A-One (graffiti artist)

A-One was born in Manhattan in 1964 and grew up in the Mitchel Houses in the South Bronx.[1] He was the son of Janette Gordon Clark and the grandson of Mannie Clark Sr., head caddy at the Mayfair Golf Course in Sanford, Florida in the late 1950s.[2] He began painting at the age of six, and writing graffiti on subway cars in the mid-1970s.[3] A-One joined Rammellzee's graffiti crew Tag Master Killers, which also consisted of Delta2, Kool Koor, and Toxic.[4] Each member designed their own style for arming letters based on Rammellzee's theory of Gothic Futurism, which describes graffiti as the weaponization of letters in a battle to reclaim language from a "diseased culture" of social control.[1] In the early 1980s, they were among the graffiti artists bringing original art and music from the Bronx and Queens to the downtown art scene. In 1982, A-One, Toxic, and Kool Koor participated in the group show Camouflaged Panzerism at Fashion Moda in South Bronx.[5]

A-One was a friend and collaborator of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.[1] Basquiat became his mentor and taught him how get involved with art galleries.[2] He is the subject of Basquiat's painting Portrait of A-One A.K.A. King (1982), which sold for $11.5 million in 2020.[6][7]

In 1983, A-One participated in the exhibit Jenny Holzer: Survival Series with A-One, Mike Glier, and Lady Pink at Lisson Gallery in London and the Post-Graffiti exhibit at Sidney Janis Gallery in New York.[5] In 1984, his work was shown at various group shows: Arte di Frontiera: New York Graffiti at Galleria Communale d’Arte Moderna in Rome, Classical American Graffiti Writers and High Graffiti Artists at Galerie Thomas in Munich; Rapid Enamel: The Art of Graffiti at the University of Chicago.[5] He also became the youngest artist to participate in the Venice Biennale in 1984.[2] In 2020, his artwork was featured in the exhibit Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.[1]

He also had numerous solo exhibitions: Galeria Salvatore Ala, Milan, Italy in 1983; Piccolo Museum in Lecce, Italy in 1985; and Galerie Quintessens, in Utrecht, the Netherlands in 1990; Galleria Salvatore + Caroline Ala in Milan, Italy in 2010.[3]

For some time, he lived in Verona, Italy.[2] He later moved to Paris, where he continued to work until his death from a brain hemorrhage at the age of 37 on November 11, 2001.[3]