28 June 2012 Tour de France and Olympics: James Straffon
With London hosting the Olympics, it would be remiss of me not to host something Olympian this Summer. Couple that with the fact that my favourite sporting event of the year, the Tour de France, occupies the three week slot just before the Olympics starts, and I realise that it is the perfect time for me to extend the gallery’s offering into other areas of popular culture beyond music. And so, we are delighted to be working with artist James Straffon who is creating a back to back TdF and Olympic extravaganza. James shares my love of cycling and its history and traditions, and is pulling out a blinder with these two back to back exhibitions.
The TdF exhibition will feature James’ unique artworks on the wall, created from historic early cycling magazines and other items of cycling memorabilia from the history of the sport. Here’s a sneak preview of one installation piece – still in progress. This is one of Bradley Wiggins’ actual shoes, decorated with vintage magazine clippings (the sharp eyed will spot 1960s British legend Tom Simpson). The finished artwork will consist of the MOD-ified Wiggins shoe, in a special cycling related mounting ( I don’t want to give the game away yet ) presented framed on the wall.
James has a fascinating blog where he discusses the work he has in progress for the show – check it out here
If you have a cycling buddy, please tell them about this show. We have a launch event on Thursday evening, 28 June 2012. Let us know if you would like an invite. That Thursday evening will be the first opportunity to buy one of James’ new artworks.
