JonOne
Born in 1963, in New York, NY.
Lives and works in Paris.
Introduced into the world of graffiti by his childhood friend, White Man, John Perello began writing at the age of 17 under the name JonOne. He painted his first tags on the walls and trains of his neighborhood in Spanish Harlem in the early 1980s before eventually getting his signature up all over New York. Through his unique style, JonOne quickly became a major figure of the graffiti movement. In 1987, he moved to Paris where he began working on canvas while pursuing his work as a graffiti artist on the city walls. He developed a rich and saturated painting style, characterized by the use of vivid colors and improvised abstract forms. A self-taught painter, JonOne draws inspiration from the work of Jackson Pollock, Jean Dubuffet, and Henri Matisse. His background as a graffiti writer remains nonetheless present in his work, his highly colorful paintings evoking the frenetic and explosive energy of the urban experience.
Jonone