PANTONE ARTIST - A DIMENSIONAL PERSPECTIVE

For the majority of graffiti writers, the transition from street to gallery is a painful journey. Once they have arrived, longevity and relevance become even more enduring struggles. Some rely on the street-cred points their graffiti name has accrued, while others attempt to reinvent, occasionally wishing old associations were forgotten. Felipe Pantone pulsates somewhere in between those two worlds, but he doesn’t rely on what he does on the street
to pull weight in the gallery, nor does he need to. He also didn’t adopt a new approach amid the transition but has matured and progressed in his studio practice far beyond the limitations
of spraying his name.

There are very few successful artists who would take the risks that Pantone does by continuing to paint on clean trains and other acts of graffiti. Despite the enormous success and unique opportunities his art has afforded him, he remains a graffiti writer at his core.

Not long ago, Pantone’s work began to morph into an eclectic assortment of shapes, objects,
forms, perspectives, mediums, gradients, glitches and ideas. His evolution from colorful and dynamic letterforms to test patterns on acid were brisk. At the same time, his chosen media only got bigger. It was impressive when he began painting motorcycles, semis and boats, but even more so when it became cars of renowned race-car drivers, entire freeway underpasses and 10-story buildings. The biggest and most vibrant QR code in the world is his doing — and the code works, too.