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Current mood:  rebellious
John John Jesse (American, b.1969)
Punk rocker, and former Catholic school boy. John John's work reflects the gravitation and trials of those two opposites. Born in New York City's then crime ridden and drug infested Lower East Side, John John first gained notoriety as the founding member and bassist of the legendary influential political punk band Nausea. Nausea toured the D.I.Y. punk circuit all over the United States, Canada and Europe in the late 80's and early 90's, and released LPs and various 7" singles. Though since disbanded in 1992, to this day they still maintain a huge loyal following, and have influenced the next generation of the political punk rock genre. (Their Punk Terrorist anthology CDs are now released on Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacle Records)
Having left school and home at 15 years old, equipped with no formal art training, he began doing posters, flyer art, and record sleeves for bands like Agnostic Front, Destroy, and the Squat or Rot record label, as well as Nausea while squatting in the Lower East Side. Those works can now be seen in the follow up book by Feral House "Fucked Up and Photocopied" called "Punk Is Dead Is Everything" which exhibits a number of John John's punk and hardcore flyer works as well as him being a contributing writer.
His unique style during this, "Black & White" period has been recognized on everything from Downtown New York light poles and t-shirts, to "Baby Demonica", his first published work of pen and ink drawings with Sirius in 2002 with limericks by Jesse, and former Danzig/DGeneration bassist Howie Pyro.
With his now widely collected paintings, we get glimpses of behind the scenes participation with peers and what the oppressed youth stumbles into. He declares his works as his autobiography narrated through paintings rather than with words. A true voice of his punk rock generation, John John gives us more of the anarchy of youth. A portrayal of class war struggle, street anarchism, and his past teenage destructive punk rock lifestyle of heroin addiction, alcoholism, love, heartbreak, crime, teen suicide and triumph. It is a heroic fight from the gutter of the streets of the 80's Lower East Side, to the triumph of post-addicted street youth.
His ever present attention to detail has certainly become his signature style. The paintings are finished in various antique ornate Baroque and Victorian lavish gold frames. The models delineation, facial expressions, their clothing and inanimate objects, all reflect the artist's pronounced attitude of familiar experiences. Vivid color, built up in translucent layers of graphite, ink and gouache, erupts alongside mists of spray paint. With increasing volume, portraits and surreal landscapes of young rebellious punk girls and boys, or elaborate dream-like narratives of demons and angst amidst inner & outer destructive natures, and experimentation with sexual discoveries (but he adamantly declares it not as Erotica).
The same old tale of "No Future" is questioned with the addicted, political and lovelorn rising from the bottom of society to finally being heard. John John Jesse's amount of energy, precision, idol worship, angst and ceremony, alongside sub conscience delight and fear, gives us an imagery with all it's beauty and defiance. What innocence should be, and what it tragically often becomes, with conviction that can visually speak to generations. He does this with such obsessive detail and flair for originality. To show us that the only hope beyond the tragedy of life, is the fact that he has survived it with his art.
Specs:
John John Jesse has exhibited with: Fuse Gallery, Art At Large, CBGB 313 Gallery, Bullet Space, Williamsburg Historical Arts Center, Museum of Sex, Last Rites, MF Gallery, Kustom Kulture all in New York, Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle, Shooting Gallery in San Francisco, Wild Seduction in Miami, Perihelion Arts in Phoenix, mModern Gallery, Copro/Nason in Culver City California, Art Basel in Miami, Gallery Bink in Oregon, Outre in Australia.
John John Jesse has had interview's, or reproductions, published in: Rolling Stone, Juxtapoz, Museums New York, High Times, Revolver, Inked, YRB, Carnivora- The Dark Art of Automobiles by Barany Books, Elegy (France), New York Waste, Punk Rock Confidential, Arts New York, Hoard Magazine, Punk Is Dead Is Everything (Feral House), Tear Magazine, Destroy All Monthly, Vampyre Magazine, Ol Skool Rodz, Burnout (Japan), Epitaph Records, Mindless Self Indulgence, The Joey Ramone Lymphoma Foundation, Fetish, and Swank.
John John is also a member of the New York City chapter of the Hot Rod/Kustom car club, The Rumblers.
www.johnjohnjesse.net
www.nauseapunk.net
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