Wunderkammern is pleased to present Sun-Downs, JonOne’s new solo exhibition at its Rome venue in Via Giulia, 180.
Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn, and so it is that after the solo exhibition at Palazzo Velli in 2018 JonOne returns to Rome for a new disruptive exhibition. The Sun-Downs exhibition aims to make the viewer dream, just as happens when standing in front of a sunset.
The artworks selected for the show are studies of emotions depicted on paper, full of passion and colour. The gallery is exhibiting for the first time a body of works on paper, thirty unique mixed media pieces created by JonOne exclusively for the event in which ink, gouache and spray paint are mixed. The main characteristic of these works, as of JonOne’s unmistakable art, is the extraordinary energy released through the intersection of lines, letters and splashes of colour.
It is from these works that the artist’s connection to the New York graffiti world and the impetus of Abstract Expressionism emerges. JonOne, thanks to his irrepressible instinct to create, imprints a unique force in his works that becomes a projection of the emotional impulses innate in each of us.
In September 2021, Wunderkammern hosted Vibrations, JonOne’s last Italian monographic exhibition, at its Milan venue. On display were a series of canvases conceived as colour explosions that aspired to make the visitor vibrate with emotion. Sun-Downs is in continuity with the Milan exhibition, it is a deep and intense introspective research that wants to empathise and get to the heart of the viewer.
JonOne will be present during the opening night and will present an installation on a wall of mirrors set up in the Wunderkammern gallery space at Via Giulia 180.
Exceptionally, on the occasion of the event organised by Wunderkammern, it will be possible to admire, by booking a visit to the exhibition, the artistic intervention that JonOne made last October on the palisade in the inner courtyard of Palazzo Farnese. By incorporating a Roman inscription found on a 55 BC cippus preserved in the basement of the Institut Français building into his unmistakable calligraphy, the artist combines contemporaneity and antiquity in a personal and original vision.
JonOne. BiographyJohn Andrew Perello (New York, 1963) – aka JonOne – was born and raised in the Harlem district of Dominican parents. At the age of 16, he started tagging walls and underground trains by repeatedly writing his moniker: “Jon156”, where 156 stands for his street number; he later abandoned “Jon156” in favour of “JonOne”. In 1984 he founded the group “156 All Starz” with some fellow street artists and moved to Paris in 1987 together with the French artist Bando. He set up his first studio in the Hôpital Éphémère, a squat of the 1990s, and here he began to paint on canvas, completely self-taught, developing a universe in which graffiti and lettering are mixed, memories of his New York years combined with what he calls his “freestyle”, full of colour and imbued with boundless freedom. Vitality, mastery of form and colour, dynamic gesture and Abstract Expressionism are among the words that best describe his work.
JonOne has exhibited with major art galleries and prestigious institutions, such as the Fondation Cartier and the Grand Palais. The artist has also carried out numerous collaborations with various brands such as Perrier, Lacoste, Guerlain and Air France, but the most important recognition came in 2015, when he was awarded the Légion d’Honneur of the French Republic and his work “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité”, inspired by Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People”, was exhibited at the Palais Bourbon, seat of the Assemblée Nationale.
The Wunderkammern gallery is pleased to invite you to the opening of the exhibition on 9 June from 5pm to 11pm in Via Giulia 180, Rome. On the same date, from 7pm to 9pm, it will be possible to admire Cippo 2.0, JonOne’s artistic intervention at Palazzo Farnese.
We invite you to book both visits on our website www.wunderkammern.net: https://wunderkammern.net/jonone-sun-down-opening-book-your-visit/
To access Palazzo Farnese, you should book by Monday 6 June and bring your identity card or passport with you.
Cultural Partner: Institut Français
Media Partners: Arsity, Collater.al, FACE Magazine
Technical Partners: Eurograph, Anonymo Dry Gin, The Spanish Suite
WUNDERKAMMERNVia Giulia 180, 00186, Rome
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