L.A Based graffiti artist REVOK AKA Jason Williams has been tagging under his current name since 1991, when he was 14. His Los Awesome series, created on billboards around the city, was the result of a collaboration called The Movement with graffiti writers Rime and Augor. The Movementﾒs aim was to celebrate LA by creating graffiti that eschewed aggressive, territorial, messages typically associated with tags in the city. He was famously arrested during a guest appearance at LA’s 33rd Graffiti Art Store exhibition in 2008. Police later raided his home, apparently finding ‘several hundred paint cans, a police badge, fire extinguisher and stolen detour sign’. Jason Williams aka REVOK is an American artist who explores deep shared themes involving place and human experience using the very materials that make up the urban environment we are surrounded with and live in. Born in Riverside, California in 1977 Los Angeles based REVOK discovered art through his father’s collection of 60’s & 70’s album covers, comic books, and skateboarding culture. In 1990 REVOK began sneaking out of the 2nd story window of his parents home to explore the urban environment and add his unique touch to the graffiti landscape. Today, REVOK is celebrated as one of the most daring and influential graffiti writers of his generation having been invited around the world to share his gift. His unique style and take no prisoners attitude means that his transition into the fine art world has been nothing short of earth-shattering. He is a member of The Seventh Letter, an acclaimed West Coast artist collective and Mad Society Kings (MSK), a world-renowned graffiti crew. REVOK has exhibited in the MOCA Los Angeles “Art in the streets” exhibition, as well as The Pasadena Musuem of Contemporary art’s “Street Cred”, both in 2011. Most recently REVOK completed a large mural in Detroit with Library Street Collective, the famous Houston/Bowery wall in NYC with POSE, two shows with Library Street Collective, one in Detroit and one at Art Miami Context, and with Jonathan LeVine Gallery in NYC. Revok lives and works in Los Angeles.
~ widewalls.ch
