As part of its upcoming Modern and Contemporary Art auction of October 19, 2021, PIASA is pleased to offer for auction several paintings signed by JonOne.
"It is only when freed from technique that an artist can let the strings of expressionism resonate. In fact, abstraction begins where control ends."
John Andrew Perello aka JonOne is a graffiti artist born in 1963 in New York, considered one of the pioneers of the graffiti movement in New York. He has lived and worked in Paris since the late 1980s.
It was in the late 1970s, while walking the streets of his native city, that the artist began to experiment with graffiti work by tagging his name on the streets and on the underground trains. "The metro is a museum that runs through the city," he says.
In 1984, the artist founded the graffiti collective 156 All Starz (the number of his street) and took the pseudonym Jon156 and then JonOne.
His masters include Miró, Matisse, Kandinsky and American abstract expressionists such as Pollock and de Kooning. In fact, he describes himself as an "abstract expressionist graffiti painter".
His encounters with major players in the art world such as A-One, a close friend of Jean Michel Basquiat, the New York gallery owner Rick Libbrizzi in 1985 and many others marked the beginning of a career.
JonOne (born in 1963)
Home Alone, 2018
Estimate: 14 000 / 18 000 €
In 1987, he was called to Paris by his Franco-American graffiti artist friend, Bando (Philippe Lehman) and met Maître Pierre Cornette de Saint Cyr who allowed him to set up in an open-air studio at the Hôpital Bretonneau from 1990 to 1995 alongside A-One, Sharp, Ash and many others. It was then that he moved from the urban medium to the canvas. He attracted the attention of French gallery owners and collectors with his lettering and colour projections.
JonOne's work is now internationally recognised. His work has been exhibited in Tokyo, Paris, New York, Monaco and Hong Kong.
JonOne (born 1963)
Crime Pays , 2007
Estimate: 10 000 / 12 000 €
