style writing

NYC Parks: FSG Park (Part 4)

Public Art /

Keo and Kanami Kusajima at FSG Park, July 2023

First Street Green Park opened in 2008, sits between Houston and E 1st street, and had formerly been an empty lot between two buildings. Today, it is a site that highlights the best street art of the moment, and brings visitors together with murals, music, community and cultural events.

Art by Trasheer at FSG Park, July 2023

Like a gallery, the art changes regularly, and FSG Park has democratic approach. It holds open calls for art, but also features some of the most notable muralists, and is proud to include artists from all over the world. The Trops has collaborated with FSG Park at Keeping The Faith and Above Fresh Air, sharing a goal of community participation through the arts.

Work in Progress at FSG Park, July 2023

The appeal of FSG Park is in its ephemeral nature but unchanging mission. Visitors can always depend on being impressed by new graffiti, live music, performance, and good energy. FSG is for everyone. In this way, it’s a true manifestation of New York City street arts and culture. It brings out all of the best parts of the city– art, culture, style, diversity, charisma, collaboration– and shares them on one lot in The Lower East Side.

Art by KEO at FSG Park, July 2023

The Trops spoke with Anthony Bowman, Park Administrator, who shared some history of the park.

Video by Avery Walker

Shop our “Train Writers” collection, featuring artwork from FSG Park.

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Public Art

Keeping the Faith at FSG Park

Event /
Keeping The Faith, July and September Edition featured live painting, special performance, music, and marketplace, in collaboration with Mindful Matter Market, FSG Park and Friends From New York.

July 23rd

Keeping the Faith Part 1 took place in FSG Park in New York City on July 23rd. Featured artists included KEO and VFR, as well as HAON, WANE and Al DIaz. Live performance was by Kanami Kusajima.

September 10th

Keeping the Faith Part 2 took place in FSG Park in New York City on September 10th. Featured artists included SOZE, SPAR and Jona and tunes from Revolve, as well as Alkaline Vegano in attendance. Live painting was performed by Duster and Friends.

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Event

An Interview with JonOne (Part 2)

Artist Profile, Interview /

JonOne

Push the Buttons

Photo by Bruno Brounch

John Perello, AKA JonOne or Jon156, is an American graffiti artist living and working in Paris. In 1984, he founded the graffiti group 156 All Starz, before relocating to Paris in 1987, where he quickly made a name for himself. Working on a wealth of projects during his long career, and exhibiting on a global scale, his style is colorful and expressive.

In part 2 of their 3 part interview, JonOne tells Alexandra Kosloski about the state of his practice and his unique approach in life and art.

Continued from Part 1

Part 1

AK: Do you ever feel like your experience with graffiti gave you a particular advantage– or maybe a disadvantage– in the institutional art world?

JonOne: Well, I’ve always been an outsider. It would be nice, of course, to be challenged in a lot of different types of areas, but you cannot be everywhere or satisfy everyone. So, what I try to do is create an exciting life for myself above everything. I try to– no matter what opportunities are given to me– I try to live my life. As I should be living my life, you know, and not depend on people, that they’re gonna come and save my day. I really don’t believe in that. Sometimes it happens, it’s always a payoff to do anyway. But I tried to live in a free way, no matter what. 

Because it was just so hard to access the art world. It’s just so complicated. And what’s difficult is to be able to continue throughout all the years, and I’m very grateful. Forty years, I’m still painting, and I have a studio and I have assistants– which is tiring. And I was able to raise a family through art, so I’m grateful for the things I have and the things that I don’t have. Well, whatever. Maybe it’ll come around later on– yeah, I wouldn’t mind doing a museum show. You know, why not?

JonOne

Civil Rights

Photo by Bruno Brounch

AK: So why did you move in that direction? Because going from what you’re describing at the start to mentioning a museum show– it feels like there’s some steps to take in between that. What was the catalyst for that?

JonOne: Like to go from, let’s say, vandalism or graffiti– which is beautiful also– to working inside doing canvases and things like that. 

AK: Right. And I’ll pinpoint your move from New York to Paris, did that move play a role?

JonOne: Oh, yeah, it was one of the best moves ever made in my life, to have moved. It was like I was blessed.

But you know, it wasn’t like I was blessed. I always had a vision of being different. So when I say, hip hop, and all that stuff… I was always listening to a lot of different types of music. I was hanging out with a lot of different types of people. I wasn’t just limiting myself to hang out with Blacks, or Hispanics, I hung out with a lot of different people from all over the world. I already spoke two languages, which were Spanish and English. And I was very open to things. I wasn’t just uptown, I was hanging out a lot downtown. So for me to find myself in Paris, there’s no coincidences, right. Even today, I listen to a lot of different types of music, a lot of different types of dads. It’s a way of cultivating myself. So to have moved to France, it was just a transition for me that was like, okay, I really experienced New York, let me see what I can do here. And that’s the way it just became a way of moving on and spreading my art to other people. 

AK: It just felt like a logical next step.

JonOne: Yeah. Because at the time when I left New York, the trains were being painted over. And they were really hard on graffiti writers, on vandals, really, really hard. Which they shouldn’t have been because in Europe, everybody was more cool about it there. And New York was supposed to be the land of free and the brave and all that stuff, but they were too much– just too… you know.

So here, I was able to continue to paint freely and not feel like I was being persecuted. A little bit like the jazz musicians were; that moved from New York or from the US and moved over to Europe, that felt more free expressing themselves in Europe than in the States. That’s the way I felt.

JonOne

Cool It Down

Photo by Bruno Brounch

AK: I do want to talk more about painting. What does a typical day in a studio look like for you?

JonOne: Well, it’s very complicated working in a studio for me. I was thinking about that today because some people from the outside world– they don’t really understand. It’s not like when you start, like when you’re a young artist, you got less baggage. But as you get older, you get more baggage to carry. It’s like the difference between dating a young guy and dating an older guy. The older guy looks good and everything, but he has all this baggage and you’re not really sure if you want to deal with this. Because you might want to just spend time with the guy, but the guy may be so complicated, you know.

Like when you paint for a while, things become more complicated. I mean, creativity wise, I’ve gained a lot of experiences throughout all the years, and that’s something that you can’t take away from me, because I’ve done a lot of different types of projects, and I know my craft pretty well, I know how to express myself, so that’s all good.

 But at the same time, you create expenses around you. So when you create expenses, then you got to deal with a lot of different types of people that are gonna free you up in a way so that you’re not stressed out in your studio that much.

So that’s the baseline. Now, a typical day in my studio, I try to start by taking care of myself, first of all, because you need a good body to paint. So I go to the gym and I come here around 11 o’clock. And then I got to deal with assistants that are waiting for me to tell them what I want to do. I got people here that are going to ask me questions, you know, I’m not like, alone in my studio and just creating, listening to music. So I’ve got to deal with them first, right. And once I get them out the way and they beat, then I can paint. But then I got my girl calling me up, and I got the kids– you know, it’s complicated to create. But I’m here right now and I’m painting.

So there’s challenges at every level, at every level when you paint. So like I was saying, I went to a lot of different types of places recently– I was in South Africa and Bangkok, Alabama, I was in London. I absorbed a lot of different inspirations and I met a lot of different types of incredible people, so now when I find myself alone in the studio, I try to express that energy into my paintings. That’s what makes it so unique, my paintings. And so exciting. So right now I’m working on five, six… like 10 paintings at the same time. You know?

AK: That’s a lot. 

JonOne: Yeah.

AK: You work on them all simultaneously? 

JonOne: Well, some are drawings, right now as we talk. And some of them are going to leave the studio tomorrow. And some of them I’m working on right now. It turns around a lot. I have a really small studio. It’s tiny, tiny, tiny. So I’m bouncing around the place a bit.

AK: That’s interesting. So it sounds like you have to try to have a clear mind, minimize distraction, and that’s when you get the work done.

JonOne: Exactly. You said it pretty good. I have constantly tried to prioritize things and say “that’s not really what’s important”.

JonOne

My Heart Is Fragile

Photo by Bruno Brounch

What’s important is that, like in my studio, there’s no chairs, no chairs, no… No chairs. So nobody can come here and sit down and spend time here because there’s not a chair to sit down on. And I do this purposely because my studio is not a hangout spot. It’s like a laboratory. If you go to a laboratory or a dance company and they’re doing repetitions, it’s just you and the choreographer. And it’s the same thing. It’s just me in front of the painting. So I try to minimize the distractions and create a space where I’m that kid before, that’s bored on Friday nights, and he’s painting in his place, even though he has 10 billion things to do. 

AK: And that makes so much sense because your paintings are so high energy. 

JonOne: Yeah.

AK: Is that kind of what they’re about?

JonOne: I mean, in a way, yeah, it is. Because it’s about like… I wouldn’t say about that. But I try to live fast paced. I try to live an exciting life, you know, a fulfilling life. So then I try to express that in my canvas; live life to your fullest. So that’s what I’m trying to do.

JonOne

Photo by Gwen Le Bras

AK: Yeah, I think that definitely comes across. You just mentioned that you were jumping around quite a bit– you’re in South Africa, you’re in Bangkok… Is there a specific city or show that you’ve felt particularly passionate about?

JonOne: No, no, not really. I mean, I’m always working on new shows, so I’m always excited for the next show that I’m about to do because I like to see my work evolving. So I think that’s really important about my work; it doesn’t really stay still, it goes all over the place. And that’s what motivates me the most is working on new projects. Like on the third of May, I’m supposed to go to the south of France. And I’m preparing a show that’s going to be… most likely in a year from now. And that show will consist of… doing the show in an abandoned church. And then from there, I’m going to paint a wall– I’ll do a big wall that’s like five stories up. So, I go on the third of May to meet the mayor of the city and things like that. So there’s always an agenda coming up. 

AK: That’s really exciting. So you’re always looking towards the next thing? 

JonOne: Yeah. But my dream is to do something in the states. Yeah, I would love to do something in the States. I’d like to do a comeback. You know, I never did a show in the States. I would love to do something there. 

AK: Yeah, that would be great. I mean, always looking towards the next thing, I feel like that’s why your career as an artist has been such a marathon. 

JonOne: Yeah, it has. It’s been a marathon.

Continue to Part 3

Part 3

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Artist Profile, Interview

Style Writing: The Origins and Evolution of a Movement

Editorial /

Tracy 168

To begin to discuss the graffiti movement in New York is to embark on a treacherous journey; you must carefully traverse across seas of misrepresentations and through muddled webs of distortions spun by media. Let the artists themselves be our leaders, the truest definition of explorers wandering uncharted territory. We are Dante, and the artists, our Virgil, their poetry guiding us through urban hell. As someone who is only at the beginning of properly appreciating and excavating the Graffiti movement, I write in caution of adding to an already convoluted history but with extreme wonder and appreciation for a culture that constructed something truly unique. In line with these artists using individual skill to identify with something larger than themselves, attempting to chronicle this movement has been an important reminder that the more you learn, the less you know.

Tracy 168, 1970s

We can trace the origins of graffiti back to the Lascaux Caves, Egyptian hieroglyphs, fresco murals on cathedral walls, or the Roman vandals that defiled the Pasquino statues. The modern style-writing movement in New York used the same forms of satirical poetry to express disbelief in the system, show solidarity, or serve as a proclamation of individual identity within a larger community. But unlike previous centuries of public “vandalism,” the New York writing scene harnessed a unique tool: public transportation. Trains transformed public works of art from solitary moments of reflection into portable messages of rebellion. Their works were no longer bound to physical space or time – their names spread across the city like venom, a constant stream of visual rallying cries that inculcated anyone in their wake. When asked why he thought this movement spread throughout the world, Coco 144 said, “making your mark is a contagious virus with no known vaccination or cure.”

“Taki 183 Spawns Pen Pals,” New York Times, July 21, 1971

Spanish Harlem in the sixties was a mecca of vacant plots and abandoned buildings. As factories closed and workshops moved away from the city, it became the perfect playground for artists with an itch to paint – without the cost of stretcher bars, canvas, and a physical space to work. The city became their studio, train cars became mobile canvases presentable to the entirety of New York. Names that originated in the Bronx would end up in downtown Manhattan, an exchange of personal invitations waiting to be answered. Taki 183 (short for Dimitraki, an alternative to his birth name Demetrius, and his address in Washington Heights on 183rd street) was one of the names that began to pop up in the late 60s and early 70s. He used direct, straight lines to construct this simple tag, and in July 1971 it caught the attention of a NY Times reporter. Don Hogan’s “’Taki 183′ Spawns Pen Pals” was one of the earliest pieces of media coverage on the movement, providing a biography on the artist (as much as one can survey someone trying to stay anonymous) and analysis of some of his works. This article inspired artists to have a strategic, citywide approach to their writing.

In the seventies, the term “Wildstyle” was used to describe the evolution of graffiti toward full-fledged artworks and away from more fundamental tags. Angular letters, pointed arrows, and curved lines characterized this style, often making it difficult for the viewer to decipher the distorted image. Phase 2 specifically developed these bubble-style letters rendered three-dimensionally, known as “mechanical letters” or “softies.” Hugo Martinez, who founded the United Graffiti Artists collective, of which Phase 2 was a member, said “his lettering constantly changed; you never saw his tag repeat itself. He was constantly trying to destroy himself, destroying his previous style.” Wildstyle became especially popular in New York in the seventies and eighties as its complexity allowed artists to showcase their skill and range.

Although John Lindsay and Ed Koch poured $300 million into the War on Graffiti to keep it off transit systems and out of the streets, this only propelled the evolution of style within the movement. Although works wouldn’t last for more than a day, newly-cleaned trains provided artists with large, blank, portable canvases that moved around every inch of the city. Wildstyle flourished and whole-car specialists added scenery and characters to their pieces, using starbursts, outlines, and shadows to add personality. Others mastered the art of the throw aiming for quick execution and anonymity. Phase 2 enjoyed the thrill of writing on subway cars and called it “impact expressionism.” In an interview with Adam Manbasch of Wax Poetics magazine, he recalled writing a poem to a police officer on the vandal squad who had just missed arresting him: “If you only knew/the real Phase 2/the super sleuth/who’s still on the loose.”

Phase 2. Photo by Michael Lawrence and Herbert Migdoll

By 1977, the foundations of the culture were fully formed, and artists were now fighting to be recognized by the quality of their works, the amount they were painting, or location of their tags. Artists like Fab 5 Freddy began bombing whole cars with murals. With his connection to Lee Quinones’s Fabulous 5 crew, Freddy became an important link between uptown hip hop and graffiti scenes and downtown punk and art worlds. There were artists like Coco 144, who in 1969 was only a teenager just beginning to paint, after seeing Taki 183 and Julio204 in upper Manhattan. By 1971, he was all-city and up there with Phase 2. He famously called Phase 2 “a person from another dimension that came in and deconstructed the letter and reconstructed it again.” With Hugo Martinez, Coco 144 cofounded the United Graffiti Artists in 1972 and was a huge player in moving graffiti from walls to trains. He was also one of the first to introduce stencils into the graffiti movement, allowing for more precision, attention to detail, and for “obvious tactical reasons.”

Fab 5 Freddy, Soup Cans, 1980

The first major introduction of graffiti into the fine art world was driven by the LES galleries and European art market (primarily Denmark, France, and the Netherlands). It all happened pretty quickly; both Phase 2 and Coco 144 were in the first gallery show that featured graffiti, a United Graffiti Artists presentation at the Razor Gallery in SoHo in September 1973. By the beginning of 1975, Phase 2 had largely given up subway graffiti, moving his work onto paper and canvas or into sculpture. In 1979, Galerie le Medusa invited Fab 5 Freddy and Lee Quinones to exhibit in Italy, the first time graffiti was exhibited overseas. And by 1980, Lee had his first New York show at White Columns, officially signifying aerosol paint’s transition from moving objects back to stationary works (this time inside galleries instead of the outside of buildings). The Times Square show in 1980 incorporated Basquiat and Keith Haring, widening “street art” to include graffiti, fine art, and the integration of the two. In early 1981, Fab 5 Freddy, together with Futura, curated the Mudd Club show Beyond Words, an important early exhibition that brought together graffiti-based artists and downtown fine artists. Over two dozen canvases, along with early photos from Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant were shown as part of an exhibition on graffiti at UCSC in 1982.

Keith Haring In New York City subway, 1984

In the same year, back in New York, 51X Gallery opened just 2 blocks away from Fun Gallery, expanding access to and the content of Graffiti art. Dondi’s show at 51X, The Ugly Man, expanded his visual repertoire toward more abstract and “atmospheric” pieces. But museum acceptance in Europe was one of the key factors of Graffiti’s early canonization. Graffiti at the Boijmans-Van Beuningen in Rotterdam in 1983 featured the second-generation stars – Seen, Futura, Crash, Quik, etc. – and the same show spread the formal appreciation of Graffiti first to the Groninger Museum, then to the Stedelijk in Amsterdam, and across Denmark’s Loudian Museum in 1984.

It’s important to note the term “graffiti” is largely contested within the movement itself. Coco 144 explained that what the media would call the Graffiti movement, he would call the Writing Movement in New York. As the movement shifted from a “social scream of the inner city to a large-format, graphic design-like urban beautification movement,” “graffiti” was repackaged into an art market-friendly term to easily categorize and sell the work.

For artists developing the movement, writing was “a reflection of the times… a combination of the spirit of the anti-war movement, frustration with economic and social inequality, and racial and political tensions.” Phase 2 crucially rejected the word “graffiti,” or “the G-word” as he called it, and preferred a term like “style-writing.” But what word could ever adequately encapsulate the original intentions of the movement, and track its evolution not just stylistically, but socially, over time? “It’s like calling a meteor a pebble,” Phase 2 said in an interview with Raw Vision magazine in 1997. He would describe his artistic development as “absorbing and devouring language in its coexisting state and creating something else with it.” Now how do we find an appropriate word for that?

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Editorial