ZebOne (*1982) is another of the writers who has crossed the boundaries between the street and the gallery scene and joined the ever-growing trend of recent years, characterised by the gradual penetration of the language of graffiti into the realm of fine art without any qualifiers. Within the graffiti community, he has long been one of the most prominent figures, whose position is firmly established and defined by the respect he commands in the history of the local scene. Although – or perhaps precisely because – ZebOne’s most active period is now some time behind him, the question arose – as with other notable artists – as to where his journey would lead next. The answer lies in a series of exhibitions from recent years, which quite clearly indicate his further development. Whilst his work loosely follows the general trajectory of geometric abstraction, ZebOne remains a ‘writer’ in terms of his ‘themes’ as well. Whilst most graffiti artists, when moving away from orthodoxy towards fine art, tend to gravitate either towards content in the sense of conveying a message or towards pure formalism, this artist remains single-mindedly fascinated by letters, to which he devotes his full artistic attention. He does not perceive them symbolically; he does not attribute to them a meaning derived, for example, from personal mythology; they are not a cryptographic medium for him; he does not form words from them, nor does he attempt to list them. He concentrates – as he always has – simply on their shapes, colours and, where applicable, their mutual relationships. Although there are exceptions, a single painting is usually devoted to a single character. The method of selecting them is also a classic one, based on the principle: ‘You won’t burden yourself with letters you don’t like.’ However, specific approaches and priorities may, of course, change over time. Just a few years ago, different letters consistently adhered to the same colour scheme; nowadays, however, various compositional solutions—including colour schemes—are emerging within a single recurring grapheme, meaning that the basic concept has moved even closer to the traditional typographic environment.

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ZebOne’s paintings, which are generally strictly based on specific formats, have been characterised from the outset by a flat, purist style of ‘ruler-straight’ geometry. Whilst his early canvases were dominated by black, his subsequent works also featured a muted, low-contrast colour palette of muted shades, which also corresponded to the successive series. Throughout his artistic development, ZebOne has demonstrated that he has no qualms about minimising or omitting outlines entirely, placing them outside the composition against the logic of the shapes, or, conversely, shifting them inwards so that they function as an aesthetic cut. His right-angled breaks are occasionally enlivened by an unobtrusive diagonal. The composition of his paintings tends to be bound by the edges of the canvas, whilst the focal point at the centre may, paradoxically, remain almost entirely empty. What is important to him, however, is the presence of colour in the sense of actual material; so even though he could make use of the natural shade of the gesso, in such cases he always layers white over white. Nor is it unusual for his painting to extend fragmentarily beyond the edge of the stretcher frame, as if he were constantly allowing for the possibility of contact with the wall from which it originally emerged and to which it actually belongs.

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ZebOne is methodical and, in his own way, a minimalist. Although in some cases he develops and refines the visual aspect of his compositions intuitively, these are always preceded by preparatory sketches that test the effectiveness of their structure. He is well aware of the rigid ‘stiffness’ of the initial attempts in a series and the gradual liberation of expression towards greater progress, so he sometimes does not even carry out his first designs. This is subsequently complemented by a well-established, precise process of execution down to the last detail, honed by previous experience. By not shying away from experimentation – which is a natural part of his artistic thinking – whilst at the same time practising it under entirely rational and controlled conditions, the process of creating his paintings can, with a touch of necessary hyperbole, be likened to laboratory work. The internal structure of his paintings does not undergo sudden, radical development. When compared with one another, they do indeed undergo clear external transformations; yet, above all, they resemble the successive stages of a mathematical formula that is only predictable to a certain extent, the laws and generalising principles of which only a select few are able to reliably recognise and name.

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text: Radek Wohlmuth