Coldplay to stage charity art exhibition

The band is raising money for Kids Company

Indie giants Coldplay have turned their creative mettle to something other than music, picking up spray cans to make art for a charity exhibition.

The band's artwork is being sold at the Proud Galleries, Camden in aid of Kids Company.

The show, which opens on Thursday, will feature 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 will also be on show.

Frontman 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 will be the first time that the wall has appeared in public”

All proceeds will go 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 02 in London.

The band has supported Kids Company for the last four years.

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."

Coldplay and Paris for Kids Company, from 29 November to 2 December, Proud Galleries, Camden, www.proudcamden.com