Looking back at art history many artist made writing a part of their concept, like Lawrence Weiner or Cy Twombly. But the artist that John ‚JonOne‘ Perello is mostly compared to is Jackson Pollock. Maybe at first sight the abstract aesthetics and the energy of the canvases are comparable, but in its details they are very divers. Jackson Pollock did not intend to illustrate writing as his artistic background of abstract expressionism derives from the New York School in the 1940ies. As an autodidact John ‚JonOne‘ Perello had no fine art education. Through the obsessively repetitive writing of his tag, his roots in graffiti are still evident.
Although being raised in the heart of African American and Hispanic communities and although his should have been pursuing a standardized and normative path, he always knew there was no Plan B. There was only one way. His journey though the urban jungle led him to his artistic essence: repeating his tag, his signature as well as his name.
Tania Di Brita