Amsterdam-based street artist collaborative “The London Police” will spend the next nine days creating a titanic work of art on the north-facing wall of “The Boone Block Lofts” at the corner of Fourth and Scott Streets in Covington.
A dream team of four skilled artists headed by London Police duo Chaz and Bob, will work their magic on the 40’ x 40’ wall. The three-story space serves as combined canvas and vertical garden for the mixed-media installation of art and ecology. The work will be the culmination of the vision for the site of the late Mike Amann, founder of BLDG, who initiated an international street art movement in Covington, bringing acclaimed artists London Police, Vhils and Faile to the city. BLDG is curating the artwork.
The London Police, known for their iconic “lad” characters and precision marking, encourage public engagement. Their most recent installations in the U.S. are found at the Quinn Hotel in New York, The Coney Art Walls project in Coney Island and Sun Life Stadium in Miami, Florida. Their body of works spans a 16-year period and appears in over 35 countries around the world.
Jeanne Schroer, President/CEO of The Catalytic Fund, advocated for the Boone Block Project from its inception.
Schroer said of the wall, “The Living Wall is an integral element of the project’s adaptive re-use of the 24,720 square-foot landmark structure. The Boone Block is a transformative project developed in a manner that preserves and improves the streetscape, encourages further development, increases residential density, and supports the economic vibrancy of Covington.”
Funding from the Greater Cincinnati Foundation launched the mural component of the initiative, and fundraising for the green wall portion of the project continues.
Chuck Scheper, Chairman of the Board of Bexion Pharmaceuticals and GCF Governing Board member was an early champion of the effort. Explaining the importance of the project, Scheper said, “A Living Wall is a fitting endeavor that speaks to the renewed optimism, creativity and vibrancy of the community.”
Boone Block Development, LLC prepared the site, with contributions of labor and materials to prime the wall, rough in the water source for the proposed irrigation system and install the exterior lighting at project completion. Tony Kreutzjans, Boone Block principal, contractor, and owner of Orleans Development experienced London Police murals up close in Amsterdam earlier this year. Kreutzjans explained, “The scale of their work is phenomenal, the Living Wall is a major contribution to public art, it already has become a destination drawing interest far beyond the local region.”
The London Police
The London Police started in 1998 when big English geezers headed to Amsterdam to rejuvenate the visually disappointing streets of the drug capital of the world.
From 2002 onward TLP started sending missionaries into all corners of the globe. Known for their iconic LADS characters and precision marking TLP have recently celebrated 10 strong years in the art world and their work has graced streets and galleries in 35 countries during this time.
London policemen have come and gone but founding members are still known to walk the streets of every city in the world spreading love with pens and stickers. The current duo have managed to form a partnership more cohesive than Han Solo and Chewbacca and are continuing to produce slick artwork that is tighter than a butlers cuff.
Vhils
This striking form of visual poetry, showcased around the world in both indoor and outdoor settings, has been described as brutal and complex, yet imbued with a simplicity that speaks to the core of human emotions.
Vhils (aka Alexandre Farto) grew up in Seixal, an industrialized suburb across the river from Lisbon, Portugal, and was deeply influenced by the transformations brought on by the intensive urban development the country underwent in the 1980s and 1990s. Vhils digs into the surface layers of our material culture like a contemporary urban archaeologist, exposing what lies beyond the superficiality of things, restoring meaning and beauty to the discarded dimensions buried beneath.”
Faile
Faile (pronounced fail) is a Brooklyn-based artistic collaboration between Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller. Since its inception in 1999, Faile has attained global recognition for their pioneering use of wheatpasting and stenciling in the increasingly established arena of street art, and for their explorations of duality through a fragmented style of appropriation and collage.
Faile adapted its signature mass culture-driven iconography to a wide array of media, from wooden boxes and window pallets to more traditional canvas, prints, sculptures, stencils, multimedia installation, and prayer wheels. While Faile’s work is constructed from found visual imagery, and blurs the line between “high” and “low” culture, recent exhibitions demonstrate an emphasis on audience participation, a critique of consumerism, and the incorporation of religious media and architecture into their work.
