Locals honoured in Notting Hill Frieze exhibition

Some of the local Notting Hill legends featured in an installation in west London as part of the annual Frieze art fair. (Clockwise from top left - Karl Amata, Allyson Williams, Jama Emli and Karen Millen)

A fourth-generation Portobello market trader, a Notting Hill Carnival stalwart and fashion icon known locally as "Notting Hill's best dressed man" are among the people featured in a new artwork by street artist Endless, about Notting Hill's identity.

The installation, Endless Frieze, displays local buildings and street scenes celebrating the west London neighbourhood as part of the annual art fair Frieze London.

Guests and celebrities specifically chosen for their contribution to the area's identity were photographed during a live event on Friday and now feature as part of the exhibition.

The work is "about the community and bringing them into the art world and into my world," Endless said.

Cheryl Devlin has worked on a fruit and vegetable stall in Notting Hill since she was five years old

This world includes Cheryl Devlin, a greengrocer whose family have had a fruit and vegetable stall in the market for more than a hundred years. She has worked on the stall since she was five years old.

"I used to stand beside my mum and dad and sell lemons, five for a shilling," she says.

"And if you didn't, you didn't get your dinner; it was really that tough in the '50s."

The area has changed since then, she says. There used to be around 350 people selling fruit and veg, but that's been replaced with stalls selling cooked food or bric-a-brac.

"A lot of people downsize who can't afford the housing.

"It's just tough to live around this area now where it was quite cheap and reasonable."

Street artist Endless says the installation recognises the contributions locals have made to the area

Like the area, the exhibition is ever-changing. It's being created in real time - as soon as the portraits are taken they appear on the wall, in a collage - something Endless says can be a creative risk.

"It becomes a frieze, a moment in time of the architecture, the buildings and the people. So it's really about the energy of the place.

"Whenever I make any artwork, I plan it and I have a vision, but then it can go either way," he says.

"There's like elements of risk even when you're making a painting. So with this the risk is life, anything could happen. So the camera could go wrong or I could stick it up wrong but that's part of it.

"In art we say it's like a happy accident and that's when something good happens as well."

"I'm in the art, in the fashion, I'm a walking art," says local legend Jama Emli

Also part of the artwork, and perhaps a gift to photograph is Jama Elmi, a recognisable individual who admits he is a "local icon".

"Notting Hill, it's vibrant, the energy, the love, it's absolutely, I wouldn't live anywhere else but here," he says.

Allyson William's company Genesis Mask Band is always visible at Notting Hill Carnival

For Allyson Williams MBE, Notting Hill simply is the carnival. She is a board member of Notting Hill Carnival Limited and has been involved with its organisation since 1975.

In 1980, she launched her own costume brand with her husband, called Genesis Mask Band.

"I have been a seamstress, I've been a designer. I've been bringing the costumes - the designs of my husband and my daughter - bringing the costumes to life."

Part of the reason she loves the carnival is because it is part of her history.

"I'm a Trinidadian and so it all started there and it was the Trinidadians who came, who were part of the Windrush generation who came and brought all the art and culture here," she says.

Karl Amata says Notting Hill needs more community events to bring people together

Karl Amata works at Sound Records on All Saints Road. He says the exhibition is a good thing.

"I hope it continues. We need more things like this to bring the community together.

"Because there's the lack of it. Everything's been shut down, the shops, every cultural centre, anywhere people can gather together."

Karen Millen, founder of the Karen Millen clothing brand said she was "very honoured" to be part of the installation.

She added Notting Hill is the "epicentre of where people come for creation really, so I don't think that will ever go away."

The exhibition at the Cris Contini Contemporary Gallery runs till the end of October.

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