Coldplay’s exhibition at Proud Galleries raises over £500,000 for Kids Company charity

It was a great night for charity, art and music at Proud Galleries. Chris Martin and the rest of Coldplay presented their very own Mylo Xyloto exhibition in conjunction with Kids Company, a charity that the group have supported for the last four years – raising over £500,000 at its vernissage. The show, open to the public from today, features three original paintings on canvas by Coldplay and their Mylo Xyloto artwork collaborator Paris, as well as the original 7m x 2.5m graffiti wall that became the album artwork. A second wall painted by young children from Kids Company and Paris is displayed alongside Coldplay’s larger wall.

Also available to purchase are three high-quality prints of the Mylo Xyloto album artwork (each a limited edition of eight and signed by the band); three high-quality album artwork prints (each a limited edition of 650 and signed by Paris); and unseen photographs from Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto world tour taken by Miller (aka Roadie #42), the band’s official tour photographer.

All work is for sale, with 100% of proceeds going to Kids Company, a children’s charity which reaches out to over 17,000 vulnerable young people in the most deprived areas of London. Coldplay’s last public benefit for the charity was in December 2011, when the group were joined by guest artists including Tinie Tempah and Emeli Sandé in a benefit show at the O2 in London.

Chris Martin said: “Kids Company is a phenomenal organisation that is very close to our hearts. While we were making the last album we did quite a lot of painting with our friend Paris. We built a special wall in our studio and sprayed it, wrote on it and threw things at it until it eventually became the artwork for Mylo Xyloto. This exhibition is the first time that the wall has appeared in public.”

Will Champion added: “The big wall and the three paintings are all one-off Coldplay/Paris originals. The money raised will make a big difference to some of London’s most vulnerable children”.

Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder and Kids Company CEO, said: “The support Coldplay have given us over the years has been amazing. Art plays a major role in Kids Company’s work with vulnerable children: kids who have experienced trauma often find it easier to express themselves using art materials rather than words. Our recent award-winning exhibition in partnership with the Royal Academy demonstrated this very powerfully and poignantly”.

Filippo L’Astorina, the Editor
Photos: Laura Denti

Mylo Xyloto is at Proud Galleries from 29^th November until 2^nd December 2012. For further information visit the gallery’s website here.

For further information about Kids Company visit here.