Raised in Harlem during the heyday of graffiti art and hip-hop culture, JonOne creates oil on canvas paintings that reflect the culture of freestyle street art. Born John Andrew Perello, JonOne began tagging the streets of New York as a teenager in the early 1980s.
After gaining notoriety and assembling his own tagging crew, JonOne relocated to Paris in the 1980s and began collaborating with the French artist Bando; he also began painting in oil on canvas, a practice that became an important part of his work in subsequent years.
Although removed from the street, his studio work retains the same uninhibited energy as his graffiti-inspired work, boasting boldly colored, stylized calligraphy arranged in allover compositions that reflect the artist’s understanding of both urban walls and the space of the canvas.
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