Anthony Clark (1964 – November 11, 2001), known as A-One, was an American graffiti artist. He developed a style he called "aerosol expressionism".[1]
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] A-One is the subject of Basquiat's paintings Portrait of A-One A.K.A. King (1982), which sold for $11.5 million in 2020, and Anthony Clark (1985).[6][7][8]
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, he participated in the group shows Arte di Frontiera: New York Graffiti in Italy, Classical American Graffiti Writers and High Graffiti Artists at Galerie Thomas in Munich, and Rapid Enamel: The Art of Graffiti at the University of Chicago.[9][5]
A-One became the youngest artist to participate in the Venice Biennale in 1984.[2] His work was featured in the exhibition Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from October 2020 to July 2021.[1]
A-One 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]
