White Walls Project

The White Walls Project ran from 2010 until 2020 and saw Unit44 Gallery co-ordinate an international line up of artists in creating a series of pieces to coincide with the regeneration of the Hoults Yard estate in the East End of Newcastle.

Each artist was given a wall to work with and came up with an installation that “would represent the forward thinking nature and ethos of the hub”. Hoults Yard is now a home for various tech and creative businesses and many of the original pieces can still be seen.

The first piece installed as part of the White Walls Project was produced by musician and artist, Kid Acne, and comprised a huge mural saying “DUST IN THE GIANT'S EYE”. This original installation is still there in 2023 although it does show its 13 year old age!

The second piece was by the artist Jon Burgerman and showed a series of colourful and strange characters. Sadly this piece no longer exists but the beauty of the project is that if one piece disappears, it is replaced by something fresh and new.

2011 saw Belgian street artist ROA create the remarkable, and spooky, “Three Horses” which depicts three horses on top of eachother with one of them a skeleton. Later in 2011 London based graffiti artist SheOne took two days to create “Black Lightening” which can be found on the gable end of the coffee shop.

A further 2011 addition was by the artist Insa. This piece is actually a piece of “Gif-itti” and is titled “Online Love”. It shows a series of intertwining legs and pink heels along the rear of one of the longer buildings. Over the course of three days the artist painted and repainted the piece with the black and white stripes on the legs in different places. A series of photos were taken of each iteration and they were put together and animated to give the effect of movement when viewed as an online GIF file!

Other artists who have produced work for the White Walls Project over the years include; Mr Penfold, who currently has two pieces on display, Hush (a Newcastle born artist who fuses street art with Japanese iconography), Remi Rough and Stormie Mills, Pixel Pancho and Nosego.