Solo show Zurich

John ‘JONONE’ Perello

15.04.2019 – 20.04.2019

PLAN B

Kolly Gallery is honored to present John ‚JonOne‘ Perello’s unique, multifaceted and personal paintings entitled Plan B from April 15 to 20, 2019.

The works presented in the exhibition show the artist’s energetic, cryptic and polychrome canvases. Multiple layers and thick brushstrokes adorn his large-sized and explosive paintings. Profoundly rooted in the graffiti scene of the 1980ies he made excellent use of his obsession with tagging. What might appear as abstract lines, cryptic shapes or intentional drips of paint to the viewer, actually represent his own tag ‚JONONE‘, sometimes also in variations as ‚JONONE ROCK‘. At a closer look, letters and even his tag are recognizable. The regularity of repeating his tag over and over again, is not monotonous, in contrary, it is divers, complex and rich. Eventually the writing develops into an abstract pattern within the beauty of infinity.

Discover JonOne Artworks

„ Your own mythology, the urban legend that you associated with your name, you wrote it, you painted it. “

John “JONONE” Perello, 2019

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

More about JonOne

Installation view