Cool Hunting

Street artist INSA's recent buzzed-about work pays tribute to the runner with 35 portraits of feet that he hand painted in East London. Produced by media think-tank Protein and created in collaboration with Nike Sportswear's IAM1 Journey Project, it's part of a push by the brand (see the campaign on CH and beyond) to celebrate the history of Nike's Air Max 1 as they launch the new Air Maxim.

The artwork spans East London along a route mapped out by spoken word artist Charlie Dark (of the London running group Run Dem Crew) for the Journey. Inspired by the Dark and the runners, INSA—who is more widely known for his graffiti of a woman's foot in heels—explains, "I'm not really much of a runner, but I thought maybe my artwork would travel around the city. My art would do the running for me."

INSA's longtime collaborator and photographer Ethel documented the week-long jaunt, resulting in a high-def, stop-frame animation of the excursion. The video will play as a focal point of INSA's solo show, "Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places," which opens this Friday at Nike's pop-up space in Shoreditch. (See details below.)

The exhibit will also feature a large-scale installation conveying typical INSA topics, including fetishism, aspiration, success, love, self-reflection and reality.

Visitors to the gallery will get to see a new set of INSA's PVC canvases too, keeping his Griffiti Fetish series alive, in addition to three signed and numbered limited-edition prints.

View more images of the artist at work on the project after the jump

Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places
17-26 July 2009
Nike Sportswear 1948
Arches 477-478
Batman's Row
Shoreditch, London map
tel. +44 (0) 20 755 88 766