NEXT week is the return of Southend City Jam and here we look at the featured artists taking part in the event.

Southend City Jam is a street-art festival that is being billed as the “largest in Europe”.

It will return on September 1 to September 3 with huge colourful piece of artwork scattered across the city.

It will see more than 200 local, national, and international streets artists – with some from as far afield as Brazil, Spain, El Salvador, and Ukraine.

More than 100 walls across Southend City Centre and seafront will be transformed, a mix of permanent walls, temporary hoardings, large-scale wooden cubes, and a pop-up park.

Within the 200 artists, is a number of featured artists and here we take a look at those at some of these featured artists shared by the City Jam organisers.

1. Jerks – Jerks is a graffiti artist and muralist based in North Carolina, USA. His vibrant and dynamic works are featured on building facades and public spaces across different cities around the world. JEKS has made a name for himself globally with his hyper-realistic monochromatic portraits as well as full colour portraits.  

2. Friz – Friz is a visual artist based in Bangor, Co. Down. She works in both digital and traditional mediums, using a combination of aerosols and acrylics depending on the surface she is using at the time. Her work explores history, myths and the folklore that shapes the cultural identity of a place.

3. Tech Moon – Tech Moon from the UK specialises in large scale mural work which is often underpinned by a love for wildlife and exploring varied spray-painting techniques. TECH MOON’s work fits somewhere between street art and fine art, having created murals for the likes of Netflix, the BBC, and M+C Saatchi.

4. Liam Bononi – Liam Bononi from Brazil, combines realism and different textures, using materials like acrylic paint, sprays, and dry pastels. His pieces represent the quest for the divine essence that inhabits each one of us and his art is a narrative about the human beings' transformation through self-knowledge.

5. Bublegum – Bublegum is a multidisciplinary artist based in Spain. His eye-catching art style is a merge between photorealism and graffiti elements that bring movement. His main inspiration are female portraits and nature elements, and he is known for his wild and colourful roses.

6. Ejits – Ejits is an artist, illustrator, and muralist from Bristol. Her work focuses on “Ejits”, a misfit bunch of geeky & silly illustrated characters that tap into the big kids in all of us. They have a distinct & recognisable style inspired by classic American cartoons, Japanese character design and street art.