JonOne
Started tagging in Harlem in 1980 and turned the writing into abstract painting in Paris.
JonOne is John Andrew Perello, born in Harlem in 1963 to Dominican parents, who began writing on New York walls and trains as a teenager and founded the 156 All Starz crew. Invited to Paris in 1987, he stayed, and over three decades converted the graffiti vocabulary into something closer to abstract expressionism: dense, dripping, saturated fields in which letters are still present but are no longer legible. He has become one of the most visible artists in France working from that lineage, took French citizenship, and has produced large public commissions and collaborations with Perrier, Air France and Guerlain.
A market centred on France and Asia. Large acrylics on canvas lead, with date and scale the main drivers, and the works from the 1990s onwards carrying the market. There is a substantial output of editions — screenprints and giclees, frequently hand-finished with acrylic so that impressions differ — plus painted objects and collaborative product. Distinguishing a hand-embellished print from a unique canvas is the recurring valuation problem and rests on the certificate. Signature and date are on the face; unvarnished acrylic surfaces mark easily.
If you own a work by JonOne
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Write to info@whitebankfineart.co.uk, or start below.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.