last night. Curated by Nemo Librizzi and Joseph Nahmad, this exhibition promises to blow your mind with the surreal paintings of Chilean painter Matta, the intricate graffiti of Phase 2, abstract works from Futura2000 and the late Rammellzee’s unique Gothic Futurism. The exhibition is being held at 450 West 14th Street, NYC,
and will run until December 12, 2012.
Another HipHop Legend leaves the circle. Rammellezee lost his fight against cancer last night. R.I.P. !
Always ahead of his time, New York artist and performer Rammellzee was born 1960 in Far Rockaway, Queens. Credited with being one of the inventors of graffiti art in the late 1970’s as well as one of the original hip hop artists from the New York area who introduced specific vocal styles which date back to the early 1980s. His influence can still be heard in contemporary artists such as The Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill and his legendary hip-hop single “Beat Bop” with K-Rob was financed by the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and has become one of the most sought after hip hop releases ever.
In the mid-80’s, Rammellzee became associated with a group of artists who painted or tagged in a style known as East Village wild style. This was an illegible, dynamic style of writing letters derived originally from the Gothic script of Medieval manuscripts. In 1982, he appeared in the seminal hip hop documentary Wildstyle by Charlie Ahearn, his fame in graffiti circles was established when he painted New York subway trains with Dondi, OU3, and Ink 76, and Doctor Revolt. Rammellzee’s graffiti and artwork are based on his theory of Gothic Futurism, which describes the battle between letters and their symbolic warfare against any standardizations enforced by the rules of the alphabet; his treatise, “Iconic Panzerisms”, details an anarchic plan by which to revise the role and deployment of language in society. Rammellzee’s work has been exhibited internationally. His work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He performs in self- designed masks and costumes of different characters of his own creation, one featured within his board art named “Reaper Grimm”.”
