One (marco Mantovani) Kay Biography
KayOne, pseudonym of Marco Mantovani, was born in Milan in 1972. The artist spends much of his time working as an artist, painting paintings and walls in Italy and abroad and as art director of Stradedarts, the association he founded. Struck in those years by the great strength and visual impact that Graffiti Writing can express in the street, and by that unique flavor that the Hip Hop movement transmits, that moment marked the course of his life until today. Founder in 1991, together with Airone and Adstar, of the first Italian fanzone dedicated to writing "Hip Hop Tribe Magazine", assembling photocopies and photographs, the fanzone marked the history of Italian writing as the first means of disseminating culture at a national and international level becoming the official voice of the movement. In writing he has found a microcosm, made up of unwritten rules and laws dictated by a strong sense of respect and belonging for deserving members. KayOne's style has remained faithful to a more "old school" line compared to many contemporary trends close to influences dictated by graphics and 3D, keeping alive the spirit of the first New York pioneers and that Hip Hop flavor that has gone into contemporary writing disappearing. He obsessively studied the evolution of calligraphy, the basis of every writer's style. He oversaw the creation of many of the most important events related to the culture of Graffiti Writing. Instinctively, since he embarked on his "career", perhaps due to his artistic studies, he has created abstract paintings close to that flavor of the street. On canvas he tried to rediscover a more gestural and instinctive form of painting, without abandoning that classic visual impact of Graffiti Writing, which on the wall expresses all its strength with bright colors and large dimensions, creating works that refer to that world by combining them the lesson of American Pop Art with the strength of Italian informality. There have been many successful recent exhibitions: Triennale Museum, 54th and 55th Venice Biennale and Pirelli Skyscraper. In 2017 he published his book “Vecchia Scuola - Graffiti Writing a Milano” with the Drago publishing house, dedicated to the birth of this culture in his city between 1980 and the early 90s.
