, who we can look up to and aspire to be like. They were killing it at a time when i t was hard to even do anything in street art.
“They made us feel like there was a possibility for us to do that, and that’s what makes it so important.
“It’s about showing that females, and especially queer females, can see themselves in this space if they want to be in it.”
Expanding the realms of the art space is something that Pete is also keen to do.
“I believe in those who graft and those who want to use their creative brain,” he adds.
“We’ve seen how lockdown has kind of adjusted things for a lot of people and actually turned off that creativity which is really sad to see.
“But, on the other hand, we’re also seeing people want to be part of a scene like this more than ever because they’ve missed that social aspect. And it’s about giving them opportunities and space to do so.”
Alongside nights like Golden Egg Hip Hop with Seymour and Art Battle UK, Pete is also encouraging anyone to pick up a pen and draw whatever comes to mind.
It’s something that Northern Quarter night OverDrawn is essentially built around.
“We’ve seen that people don’t just want to drink nowadays - they want more,” Pete explains.
“The uptake of things that offer more than just drinks has definitely seen a rise. We’re wanting to find more sociable things, people want a little bit more of something to do.
“Things like Overdrawn, which encourages people to just draw whatever they like in a good, sociable environment are the perfect answer for that.
“It’s for anyone who likes drawing, whether you’re terrible at art or Tony Hart.”
In the space of just a few years, both Pete and Nomad Clan have seen demand for their work rise.
Despite working in the same circles and literally next door to each other at one point, it’s very rare that the artists get to work alongside each other.
But that has changed with a recent collaboration with Most Wanted Wines, which has created a number of bottle wraps to raise awareness about equality, diversity and inclusivity in the arts and drinks industry.
Pete’s Malbec label argues that 'every artist is a caveman, you want to leave your mark on the world. You're leaving a message for the next tribe.'
While Nomad Clan’s Cabernet Sauvignon wrap is Inspired by a trip to the US where they witnessed towns in the desert devastated by climate change.
“Now is the time to be working with brands to have the freedom to speak openly about what is affecting us globally,” Jay says.
“For Most Wanted to give us the opportunity to do so without really needing to compromise our artwork or integrity seemed like a really nice fit for us.
“We’re living in a time where there’s a lot of murals or art that is just a straight-up advertisement and I do struggle with that sometimes. But this just feels like an actual artistic collaboration.”
Looking to the future, both artists say they are ready to see how the street art scene in Manchester continues to thrive and adapt - especially now that it seems to have been embraced.
“It’s kind of interesting how it’s all coming back to the north,” Jay explains.
“At one point, we were trying to get away from the north in the first instance because there was no work and now we’re coming back and finding that a lot of work is major commissions here.
“The north has become a real place of peace and calm for me and it just highlights how sometimes you need to leave somewhere in order to truly appreciate it.”
Pete adds: “Manchester really is one of those cities where if you put your heart and soul into it, it will come back to you tenfold."
You can follow Nomad Clan on Instagram here, and Pete Obsolete's Instagram is here.
