Alain-Dominique Gallizia
Alain-Dominique Gallizia, an architect, practices personal patronage in the field of Art, particularly in graffiti on canvas, from the 1970s to the present day.
Based in Boulogne-Billancourt, he dedicates his life to helping artists in their work and promoting their Art to the general public.
Over time, he has built the Gallizia Fund, composed of several collections, including the Love Collection and the Vintage Collection, which are still active.
In 1989, he conceived « Affaires à Suivre » with Pierre Touitou, a creation and living workshop offered to young artists, housed in unoccupied buildings while awaiting the necessary administrative permits for their renovation.
Painter Antonio Gallego and sculptor Jean-Gabriel Massardier were among the first to participate and exhibit their works on-site at the end of their stay.
This private initiative, widely covered by the press, launched a public movement to make unoccupied premises available to young artists.
In 1992, he became the first volunteer of the Setton Association, created by Jacky Setton and run by his mother, Lilly, along with Jean Todt, Alain Ayache, and Jacques Séguéla.
This association, named « Grande cause nationale » in 1994, provides thousands of sleeping bags to the homeless free of charge.
In 2005, while distributing these « life bags » to the homeless at Gare du Nord, he met graffiti artists whose works adorned the hoardings of his construction sites.
From this encounter, the common project of putting the works on canvas, sheltered from time, and having this Art recognized by the general public was born.
The best graffiti artists were invited to the workshop in Boulogne-Billancourt to create a painting of the same format and theme (Love).
This equal struggle and « collection » became the Love Collection, a first in Art history for its unity of place, format, and theme, highlighting each artist’s style.
From 2006, his workshop in Boulogne-Billancourt, bought to become his Architecture agency but never did, welcomed the greatest artists from around the world to paint in what became the « Tag Hive. »
He promised the graffiti artists to protect their works from time and introduce them to a wide audience, as Agnès B. had done in the Galerie du Point du Jour and Jack Lang in the Musée des Monuments Nationaux.
In 2008, true to his commitments, he voluntarily curated the « Calligraffiti » exhibition at the Grand Halle de la Villette as part of the Codex Festival, « Writing in all its forms, » where he exhibited parts of the « Love » and « Vertical » collections.
In April 2009, he organized the « Tag au Grand Palais » exhibition, where, as a patron and curator, he staged over 300 paintings from his « Love » collection for the first major international graffiti exhibition.
The success and impact (over seven hundred international publications) of this exhibition marked the beginning of the recognition of this artistic movement.
In July, he advised the « Né dans la rue » exhibition at the Fondation Cartier and provided his vintage canvases from the Vintage Collection.
He has organized numerous exhibitions and charity sales as a curator and expert, including one at the Molitor swimming pool for the Institut Gustave Roussy.
In February 2010, he organized the « TAG les lettres de noblesse » exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo.
These works were sold by Alain-Dominique Gallizia, as an expert, under the hammer of the Pierre Bergé & Associés auction house to benefit the Association SOS Racisme.
From March to July 2010, he curated the first « open-air museum » offered to the city by Laurent Dumas of Emerige, on a 2000 m² tarpaulin.
It allowed passersby to discover artists at work, vintage works, and the Art of the spray can, reconciling the City and Graffiti.
The works created and exhibited on-site were sold by Alain-Dominique Gallizia, as an expert, to benefit the Association « Paris tout P’tits, » which helps mothers of children in distress.
American and French pioneers of this art entrusted him with their vintage works, with the same concern for conservation and exhibition.
This marked the beginning of the Vintage Collection, which has since grown to become the reference collection of the graffiti on canvas movement from 1975 to 1995.
Affordable Art Fair, the first network of contemporary art fairs promoting accessibility to the general public, invited Alain-Dominique Gallizia to participate voluntarily in its Parisian edition at the Halle Freyssinet from May 27 to 30, 2010, and in Brussels at Tour et Taxis from February 25 to 28, 2011.
In February 2011, he voluntarily curated the « Empreintes urbaines » exhibition at the Palais d’Iéna.
The works were sold by Alain-Dominique Gallizia, as an expert, under the hammer of the Pierre Bergé & Associés auction house to benefit the Association SOS Racisme.
In July 2011, as a patron and curator, he provided and staged over 500 paintings at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco for the largest retrospective of European and American Tag and Graffiti, under the High Patronage of Prince Albert II.
The 40th anniversary of the first exhibition of graffiti paintings on canvas in 1972 at the City College of New York was celebrated, and this « Art of the spray can on canvas » was christened « Pressure Art » (Pressionnisme), in reference to « Spray Can Art » and the 19th-century outdoor colorists.
He regularly makes certain pieces of his collection available to the Musée de la Poste for the « Street Art » exhibition, and the Joe Nahmad Gallery in New York used his collection of Rammellzee for the « Deep Space, Matta-Rammellzee » exhibition.
In February 2013, Alain-Dominique Gallizia and Pierre Bergé reunited for a new exhibition, « Tableaux de Maîtres, » at the Palais de Tokyo, followed by a charity sale to benefit SOS Racisme.
In May 2013, « L’Art du Graffiti » entered the Hôtel de Matignon at the request of Mr. and Mrs. Jean-Marc Ayrault.
Alain-Dominique Gallizia provided paintings from his « Vertical Collection » for display in the private and public spaces of the Prime Minister to satisfy the desires of their hosts and their wish to offer this Art to their visitors.
In 2014, he facilitated the entry of the first graffiti painting, signed by Ash, one of the first Parisian taggers and graffiti artists, into the national furniture collection with the help of Philippe Bélaval.
In March 2015, he was the curator of the Pressionnisme exhibition at the Pinacothèque de Paris until September 13, 2015.
He brought together a hundred works from the 1970-1990 period, shedding light on the hidden history of this movement and the in-depth studio work, far from the ephemeral street art.
Paintings from the era of the first great American masters, from Basquiat to Bando, including Rammellzee, were exhibited for the first time in a Parisian museum.
In October 2015, Alain-Dominique Gallizia organized, as an expert and curator, the first auction strictly dedicated to vintage graffiti paintings, auctioned in Paris by the auction house « Piasa. »
In early 2016, he curated the exhibition « Pressionnism, graffiti masterpieces on canvas » at the Fort Canning Museum in Singapore, the first retrospective in Asia of this pictorial movement.
A particular room was dedicated to the artist Rammellzee, with whom Alain-Dominique Gallizia has always been close.
From April to September 2016, he organized the exhibition « Graffiti Art, 70-90, legendary paintings » at the Institut Culturel Bernard Magrez in Bordeaux, at the Château Labottière, with vintage works (70-90) from the « Vintage Collection. »
These works were accompanied by some recent paintings from the « Love » and « Vertical » collections.
From April 2017 to October 2018, the Gallizia Fund provided vintage works from the « Vintage » and « Sketches » collections to the Musée du Graffiti de l’Aérosol in Paris.
From April to May 2018, works by Dondi from the « Vintage Collection » were provided for the « Dondism » exhibition, a retrospective of Dondi’s works at the Ghost Galerie in Marseille.
In July and August 2018, the major exhibition « RAMMELLZEE, RACING FOR THUNDER » was held at the Red Bull Art in New York, for which the Gallizia Fund provided more than a dozen works from the « Rammellzee Collection. »
From October to November 2018, the Lazinc Gallery in London presented a « RAMMELLZEE RETROSPECTIVE, » for which the Gallizia Fund was solicited and provided more than ten paintings from the « Rammellzee Collection. »
Starting April 5, 2019, four works from the Vintage Collection were exhibited at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Calais.
Starting in May 2019, several paintings from the Vintage Collection were exhibited at Fluctuart, the new permanent floating museum of Street Art in Paris.
In 2020, the Rammellzee Collection and the Vintage Collection loaned several works to the MFA Museum in Boston for an exhibition on American Graffiti from 1983 to 1988, with a particular focus on Basquiat, Rammellzee, and his associates, Toxic and Koor.
In 2020, the Philharmonie de Paris Museum exhibited about ten works from the Sketches and Vintage Collections.
In 2021, the Museum of Modern Art in Rome (MACRO) presented two works from the Rammellzee Collection.
In 2022, he loaned most of the vintage works to the City of Paris for the « Capitales » exhibition, curated for graffiti by Elise Herskowicz, Marko 9.3, and Magda Danysz, extended until June 2023 with over 250,000 visitors.
In 2023, a dozen works from the « Rammellzee Collection » were loaned to Jeffrey Deitch for his « Rammellzee » exhibition in Los Angeles and were exhibited at Art Basel.
In June 2023, the Palais de Tokyo exhibited works by Jay One, Rammellzee, Phase 2, and Stay High 169 from his collection in the exhibition « La Morsure des Termites, » curated by Hugo Vitrani, for one year.
From June 15 to September 22, 2024, sketches of the first painted walls of the Stalingrad site, by Ash and Bando, were loaned to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes for their exhibition « Aérosol, une histoire du graffiti, » curated by Claire Calogirou, Nicolas Gzeley, Claire Lignereux, and Patrice Poch.
From February 21 to September 7, 2025, works by Rammellzee were loaned to the Palais de Tokyo for their exhibition « Rammellzee, » curated by Hugo Vitrani.
From April 2 to September 1, 2025, the sketches loaned to the exhibition « Aérosol, une histoire du graffiti » were loaned to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nancy, which will host this exhibition, augmented with works from the collection.
In 2025, he initiated a new reference collection, both historical and contemporary.
Alain-Dominique Gallizia contributes through his collections, articles, and conferences to the revelation of this Art of Graffiti on Canvas, which he named « Pressionnisme, » translating « Pressure Art, » a name given by Phase 2 to this movement opposed to mural graffiti, originally seen as hastily done and less elaborate.
His « Tag Hive, » open to international artists, welcomes both connoisseurs (private art lover groups) and students from all countries (supporting theses on the subject) or young people in difficulty (apprentices-Orphelins d’Auteuil and others).
He is associated with the creation in 2025 of an official chair of graffiti and is available to all schools wishing to provide his teaching, either occasionally or long-term.
Through this continuous volunteer work, Alain-Dominique Gallizia has enabled the studio graffiti on canvas movement (Pressure Art or Pressionnisme) to be recognized today and its artists, with their talent now established, to find work and a market in which they can freely express themselves.
In recognition of his artistic and cultural actions, he was awarded the Medal of Arts and Letters in 2015 by the former Minister of Culture, Jack Lang, the first actor in 1991 at the Musée National des Monuments Français in the museum recognition of this movement.