UGA

— 1972/1975

80s

Misconceptions of an A

— 1984

“In 1984 I collaborated with metal sculptor Douglas Abdell to construct a one tonne steel symbol. I like sculpting, building, designing, even creating absurd toys, fundamentally what’s important to me is creating and existing, well beyond aerosol.”

The work is made of cold rolled steel plates welded together, measures 2.50m high and 1.90m wide, 0.60m deep and weighs more than a ton. The statue eventually ended up in the Jacob Javits Convention Center. After 20 years, the statue appears to have been moved, destroyed and discarded in 2013 without informing Phase 2.

Before
the Aftermath

 — 1985 / Ziegler Gallery, Zurich.

Do you have to be able to read hieroglyphics
to be able to appreciate them?

— Late '80s

I can relate to hieroglyphics as a form, and the form relates back to me in terms of my Alkebulan (African) roots.

I don’t sit there trying to figure out what it says. It has poetry of motion just being there. I relate to unearthly things. You might thank it’s crazy, but I think I had a previous life in Egypt. That’s where I get a lot of my ideas. 

— Text excerpt from "Aerosol Kingdom: Subway Painters of New York City" - I. Miller.

K.I.S. Gallery

— 1992/Amsterdam

 
The New York Urban Artists (AMRL, COCO, Flint 707, Mico, Phase 2, Pistol, Snake, and Stitch) had showcased their work at Galerie KIS Artful Facilities,located in both Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

This group was composed of pioneers from the definitive generation of the NYC Urban Movement. That year marked the 20th anniversary of their individual and collective paintings on canvas. The exhibition focused on clarifying this culture and its essence

Coming from
the Subway

—1992/Groninger Museum

"For those of you who are not aware.
Groninger Museum in Holland put a show together supposedly focusing on the art of the subways.
Instead it was on our art’s emergence inta the ‘wackstream’ and all that other cartoon shit.

Forget the fact that some of the artists never really concentrated on subway painting. THE ISSUE HERE IS GIVING CREDIT WHERE IT IS NOT DUE.
How can people claim to be concerned with the history and then allow others, who’s knowledge of it is so fucking backwards it’s criminal, to write it?
To allow them even a sentence... it’s madness."

— Text from IGT/TIGHT.

Hip Hop Nation:
Roots, Rhymes, and Rage

— 2000 / Brooklyn Museum

Various

Allcity Sistem

— 2004/2005

Private collection

— LevTokyo's private collection. (Founder & Owner of Toy Tokyo, NYC).

Wynwood

2010 — Miami

For the Wynwood Doors in 2010, he used markers to paint kung fu stars from the 1970s. “It was my symbolic and due homage to the art and the movies,” he says.

Among the figures we see are the faces of Angela Mao, who was the first great female action star in Hong Kong films, Gordon Lui, Ti Lung and Sammo Hung. In contemplating, finally, the tribal warrior sculptures of the artist’s design, we may discover themes of inner strength and self-discovery in his work.

Art Basel

 — 2010/Miami

DEEP SPACE

— 2012 / Joseph Nahmad Contemporary, NYC.

P.H.A.S.E. 2 MYTH CONCEPTION

— 2023 / ACA Gallery. NYC

Various

Collage

StoryBoards collage

—2016

STORY BOARDS are a series of one-of-a-kind, hand-cut collage decks. Based on collages crafted on New York maps, PHASE2 has incorporated a variety of characters, both real and fictional, from the culture of the '80s and '90s. He created these pieces in the summer of 2015 and first exhibited them at Shut Skateboards, located on Orchard Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City.

P.H.A.S.E 2 x Harold Hunter Foundation

—2019

For this deck, Phase 2 use his collage technique and represented the legendary skateboarder Harold Hunter, whom he met in the 90s with the team Zoo York.

Edited in 100 copies. Manufactured by New York’s Chapman Skateboards.

1972 — Graffiti Goes to College. City College, NYC
1973 — The Best of M.T.A. / UGA Razor Gallery. Soho, NYC
1974 — Graffiti As Art. Museum of Science & Industry, Chicago, Ill.
1975 — United Graffiti Artists. Artists Space, NYC.
1982 — New York City Rap. Paris - London.
1984 — Rapid Enamel. Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago, Ill.
1985 — BEFORE AFTERMATH. Galerie Renée Ziegler, Zurich, Switzerland.
1985 — Arte Urbano. Instituto De Cultura, San Juan, PR.
1992 — Anti-Museum. Galerie K.I.S., Amsterdam, NL / Martinez Gallery NYC.
1992— New York Graffiti Art: Coming from the Subway. Groninger Museum,Groningen.
1997 — Six. Martinez Gallery NYC.
1999 — Urban Mythologies. Bronx Museum.  NYC.
2000 — The Painted Word. Martinez Gallery NYC.
2010 — Wynwood Miami Art Basel. Miami.
2011 — AEROSOL EXPERIENCE.  Zieglerzwei, Zurich, Switzerland.
2012 — DEEP SPACE. w/Rammellzee, Futura 2000, Matta. Joseph Nahmad Contemporary. Meatpacking District, NYC.
2023 — Phase 2 Myth Conception: A Survey 1972-2019. NYC.

→ author@killthagword.com

©2024. All rights reserved — See you in NeoTokyo!

⚠ — All photographs in the following sections have been sourced from public internet sources. Therefore, copyright and intellectual property rights remain with the respective photographers and rights holders. If you are the photographer or rights holder of any of the images here and would like to request credit or have the image removed from the gallery, please contact us,

 — Get Preorder Updates