Stratum 04 — The transition · 2013 — 2015

The transition

The letters dissolve. The system begins.

one of the active layers of the studio registry · about the archive →

Between 2013 and 2015 the letters disappear and the systems appear. The dissolution begins inside graffiti itself: moiré fields in Eindhoven, concentric RGB lines in Valencia, the first purely abstract mural in Menorca. It isn't a stylistic whim: to stand out among other writers he had spent years pushing up the contrast — black-and-white op art against the most saturated colors — until the next step was to drop the name and keep everything else.

The program of the period is set down in 2013. From eleven days in a cell in Tokyo for graffiti — a figure confirmed by the artist; pen and paper only at the end — come the notes that become the Ultradynamic Manifesto: signed in Valencia on 2 November, posted on his Tumblr on the 28th, modeled in its form on Marinetti's Futurist manifesto. He breaks it from the moment he signs it. Weeks earlier, on 23 October, Carlos Cruz-Diez had written him an email congratulating him on a graffiti dedicated to the master; the facsimile of that email would end up printed in Praesentia.

In 2014 the first named series is born: OPTICHROMIE 1, enamel on canvas, 80×80 centimeters — «the detachment of the lettering as a main element of composition». The name is a direct homage to Cruz-Diez's Physichromies. The studio archive starts at the same time as the series: a single row dated 2013, the first batches in 2014-15 — CHROMADYNAMICA 1. The database that today holds 8,412 rows begins here.

The transition can't be measured at customs yet. First solo exhibition of drawings brought over in a suitcase: «Perpetuum Mobile», Tokyo, 2014 — in the country that will deal him one of the hardest blows of his life, and from which he will learn so much. Melbourne, Seville and Hong Kong follow in 2015; in Seville he closes the first Optichromie series and shows his first sculptures. Graffiti, meanwhile, does not stop: walls, bombing, trains in Melbourne, a bridge in Drammen, and a mature Pant1 in the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn. The writer and the studio artist are the same person, at the same time.

«Necesitaba que mi graffiti destacara entre el de otros escritores. Aumenté el contraste de mis piezas hasta quedarme solo con elementos op-art en blanco y negro yuxtapuestos a los colores más saturados. En algún momento me deshice de las letras de mi nombre y empecé a hacer composiciones abstractas. Las titulé «Optichromies», como homenaje a las Physichromies del maestro Cruz-Diez.»

Felipe Pantone, PRAESENTIA (2020)
West Bank, 2014. A long white building with PANT in a thermal RGB gradient and pixel checkerboards: the first full chromatic-gradient piece. Graffiti book (Beyond The Streets, WIP), pp. 216–217.
West Bank, 2014. A long white building with PANT in a thermal RGB gradient and pixel checkerboards: the first full chromatic-gradient piece. Graffiti book (Beyond The Streets, WIP), pp. 216–217.
Monterrey, 2014. Metro event: black-and-white dazzle, rainbow chrome, a painted CRT monitor and the first «@FELIPEPANTONE» signature on a wall. Graffiti book, pp. 260–261.
Monterrey, 2014. Metro event: black-and-white dazzle, rainbow chrome, a painted CRT monitor and the first «@FELIPEPANTONE» signature on a wall. Graffiti book, pp. 260–261.
«Opticromías», Delimbo, Seville, 2015. A warped grid on the wall, the first faceted sculptures in white and gradient zigzags: the first series closes and leaps to the object. Praesentia (2020).
«Opticromías», Delimbo, Seville, 2015. A warped grid on the wall, the first faceted sculptures in white and gradient zigzags: the first series closes and leaps to the object. Praesentia (2020).
«Vertical Cyberspace», Colab Gallery, Weil am Rhein, 2015. A walk-through anamorphic room: cyan/magenta/orange gradient horizons and chromed PANT letters — the first environment. Praesentia (2020).
«Vertical Cyberspace», Colab Gallery, Weil am Rhein, 2015. A walk-through anamorphic room: cyan/magenta/orange gradient horizons and chromed PANT letters — the first environment. Praesentia (2020).
Wollongong, Australia, 2015. From the lift platform, painting the Wonderwalls facade — first time painting in Australia. Praesentia (2020).
Wollongong, Australia, 2015. From the lift platform, painting the Wonderwalls facade — first time painting in Australia. Praesentia (2020).
Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 2015. The mature alphabet in what looks like an underpass: a P with chromatic aberration, an A in dazzle, a spectral N, a striped T. Graffiti book, pp. 294–295.
Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 2015. The mature alphabet in what looks like an underpass: a P with chromatic aberration, an A in dazzle, a spectral N, a striped T. Graffiti book, pp. 294–295.
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