Dondi White

Donald Joseph White, known as Dondi White, is an American street artist born in 1961 and died in 1998. Originally from Brooklyn in New York, he is one of the most influential artisst of urban art. He started tagging in the 70s, and joined the group The Crew TOP (the Odd Partners) in 1977. In contact with the artists from Crew, his art developed and evolved. A year later, Dondi White decided to form his own group, the CIA (Crazy Inside Artists).

Known for his skills in lettering, he has influenced a whole generation of artists. The resurgence of catholic education that he received from his parents during his youth can also be perceived in his work.

Dondi's work acquired new notoriety when photographs of his pieces appeared in the New York Post. In 1980, he joined the public administration while continuing to tag. In 1982, a gallery the East Village, which was very popular back then, dedicated to Dondi White his first solo exhibition.

In California, Dondi exhibited his work besides artists such as Futura and Zephyr in 1982. Several projects followed and three months later, they found themselves in Hong Kong to paint 10,000 square meters of a new nightclub. Dondi acquired thus international fame : he was the first street artist to be the subject of a solo exhibition in Germany and in the Netherlands in 1983.

His style evolved towards pieces with bluish tonalities, collages covered with ink and pen.

During the 90s, a first retrospective was dedicated to him at the Rempire Gallery of Soho. He was also part of the "Fifteen Years Above Ground" exhibition organized by artist CRASH. He died from complications of AIDS in 1998.