JonOne

JonOne – Biography, Original Prints, Screenprints and Lithographs

JonOne, born John Andrew Perello in Harlem, New York, in 1963 to parents from the Dominican Republic, began as a teenage graffiti writer on the walls and trains of New York before settling in Paris in 1987. There he carried the energy of the tag onto canvas, developing what he calls the work of an ‘abstract expressionist graffiti painter’: dense, all-over compositions of colour, drips and interlaced signatures. Regarded in France as one of the pioneers of street art, he has also produced a body of screenprints and lithographs, signed and issued in limited editions.

Le Coin des Arts currently offers around a dozen works by JonOne, chosen for the quality of the impression, the edition, provenance and condition: a unique drawing, Untitled; a group of lithographs, Untitled, 2006; the screenprints Chrome (2014), Untitled (2013) and Rocking da Iron Train (2013); a resin sculpture titled JonOne (2015); and Throw Up (2011), a unique mixed-media work.

Early years: Harlem, the subway and 156 All Starz

Growing up in Harlem, Perello saw the birth of hip-hop culture at first hand. By the age of 17 he was writing his name across the neighbourhood and on subway cars as Jon156 – ‘the subway is a museum that runs through the city’, as he later put it. In 1984 he co-founded the crew 156 All Starz, and around the same time met the French writer Bando, then a central figure of the Paris graffiti scene, on a visit to New York. Bando’s invitation to Paris would change the course of his career.

A New Yorker in Paris: the Hôpital Éphémère years

Arriving in 1987, he adopted the name JonOne and painted first around La Chapelle, then in a studio at the Hôpital Éphémère, an artists’ squat in the 18th arrondissement, where he worked for several years alongside other graffiti writers. It was there that he moved to canvas, keeping the speed, rhythm and repetition of the street. His work was shown in a Berlin gallery in 1990, and in 1991 he took part in the exhibition Paris Graffiti in the rue Chapon, in the Marais.

Recognition in France and abroad, 2000–2014

The Speerstra gallery gave him a series of solo shows – Black Diamonds (2002), Night and Day (2004) and Follow the Sun (2008) – before two landmark Paris exhibitions brought graffiti into major institutions in 2009: Né dans la rue – Graffiti at the Fondation Cartier and TAG at the Grand Palais, both of which included his work. Further solo exhibitions followed at the Paris galleries Brugier-Rigail (Carved in Stone, 2010) and Le Feuvre (My Father’s Keeper, 2010; Da Sun Will Always Shine, 2011). From 2013 he designed street-art rugs with Didier Marien of the Boccara gallery.

2015 and after: the Assemblée nationale, Air France and London

In 2015 JonOne painted Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité for the Palais Bourbon, seat of the French Assemblée nationale – a reinterpretation of Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, reproduced on a French postage stamp issued in September of that year. The same year he was admitted to the Légion d’honneur. On 10 November 2015, at Orly, Air France unveiled a Boeing 777 bearing its ‘accent’ logo redrawn by the artist. British audiences met his work in October 2017, when, to launch his limited-edition bottle for Hennessy, he painted a six-metre bottle at Boxpark, Shoreditch, in east London. That autumn the Fondation Clément in Martinique devoted a retrospective to him, L’Empire des signatures (8 November – 30 December 2017).

Recent work: Skira, the Monnaie de Paris and Fluctuart

A bilingual monograph was published by Skira in 2019, the year of Poetry in Motion at Brugier-Rigail, following Birth of the Wind (2018). In April 2025, during the exhibition Geste, vitesse, mouvement devoted to Georges Mathieu at the Monnaie de Paris, co-produced with the Centre Pompidou, he painted a room in a live performance alongside Lek & Sowat and Futura 2000; he names Jackson Pollock and Joan Mitchell among his influences. From 11 September to 21 December 2025, Fluctuart, the floating urban-art centre by the Pont des Invalides, staged the retrospective JonOne Carte Blanche.

Collecting JonOne: a buyer’s guide

Unique work or edition? Drawings, canvases and mixed-media pieces such as Throw Up are unique; screenprints and lithographs are multiples. For a unique work, documented provenance and a certificate from the artist or his gallery matter most.

Edition and numbering. Check that the number, the edition size and the stated publisher agree; see the printing. A lithograph in an edition of 20 and a screenprint issued with a book in 170 copies are not comparable in rarity.

Signature. JonOne signs his prints by hand, usually in pencil. Because his name is often painted into the image itself, do not mistake that printed lettering for an autograph signature.

What is being sold? Screenprints and lithographs are original prints; digital prints, offset reproductions and exhibition posters are not, even when signed. Stamps and branded collaboration objects belong to a different market; see what is an original print.

Proofs and annotations. Alongside the numbered edition you may find artist’s proofs (marked ‘EA’ or ‘AP’) or ‘HC’ impressions outside the commercial edition. They are legitimate, but should be described as such and are not additional numbered copies.

Paper and margins. Look at the full sheet: trimmed margins, light-staining or creases from rolled storage reduce value. Prints on silk are especially delicate and should be handled and mounted by a professional.

Sculpture. For a resin piece, ask for the edition details, the publisher and a condition report; surfaces scratch and colours fade.

A living artist. As with any artist in strong demand, favour works with a traceable history – original gallery, publisher, invoice. Bright colours are vulnerable to light, so choose UV-filtering glazing when framing; our guarantees are set out on the authenticity page.

JonOne’s prints: techniques, publishers and editions

JonOne’s printmaking favours processes that keep the flat, saturated colour and layered build-up of spray paint: above all screenprinting, sometimes hand-embellished or printed on silk, and lithography. The 2006 Untitled lithographs offered by the gallery are printed on BFK Rives wove paper, signed in pencil and numbered from an edition of 20. Chrome (2014) carries the stamp of its publisher, the Buyse workshop in Lille, and is numbered from 30. Several books and catalogues were issued with a signed original screenprint: the boxed catalogue Sculpté dans la pierre (Brugier-Rigail, 2010), with a hand-embellished screenprint on silk in 100 copies, and the Skira monograph of 2019, with a screenprint on silk numbered from 170. To our knowledge there is no published catalogue raisonné of his prints, so identification relies on the publisher, the numbering, the signature and the original documentation.

The gallery also selects work by other artists shaped by the street and popular culture – Shepard Fairey, Invader, Robert Combas and Roy Lichtenstein – as well as the gestural painting of Georges Mathieu. Explore our contemporary art and our engravings and lithographs.

Sources and further reading

Centre Pompidou – A romantic visit with JonOne (2025) · Booooooom – Hennessy x JonOne, Boxpark Shoreditch (2017) · World Airline News – Air France Boeing 777 (2015) · Fluctuart – JonOne Carte Blanche press kit · Fondation Clément – The Empire of Signatures · Wikipedia – JonOne · JonOne, Skira, 2019