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The Candid Frame: Conversations on Photography

The Candid Frame #201 - John (Jon One) Perello

The Candid Frame: Conversations on Photography

Ibarionex R. Perello

Arts, Visual Arts

4.8768 Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2013

⏱️ 48 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

John Perello (Jon One) was born in New York's Harlem neighborhood to parents from the Dominican Republic. Growing up in Harlem, his introduction to street art began at an early age, when he would see graffiti and tags on subway cars and city walls. When he was 17 he entered the world of graffiti with his childhood friend "White Man," tagging his name Jon with the numbers 156 on walls and trains in his neighborhood. He said, "The subway is a museum that runs through the city." In 1984, he founded the graffiti group 156 All Starz, in order to bring together their passion for painting trains at night and to help forget about their problems, including drug use. At this time, he met the artist Bando, who was living in New York. Following an invitation from Bando, JonOne moved to Paris in 1987. He began his work as a painter on canvas in a workshop at the Hospital Ephemeral, a literal hospital building that became a squatting place for artists, located in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. Here, he painted with the artists A-One, Sharp, Ash, and Jayone Skki. Soon, he made a name for himself in Parisian artistic circles through his work on canvas and the exhibitions he held, including one in 1990 at Gallery 45 Gleditsch in Berlin and the exhibition Graffiti Paris, at rue Chapon in Paris. At an Artcurial auction on June 6, 2007, Match Point, a large canvas by JonOne made at the Hospital Ephemeral in 1993, was bought by a New York collector for €24,800, a record sale for the artist. This auction was also the highest bid ever obtained in France for a work of graffiti art. www.jonone.net www.thecandidframe.com info@thecandidframe.com

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is the body annex and this is The Candid Frame.

0:11.6

I'd like to send out a heartfelt thank you to the people who sent me messages about last week's episode.

0:17.4

It's always good to hear how we have affected people's creative and personal lives

0:22.4

over the last 200 episodes. I also want to send a special thank you to Lee Thatcher,

0:28.7

Anastasios Carpusis, Christian Nonblock, Cynthia Clayton, Scott Krebs, Michael Payne,

0:35.0

and Terrence Ong, each who were kind enough to make donations to the show.

0:39.4

Your contributions are really appreciated.

0:42.1

It's your donations and those made by many others in the past that have been a big reason

0:46.7

why I've been able to improve the show over the year.

0:49.7

So this program is as much yours as it is mine.

0:53.7

So thank you. This week, my cousin John

0:57.5

Porello is in town with his family from Paris. Also known as John 1, he is an accomplished

1:03.3

and well-respected artist who began his career as a graffiti artist in New York City. Now he's a

1:09.8

successful artist with his work being sought after by collectors all over the world.

1:14.4

His paintings and murals have been exhibited in galleries in Europe, Asia, and the United States.

1:19.9

Like Dan Winters, who I interviewed last week, John is constantly creating,

1:24.3

and his energy level seems almost inexhaustible.

1:27.6

It was the first time that I had the opportunity to talk to him in depth about his career,

1:32.0

and I gained tremendous insight into what it means to be an artist,

1:35.9

whether you're wielding a paintbrush or a camera.

1:50.6

Thank you. Well, good morning.

1:51.6

Good morning.

...

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