About the Artist

More than four decades within New York graffiti culture.

Born Fernando Carlo Jr. in New York City in 1968, COPE2 began writing graffiti in the South Bronx in 1978.

A self taught artist, he developed his distinctive style across New York’s subway system and the streets of the Bronx, becoming known for large scale graffiti productions, murals and an uncompromising visual language rooted in the culture from which he emerged.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, COPE2 established himself as one of the city’s most prolific graffiti artists. His work later moved increasingly into galleries and museums while retaining the immediacy, repetition and graphic energy of his street practice.

His career has extended beyond conventional exhibition spaces through projects and commissions with brands including Time Magazine, Converse, Adidas and Ewing Athletics, alongside appearances within popular culture and video games.

Unhinged

The visual language of the Bronx brought into the gallery.

Unhinged introduced COPE2’s practice to a UK audience through a focused solo presentation at D’Stassi Art.

The works reflected the raw visual language that has defined his career, combining lettering, tags, gesture, colour and layers of repeated marks that connect directly to his history within New York graffiti culture.

Rather than separating the studio practice from the artist’s street history, the exhibition considered both as part of the same continuing language. The energy of the subway and the Bronx remained embedded within the paintings even as the work moved into a gallery context.

Exhibition Highlights

Curatorial Context

A direct connection to the history of New York graffiti.

COPE2 occupies a particular position within graffiti history because his practice developed directly within the environment that shaped the movement.

His work carries the visual codes of New York graffiti into contemporary painting without disconnecting them from their original cultural context.

For D’Stassi Art, Unhinged formed part of the gallery’s wider programme exploring the artists, histories and visual languages that helped shape street art and its transition into the international contemporary art world.

Exhibition Details