This coming Thursday, Galo Art Gallery will be opening The Italian Job, a solo show from The London Police. Galo Art Gallery is Galo‘s relatively new gallery space in Torino, Italy. For me, this is probably the most interesting show that Galo has hosted so far.

Since graduating college a few months ago, I have been forced to find other ways to pregame on the weekends other than a recurring bad romance with Natural Light and terrible displays of beirut.  Now that I am an official adult, going to art openings to see some fantastic art and gulping down the free beer is a pretty appealing alternative.  I always look forward to the shows in the Summer time because so many people go to galleries on opening night (for the booze) that the shows seem to be featuring their highest caliber artists.  Or maybe I just think so because I am five feet tall and feeling woozy after a beer.

On July 1st, Stolenspace in London will be opening their Summer group show featuring some of the biggest names in the game.  When I hear “group show,” my mind jumps to art school end of the year culminations that exhibit an eclectic array of amateur art.  This show, however, is too cool for school.  Shepard Fairey, Wordtomother, D*Face, Kid Acne, Mr. Jago, Cyclops will have works hanging alongside artists (Miss Van, The London Police, and Chloe Early) who had solo shows at the gallery this past year.

Sadly, I still will not be in London until mid-August and will miss the entire show.  I swear some higher power does not want me to see Miss Van’s art in person. Sigh

When TLP hit a wall, they do it in style and as big as they possibly can. Here’s their most recent outdoor piece, painted in Miami prior to their show at The BLDG in Louisville.

Chaz and Bob also made sure to document the process through video, so check them out in action below.

Via Unurth/Wooster Collective.

- Elisa

The London Police are headed to Kentucky. Next month they’ve got a solo show at The BLDG, a gallery that makes some of my favorite screen prints.

The London Police
“The London Police Ride Again”
Opening Reception: Friday March 19, 2010 8-11 PM
Exhibition Dates: March 19, 2010 – April 30, 2010

The BLDG Gallery is pleased to announce the opening exhibition of British art collective The London Police (TLP), March 19, 7 pm to 10 pm at 30 West Pike Street Covington, Kentucky. This show is the first of four international exhibitions planned by TLP for 2010 and will present new original works of Cincinnati and Kentucky themed paintings and videography.

Born in Chelmsford, Essex, The London Police founders, Chaz and Bob, moved to Amsterdam in 1998. Recognized for their iconic LADS characters and precision marking, TLP is universally renowned as “pivotal voices in the history of street art.” Their acclaimed works include: murals of titanic proportion, (The largest can be found in Kreuzberg, Berlin a mere 6 story outdoor installation.) coveted original canvases, short films and even shorter music quips of high regard.

TLP generates an ever growing network of loyal fans spanning Europe, Asia, North America and South America. TLP works have graced the walls of the Stolenspace Gallery, London, GO Gallery in Amsterdam, Carmichael Gallery of Contemporary Art in LA, Fresh Factory in NYC gaining resounding praise and selling out most of their original works. The artists were recently spotted in Miami, South Beach, executing an install in conjunction with the Primary Flight Collaborative.

I’ve had the chance to see a lot of TLP’s art recently, as I was in Miami for Primary Flight (see this video of TLP and Galo) and New York City for their show at Factory Fresh. The more I see, the more I like. The work is friendly, extremely well-executed and usually has clever references to whatever city they are exhibiting in.

Galo

The London Police and Galo have a show opening Thursday the 10th at Factory Fresh in New York. I will definitely be there.

The London Police

Fresh Geezers

This December, Factory Fresh pulls out all the stops as we welcome The London Police and Galo as they return to New York to celebrate more than a decade in the game. Known for their iconic characters collectively these artist work have respectively graced streets and galleries in 35 countries and have been feature in numerous publications throughout the globe. The artists will be showcasing new canvas, featured films of the artist and installation works created site specifically
for Factory Fresh.

This year has seen the return of Bob Gibson to The London Police after five years of touring with the band ‘MOSS’ and flipping burgers in a filthy Dutch snackbar. And so the original founding members are re-embarking on their quest to combine making artwork and travelling the globe to better themselves and spread artistic love through the world. The blueprint for this year was to produce solid back-to-basics black and white artworks collaborating the iconic LADS characters drawn by Chaz with the tight architectural and illustrative landscapes of Bob Gibson. To celebrate 10 years in the field TLP had shows in London (Stolen Space, April 2009), Amsterdam (Go Gallery, May 2009), and Los Angeles (Carmichael Gallery, Sept 2009) with their final show at New York’s Factory Fresh.

Italian stallion, Galo, packs a punch when it comes to covering things in paint – he has painted almost every surface imaginable to man or beast. His work has appeared on three continents, in galleries, museums, cafes and nightclubs, on walls and off. Life for Galo is just one big moving canvas. Welcome to the Galoverse…

In addition to the newly painted works created specifically for this show by each artist , The London Police and Galo will create a collaborative site specific installation for Factory Fresh. Despite the possible cold weather, plans are set for painting a large scale mural in the courtyard of Factory Fresh.

This year the art fairs in Miami are going to be complimented with two massive mural projects.

First, the classic: Primary Flight came out with their promo video yesterday. PF have been doing a mural project in Miami for a few years, and their line up is a grab bag of awesomeness with artists like Ron English, The London Police, Logan Hicks and Revok. Here’s the video:

Primary Flight 2009 Teaser from Primary Flight on Vimeo.

And then there is a the guy in town: The Wynwood Walls is a project by Jeffrey Deitch. The line up isn’t as expansive, but the names are all international superstars like Swoon, Barry McGee, Futura, and Os Gemeos.

There’s even a lot of overlap between the projects with artists like Shepard Fairey and Aiko painting for both groups.

Naturally, I’ll be there filming for Babelgum and taking photos for Vandalog.

Logan Hicks

Thursday night was the opening of Green Day’s The Art of Rock at StolenSpace Gallery. It would have been easy for Green Day to put together a street art show full of random artists that street art fans would hate but Green Day fans would like because it has the Green Day name on it. Instead, The Art of Rock was curated by Logan Hicks and he got some really talented artists involved.

My personal favorite was this piece by Chris Stain, one of his best I think:

Photo by Paulo20210

And I think you really have to see Logan Hick’s laser etched pieces in person, but this shot should give you some idea. The background is laser etched.

Each piece in the show (other than Logan’s portraits) is based on the lyrics from a song off of Green Day’s latest album.

C215

Sixten

Broken Crow, Ron English and The London Police

If you ever liked Green Day, you need to check out this show. The lineup is solid, the art is great and the connection to music is different.

Photos by S.Butterfly

Months late, I’ve finally uploaded all the photos from my 3 week holiday traveling through Europe in June/July to flickr. You can see the full set of street art photos here, but I thought it would be fun to pick out a few highlights.

First, Venice. The Swimming Cities were gone this time I was in Venice, but the Biennale was still on, and Miranada July’s sculptures deserve a mention. Here’s a photo of me with one of July’s sculptures.

And if anybody knows who painted this piece, let me know. It was also in Venice:

But most of the street art I found was in Berlin. Here’s some of that:

Kripoe

Blu

The London Police

Os Gemeos

The London Police has just put out this video, which is quite funny. A bit like Flight of The Concords for art. Very cool. Remember, Brothers in Arms, TLP’s show at The Carmichael Gallery opens on Thursday the 10th.

The London Police have been making a comeback this year, and their next stop is Carmichael Gallery in Los Angeles. I don’t know if The London Police getting better or I’m just warming up to their style, but their work in Amsterdam and some of these works-in-progress for a show at Carmichael Gallery are looking pretty cool.

“Brothers In Arms,” The London Police’s solo exhibition at Carmichael Gallery opens September 10th, and Dan Baldwin has a solo show opening in Carmichael Gallery on the 10th as well.