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John Fekner (b. October 6th, 1950 NYC), An influential artist in both the street art movement and motion graphic design, anonymously known in the 70s for hundreds of environmental and conceptual works consisting of words, symbols, dates and icons spray painted throughout the five boroughs of New York. Although Fekner’s work has at times been extremely public, media-savvy and technology-driven; he has maintained a low profile and resolute vision throughout his thirty-year career. John Fekner's pioneering stencil work is as important to the history of the urban art movement as the work of artists like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.^[1] Fekner’s work was included in Documenta 7 as part of Jenny Holzer's and Stefan Eins' Fashion Moda Store and Committed To Print at the Museum of Modern Art.

John Fekner © 1978 *Industrial Fossil* Maspeth, NY. Queensites Project

Fekner sometimes creates versions of work in entirely different media; Rapicasso was both a large-scaled painting and a song he wrote on his Idioblast album. Both the painting and the song pay homage to Picasso’s The Three Dancers. Fekner uses LCD-style graphics to portray three breakdancers; the song’s lyrics acknowledge the work spirit in breakdancing, rapping and graffiti…Watch the street, see the modern art, it’s the present and future tied to his heart.

Street Art (Queens)

The Warning Signs project focused on accentuating deteriorating conditions that dominated New York City and its environs in the 70s. In the spring of 1977, Fekner began to create ‘word-signs’ using hand cut cardboard stencils and spray paint. He began a relentless crusade concerned with social and environmental issues. First seen on the industrial streets and highways of Queens, the East River bridges, and later in the South Bronx, his ‘messages’ were spray painted in areas that were desperately in need of construction, demolition or reconstruction. By labeling the structures, Fekner's objective was to draw attention to the accumulated squalor by urging city officials, agencies and local communities to be more responsible and take action. His first stencil projects, Growth Decay, Industrial Fossil, Urban Decay, Decay/Abandoned, Instant This Instant That, and The Remains of Industry were not intended to remain for long periods of time. They succeeded when the existing condition was removed or remedied.^[2] In 1979, Fekner began experimenting with video and audio. He worked with Fred Baca to create Environmental Stencils 77-79, a grim and grainy, black & white video with 8mm film, that not only documents Fekner's stencils projects, but is also a bleak portrait of NYC in ruins in the late 70s.

Street Art (Bronx)

Fashion Moda is most often associated with graffiti art and its acceptance into the art world through such figures as John Fekner, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jenny Holzer, and Keith Haring. ^[3] In February 1980, Fekner began working in, around, and out of Fashion Moda, a storefront for experimental art/cultural exchange and an outpost for showcasing graffiti, breakdancing and rapping. Through his association with Fashion Moda, Fekner went to Charlotte Street and stenciled six spray painted messages included Decay, Broken Promises, Falsas Promesas, Last Hope, Broken Treaties and Save Our School. When Presidential Candidate Ronald Reagan stood in front of Fekner’s stencils, Decay and Broken Promises on Charlotte Street in the South Bronx on August 5th, 1980 at the People's Convention, Fekner detoured away from the notoriety to explore his new found interest in multimedia art. He created computer generated images in 1981 with his first computer graphics animation, Toxic Wastes From A to Z (coming after you and me) which featured a rap by k-8 students from a South Bronx school. In the New York Times, Matthew Mirapaul said "Fekner's work incorporates jagged, pixilated computer-generated imagery" because "its characteristic of the medium....it's almost like the drip in a Jackson Pollock, Mr. Fekner stated.^[4]

Collaborations

John Fekner and Don Leicht © 1982 *Your Space Has Been Invaded. Our Children are Fighting a Terrible War. Whole Families are being led to the Battlescreen.* Spray Paint and Automotive Paint on Cut Aluminum Relief Metal. Courtesy of the Artists

Collaborating with Bronx artist Don Leicht in 1982, they produced a series of art objects and installations using cut metal, aluminum and automotive paints based on Nishikado's Space Invaders arcade game with the statement: "Your Space Has Been Invaded-Our children are fighting a terrible war. Whole families are being sent to battlescreen." Since the 70s, Fekner continues to collaborate with Don Leicht to this day. Through the years, Fekner has collaborated with artists like John Matos aka Crash, David Wojnarowicz, Sandra Seymour, Lady Pink, Jim Recchione, Steve Grivas, Andrew Castrucci, Sasha Sumner and other musicians, writers and new media artists.

John Fekner & Don Leicht © 1985 *We Overfeed Our Heroes Until They Explode.* Spraypaint and Enamel on Found Wooden Door. 6'x 6' Courtesy of the Artists

Music/Graphics

An inventive, multi-disciplinary artist, Fekner formed his own band City Squad in 1983. City Squad was comprised of musicians and non-musicians as an extension of Queensites, teenagers from Jackson Heights who assisted with the outdoor stencil work. In September 83, Fekner released his first rap/rock 12" EP on his own Vinyl Gridlock records label. The A-side, "2 4 5 7 9 11" with Kwame Monroe, aka Bear 167, a South Bronx graffiti artist as the guest rapper, and "Rock Steady" on the B-side had Dave Santaniello on rock vocals. Fekner used the new synthesized speech "Fred voice" from Apple Computer as a vocal track on "2 4 5 7 9 11". In addition to playing keyboards and handling vocals, Fekner wrote music and lyrics for eight songs on Idioblast, a 12" LP (1984) which featured sampling, tv, radio, phone and airport audio transmissions over rock/rap/hip hop drum beats.

"Concrete People/Concrete Concerto", a 12" EP and music video collaboration with Dennis Mann/Monkey Hill Studios, Sasha Sumner, Andrew Ruhren, Sandra Seymour, Jim Recchione and Sandy Mann. It was a popular dance club video and broadcasted on USA Network NightFlight's State of the Art Animation along with Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer", Talking Heads "And She Was" and Timbuk 3's "The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades". Both "Concrete People" and "The Last Days of Good and Evil" ("Concrete Concerto" soundtrack) won honorary awards at the prestigious Prix Ars Electronica in Austria in 1987 and 1988. ^[5]

John Fekner © 1982 *Nuke Freeze* Spray painted text, frozen ice bomb and skeletons at the "No Nukes" Concert in Central Park starring Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, others. June 12, 1982, NYC (Unauthorized guerilla art)

Review

New York Times art critic John Russell wrote…Fekner is an artist who works not only in New York but with New York. The city in its more disinherited aspects is the raw material with which he has been working ever since he got a studio space in P.S. 1 in Long Island City in 1976 and learned to regard the huge dilapidated building as "an elderly person who has acutely perceived his experience of life." He went on to work outdoors in Queens and in the Bronx in ways that gave point and urgency to places long sunk in despair. With a word or two (Decay, for instance, or Broken Promises), he brought an element of street theater into disaster areas. With a single stenciled phrase (Wheels Over Indian Trails, for instance) he mingled present with past on the side of the Pulaski Bridge near the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.^[6]

Early Years

File:Fekqueens.jpg

Fekner attended Our Lady of Fatima, a Catholic elementary school in Jackson Heights together with John Genzale who later became known as Johnny Thunders of the New York Dolls. Fekner’s first graffiti was done in 1968 at 85th Street Park in Jackson Heights. Fekner, along with his fellow teenage buddies, painted the phrase Itchycoo Park in large crude white letters across on the front of the park house. Fekner's appropriated phrase Itchychoo Park referred to the popular hit record by the Small Faces about a park in England. Subsequently, the local football team took the name, Itchycoo Chiefs in the 70s. Ten years later, Fekner used the park as a base for his outdoor stencils projects. In May 1978, he curated the Detective Show with help from the Institute for Art and Urban Resources. A group of thirty artists including Gordon Matta-Clark, Don Leicht, Lucio Pozzi, Richard Artschwager and Claudia DeMonte hid art and created site-specific subtle works throughout the park. ^[7]

Notes

^ Marc and Sara Schiller studio visit with John Fekner and Don Leicht. Bronx, NY January 2007
^ Fekner, John (1982). John Fekner: Queensites. Sweden: Wedgpress and Cheese. ISBN 9185752320.
^ Susan Hoeltzel FASHION MODA: A BRONX EXPERIENCE http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/gallery/talkback/fmwebster.html
^ Mirapaul, Matthew "A Brush, a Mouse, a Canvas: Mixing Paint and Pixels" New York Times . New York, N.Y.: Jun 13, 2001. p. H15 (1 page).
^ Interview with John Fekner via webcam, email and written transcription for doctoral thesis June 21, 2007
^ Russell, John "Art: 'New Work New York' at the New Museum" New York Times March 19, 1982. p. C24 (1 page).
^ Interview with John Fekner via webcam, email and written transcription for doctoral thesis June 21, 2007

Selected Bibliography

Fekner, John (1983). John Fekner: Beauty's Only Screen Deep. New York City: Wedge Press.
Gumpert, Lynn "New Work New York' at the New Museum" Exhibition catalog essay, January 30-March 25, 1982. p. 12-15

External links

Discography

John Fekner City Squad Vinyl Gridlock Records	Year	Format		33 1/3 rpm
John Fekner City Squad Vinyl Gridlock Records	Year	LP	EP	33 1/3 rpm
2 4 5 7 9 11/Rock Steady	1983		♦	Vinyl
Idioblast	1984	♦		Vinyl
Another 4 Years (We Rather Not)	1984			Flexidisc
I Get Paid To Clap	1985			Flexidisc
Concrete People/Concrete Concerto	1986		♦	Vinyl
The Beat (89 Remix)	1989			Flexidisc

[1] Marc and Sara Schiller studio visit with John Fekner and Don Leicht. Bronx, NY January 2007

[2] Fekner, John (1982). John Fekner: Queensites. Sweden: Wedgpress and Cheese. ISBN 9185752320.

[3] Susan Hoeltzel FASHION MODA: A BRONX EXPERIENCE http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/gallery/talkback/fmwebster.html

[4] Mirapaul, Matthew "A Brush, a Mouse, a Canvas: Mixing Paint and Pixels" New York Times . New York, N.Y.: Jun 13, 2001. p. H15 (1 page).

[5] Interview with John Fekner via webcam, email and written transcription for doctoral thesis June 21, 2007

[6] Russell, John "Art: 'New Work New York' at the New Museum" New York Times March 19, 1982. p. C24 (1 page).

[7] Interview with John Fekner via webcam, email and written transcription for doctoral thesis June 21, 2007

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 ==Street Art (Queens) ==
-The ''Warning Signs'' project focused on accentuating deteriorating conditions that dominated [[New York City]] and its environs in the 70s. In the spring of [[1977]], Fekner began to create ‘word-signs’ using hand cut cardboard [[stencils]] and spray paint. He began a relentless crusade concerned with social and environmental issues. First seen on the industrial streets and highways of [[Queens]], the [[East River]] bridges, and later in the [[South Bronx]], his ‘messages’ were spray painted in areas that were desperately in need of construction, demolition or reconstruction. By labeling the structures, Fekner's objective was to draw attention to the accumulated squalor by urging city officials, agencies and local communities to be more responsible and take action. His first stencil projects, ''Growth Decay'', ''Industrial Fossil'', ''[[Urban Decay]]'', ''Decay/Abandoned'', ''Instant This Instant That'', and ''The Remains of Industry'' were not intended to remain for long periods of time. They succeeded when the existing condition was removed or remedied.<ref>Fekner, John (1982). John Fekner: Queensites. Sweden: Wedgpress and Cheese. ISBN 9185752320.</ref> In 1979, Fekner began experimenting with video and sound. He worked with Fred Baca to create ''Environmental Stencils 77-79'',  a grim and grainy b&w video & 8mm film that not only documents Fekner's stencils projects, but is also a bleak portrait of [[NYC]] in ruins in the late 70s.
+The ''Warning Signs'' project focused on accentuating deteriorating conditions that dominated [[New York City]] and its environs in the 70s. In the spring of [[1977]], Fekner began to create ‘word-signs’ using hand cut cardboard [[stencils]] and spray paint. He began a relentless crusade concerned with social and environmental issues. First seen on the industrial streets and highways of [[Queens]], the [[East River]] bridges, and later in the [[South Bronx]], his ‘messages’ were spray painted in areas that were desperately in need of construction, demolition or reconstruction. By labeling the structures, Fekner's objective was to draw attention to the accumulated squalor by urging city officials, agencies and local communities to be more responsible and take action. His first stencil projects, ''Growth Decay'', ''Industrial Fossil'', ''[[Urban Decay]]'', ''Decay/Abandoned'', ''Instant This Instant That'', and ''The Remains of Industry'' were not intended to remain for long periods of time. They succeeded when the existing condition was removed or remedied.<ref>Fekner, John (1982). John Fekner: Queensites. Sweden: Wedgpress and Cheese. ISBN 9185752320.</ref> In 1979, Fekner began experimenting with video and audio. He worked with Fred Baca to create ''Environmental Stencils 77-79'',  a grim and grainy, black & white video with 8mm film, that not only documents Fekner's stencils projects, but is also a bleak portrait of [[NYC]] in ruins in the late 70s.
 [[Image:BrokenPromises_JohnFekner.jpg|thumb|300px|right|''Broken Promises/Falsas Promesas''[[ John Fekner]] © 1980 Charlotte Street Stencils [[South Bronx]], New York. [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[Ronald Reagan]] both came to this spot during their political careers to make promises.]]