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C O N   A R T
I S T S  –  Drawings and Portraits Behind Bars by
Case 2 and Kez 5

p 212 619 2149
by Antonio Zaya, designed by
Melanie Van Haaren

Orhan
Pamuk has stated that good artists do not make for
good citizens, and while the rubric to judge a good artist or a good citizen
seems subjective, we can safely say that obedience is the platform for good
citizenship and rebellion the qualification for the good artist. Rebellion, in
thought and action, reaches its pinnacle in the lifestyle of the graffiti
artist, and no two artists represent the artistry of defiance more emphatically
than Case 2 and Kez 5. Case has spent a quarter of
life behind bars, and Kez has been arrested 34 times
on crimes ranging from assault and robbery, to writing graff.

Case
2 was born in Harlem in 1959 and raised in the Bronx.
His reputation among writers grew by his fearless appearance in the classic
film “Style Wars,” and his indomitable fighting spirit, which
earned him the nickname “King of Style”, further cemented it. He
pioneered a fusion of computer inspired design inventing the “computer
letter” style, unmistakably his. He created the so-called
“B-Boy” lifestyle, which preceded breakdancing
and turntabling; the B-Boy that Case represented
linked graffiti inseparably with kleptomania. He is currently serving time at
Livingston Correctional Facility. His indomitable personality utilizes time
spent behind bars as a well of creativity and spirituality for his art,
blending his swagger into the lines of his drawings and portraits. He devours
the world he’s seen with tributes and testaments of unbendable will of
the street.  In the words of Henry
Miller, “If it’s not on the street, it’s false.” Behind bars. the art is still
street— it’s an attitude. It is graff filtered down to a
self-portrait or a single letter.

Kez 5 was born in Bushwick, Brooklyn  in 1974 and started bombing in
the early `90s. He was quickly recognized for his relentless, daredevil tactics
combined with a raw style. Kez has characterized the
process of painting as being both a revolutionary song and a narrative that is
constructed with every tag and throw-up. He is the leader of the graff crew
YKK, likewise known for a gritty style that has been passed down from some of
the earliest kings of graff. Kez 5 is currently in a
court-ordered residential treatment program. His prison drawings and portraits
are endowed with a beauty excavated from the darkness of time spent without
freedom He engages his artistic predecessors, like Pollock and Picasso, by
immersing himself into the work then reincorporating it into a graff
artist’s aesthetic; he appropriates the style and injects his own flavor.
The process represents something common to graff, which is a “no
mercy” claim on everything, be it walls, trains, or other art. There is
no holy..

The
criminality of graffiti has been the greatest marketing vehicle from graff to
the consumer, but the reality of prison has remained absent from the discourse
of graffiti literature. Con Artists redirects the conversation from the ghosts of old tags, to
the active contemplations and persistent rebellion from the repression inherent
in a graff artist’s working class or poor upbringing. They will never
stop pursuing greatness, and it is a greatness that will not be brought by the
shallow, trend-driven art market. It can only be acquired through force and
aggression— artistic or otherwise.

The
80-100 pages of drawings will be a reevaluation of the graff artist through a
lens hardly seen: portraits, drawings, and solitude. A far cry perhaps from a
world of “crews” and “beefs,” but the lacuna in the
graff literature demands to be filled if we are ever to imagine a comprehensive
understanding of the revolutionary art.

About
the Team:

Hugo
Martinez (Editor)- Is the
director of Martinez Gallery in New
York, America’s
premiere showcase for graffiti art,. He is the founder and director of All City,
a non-profit dedicated to promoting graffiti as an art and a culture. He has
worked at the vanguard of the graffiti movement since 1972, when he helped form
United Graffiti Artists to encourage collaborative work among writers and to
foster their culture. In 1973 he organized the first gallery show of graffiti
in New York.
Over the last four decades, he has opened galleries in several New York boroughs before
settling on a “nomadic venues,” an approach that has attracted
extensive media attention. Hugo’s latest book was Graffiti NYC (Prestel, 2006)

Antonio
Zaya (Author & Curator)- is a native of
the Canary Islands and has spent his entire
life work in and around the visual arts, originally as a performance artist,
painter, and poet. While he continues to produce performance art, Zaya’s focus
has moved towards criticism, editing, and curating. He has served as the
curator of ARCO, and for the Havana
and Canary Islands Biennials. He is editorial director of
“Atlantica” magazine. He last worked with All City
on Graffiti NYC.

Melanie Van Haaren (Designer)- is a graphic designer based in
Den Haag who has designed books by Hans Verwejj, Eugene Lucker, and Gust
Romein. In addition, she has designed the annual reports of Stichting Lezen
(2000-2003). She teaches design at Willem De Kooning Academie in Rotterdam. Her most
recent projects with All
City have been Pediatrics 2000 and Graffiti NYC.