Artist 1: JonOne (John Andrew Perello)

JoneOne uses his experiences of growing up in Harlem and his involvement with graffiti groups in his oil painted canvasses, depicting tags and words in a chaotic yet calculated form. His 2007 ink on canvas piece ‘Letters From A Soldier Of Art’ has text being repeated in rows that seem illegible, especially towards the bottom of the artwork. This combination of black text with colour highlights the gestural nature of the font, making it appear moving. The dripping present throughout the entirety of the piece reinforces this notion, implying as if it was done in haste.

I really enjoy JonOne’s use of font as defining the form of an artwork, as my artwork incorporates text elements also which I would like to highlight. The intensity and pace of JonOne’s writing is also very effective in conveying chaos.