I met Galo back in 1998. Later that year we did a show together at the Trader’s Pop Gallery in Maastricht. The day before the opening, he was working on a wall piece and I can remember losing track afterpartyof the layers as he sprayed one on top of the other. At several moments I was horrified. It was as if each time the piece looked tight, he went and made mousse of it again. But by the time he declared himself finished, I was gasping in front of a piece that worked for me in a big way. Galo clearly had a great feeling for form, and however he saw the puzzle before him, my imagination was too limited to predict where it would end.

His work places what he refers to as his Creatures into what he calls ‘a Situation,’ and the layers (the colors, textures and techniques) are characteristics of whatever situation the Creatures find themselves thrown into in that particular instant. In a way, they are intuitive feelings.

At the start of this century there was the red light situation; followed by countless rock and roll situations; never a shortage of skinning situations; gasping situations; truck stop situations; break up situations; posca situations; dandy situations; hairy situations; rarely fighting situations. Galo may look like an out of shape Ted Nugent, but that’s because he’s a lover not a fighter. His project is about communication and direct romance. It deals with living situations and communicating these experiences and their concerns. It is intended for the bar not the ballroom, or in the parlance of our mediated time, main street not wall street. In his ‘Big Geezer Diaries’ interview following a three week tour of action painting around Europe, his stated that when begin putting his work everywhere he could, his belief was that he and his friends could create an art gallery that welcomed every last one of us without asking for a dime in return- sharing as caring.

His creatures are not what I would call critical beasts. They are here for the party and cannonball right in off the roof. At some point they probably try to flip a full pint of beer or take their shirt off and stage dive from the bar. If you watch Galo working on a collaborative project, while some artists will try and ebb and flow with the whole crew, Galo usually picks a spot, sprays out something massive and is on his way. He knows what he is after and tends to be the first guy at the bar. He also tends to be the last guy at the bar and when he staggers off you can be sure there are n a few stubborn creatures lagging behind him. The Galoverse is not about 9-5 living and doesn’t make much time for sleep. In this reality, vandalism is a gesture of love.

This reality has specific chapters. The Galoverse, Galifornication, Galo Styles, Galoness, creatures, creatures and more creatures. The neon phase. The blues and the reds. Rules coming into play only to be lost in a fight refereed by Jack Daniels. The work is graphic and I often think that this is what Galo means when he says he began as a graphic designer. I consider him a painter, one who knows how to build up so well that he seems to do it in seconds. He is of that age that just pre-existed internet. In my eyes, his body of work is much more influenced by Graffiti, Comics and the paintings and lives of that 80’s scene including Keith Haring and Basquiat then by Neville Brody, David Carson or Shepard Fairey. Internet entered his work, not so much as a tool for anything but planning his travels and making dates in bars around the world. Where is Galo skinning now?

At the end of the 90’s when something like an international street art scene was emerging, Galo was a contemporary Dean Moriarty character with Chaz (The London Police) playing his comrade Sal Paradise and everybody knew them. On the road for years and years, straight into their thirties, the two of them were a recognized team and counting off the names of all the good hearted people they introduced me to would be as tedious a task as remembering all the creatures Galo gave birth to last month. Galo it seemed, was never more than a stone’s throw from some sort of action.

By 2005, everything was changing quickly. We were getting older and our stances were maturing, our desires and interests changing. Life’s second puberty. Galo appeared as an enigma, seemingly resistant to change. ‘I’m going to paint creatures until I die.’ He says this (year after year) like there is no other option, as if it were a vow made to his high school sweetheart on their wedding night. He created his own vocabulary and he is faithful to it. This does not mean it doesn’t evolve. Each night holds it’s own set of unique and common situations. Change is a constant not a campaign slogan.

By employing this language over and over again in every place possible, he learns to speak to the world and develop his work on a linear basis as he zig zags through his life. Like an 80’s Graffiti writer, it is a quest for style. More like Keith Haring however, Galo isn’t really a writer and this style consists of pretty things presented in a trashy way, which speaks towards the innocence of perversion.

His project is one of generosity. The work reflects this, almost resulting in overkill as he keeps churning out piece after piece at the same pace he leads his life. But Galo will not be denied, he keeps giving, keeps listening to the voice in his own head. I shudder and grin in an effort to imagine what that might sound like. All those creatures telling jokes at once.

At a time in the world when there is no authority left to believe and we are skeptical of everything except experience, Galo, with his regime of committed chaos, appears as a stoic. A gifted painter. An exceptional human. Being. A good friend and real stand up character. One day, this is what the body of work will speak to: the personal truth of a painter living a shared situation and looking for the next good time around the turn of the century. The life of a creature called Andrea Galvagno. It would be difficult for any artist to make a more honest and vulnerable contribution than this, and even then it could never present such a laugh in this short life we get to live.

Harlan Levey

Editor in Chief

Modart Magazine