Leon Rainbow is definitely one of the most prolific artists in the central Jersey fine art and graffiti scenes. His work is widespread – from street art to murals to commercial pieces, you gotta admire Leon for his hustle as much as his art. His art is great too – fresh, original, ambitious, and infused with that strange sense of humor that Rainbow always brings around. This exhibit will be a retrospective of his works from 1999-2013, a rare chance to see a large collection of his work in one place.

The opening will also feature:

- Live Music by Molly Rhythm

- DJ ItsJustAhmad on the 1s and 2s

Dates

Opening Reception: Friday, May 10th, 2013, 6pm-10pm

At Gallery 219, 219 E. Hanover St. Trenton, NJ 08608

Work will remain on display until June 8th 2013.

Gallery Hours: Mon. Thurs. Fri. 12:00pm – 2:00pm, Saturday by appointment

Links

Leon’s website www.leonrainbow.com »

Sage Colition’s website http://sagecoalitionnj.com/shut-up-and-paint/ »

SHUT THE F**K UP AND PAINT Facebook Event Page »

MCCC Voice
By Stephen Harrison
Photos By Sam Foster
March 14th, 2013

Donning a gas mask, Leon Rainbow begins work on his latest “throw up.” His movements are swift but steady, consistent in their pace to prevent dripping or underexposure. There is no wasted movement, each time he finishes a line, the next is already underway. The chatter has almost ceased now, and the smell of aerosol has filled the air.

It is a cold, wet, overcast February day at the Terracycle building in Trenton. The misty rain has forced the graffiti artists to setup their equipment in a converted garage attached to a courtyard on the rear of the building. Every wall in sight is covered in dazzlingly colorful murals and throw ups. One of the other artists has already begun work on his throw up, the sound of his solitary spray can’s staccato notes periodically punctuates the oppressive silence. Leon Rainbow arrives with several more artists and he chats and jokes with them as they map out the space they’re going to be working with that day.

Actively creating graffiti art for more than a decade, 37 year old MCCC Alumnus Leon Rainbow’s arrival in Trenton in 1999 was a matter of necessity, he was trying to take himself away from people and environments that had led to a drug habit. “When I was younger I got involved in drugs and stuff like many people… Eventually I went to a twelve step program and I got clean. From there, my life has been a lot better,” said Rainbow.

Since coming to Trenton, Leon has thrived, becoming one of the more influential artists on the Trenton art scene. His chosen medium, graffiti art, often exists on the wrong side of the law, but Leon has found avenues of expression that are legally acceptable. “I’ve worked with almost everyone in the city so far as all the different arts, nonprofits in one capacity or another, city hall, parks and recreation, I’ve had stuff in the city museum, the state museum, and I think the city has really kind of embraced what we do to an extent,” said Rainbow.

Through his work, Leon has become a fixture in the Trenton Community. “He’s got a really big following,” says Craig Shofed who is the chairperson of the administrative council at Turning Point United Methodist Church. “He’s kind of an ambassador, he’s got a really wide each.”

One of the ways that Rainbow gets involved with the community is hosting graffiti-centric art classes for students of all ages at the Turning Point church. “His art speaks to young people,” said Schofed.

Using a room he bartered for by painting a large mural on a wall leading up to an entrance to the church, Rainbow gives lessons on not just the how of graffiti, but also the history. He brings in guest speakers including members of his graffiti crew, Vicious Styles Crew. Anytime he isn’t speaking he is very hands on with the students, giving them individual attention and the admiration the students have for him is obvious.

Malcom Matheson, a twelve year old resident of Egg Harbor Township travels for over an hour to attend the class. “Graffiti is another part of my life, so I can be like Leon and get paid to do walls and stuff like that, it would be awesome for me,” said Matheson.

“It’s really just trying to teach people the history, the styles, the techniques from A to Z. Graffiti is one of those things where you can’t really fake it you know? You can fake it but not to people that really know,” said Rainbow.

As a youth, Rainbow was raised by his mother, Tereasa Collings and his stepfather. His love of art was evident from a very young age. “He had a ton of energy and he was always buzzing all around, but if I could sit him down and give him some art supplies, even at two and three and four, five years old, he would be involved in it… he was the kid who wrote all over the walls with crayons,” said Collings.

Rainbow fell in love with graffiti in particular by the time he was in the first grade. “When the graffiti movies first came out in the 80’s that really made me like ‘wow!’ when I saw the people painting on the trains and stuff, I was like ‘wow! That’s cool!’ and I always wanted to do it from then,” said Rainbow.

When Rainbow was a teenager, his mother and stepfather divorced and he began to spend less time at his mother’s home in Ringwood, New Jersey and more of his time living in East San Jose with his grandparents so that he could be around male role models. Within a few years however, his grandfather developed cancer.

“My dad was probably as important to Leon as any male figure I can think of, probably even more so than his own father. My dad was always the rock. When my dad got lung cancer, they were going to radiation therapy, and doctors, and had his lung removed and they got involved, well Leon got involved too, in graffiti.” said Collings.

After a few years Rainbow moved with his mother in New Jersey, the area he was living in was not conducive to being young and unsupervised. “He was in East San Jose, that was a do or die situation every day,” said Collings.

Being a graffiti artist, Rainbow is keenly aware of the legal complications that may arise from his work, and the judgments people may have about it. Any public projects Rainbow works on are on surfaces that he has permission to paint on. “If I said ‘oh yeah I’m a graffiti artist’ they might think gang graffiti right away just because they don’t know. But I think if people actually see what we do they would have a different understanding of it,” said Rainbow.

One example of the work Rainbow does to help build community when Vicious Styles Crew participated in a project with the Sage Coalition, a group that organizes beautification projects for the city of Trenton through local artists. For three days Vicious Styles Crew helped paint ten abandoned buildings on Hanover Street in downtown Trenton.

“It’s inspiring to me when you’re able to either change peoples perception or that people are really behind you,” said Rainbow.

Married for five years now to Rosemarie Smith, Rainbow credits her with helping keep him on an even keel. “It keeps me grounded. If I get too caught up in the things that I got going on and being an artist and let that fame or whatever get to my head, I can get real kinda crazy with it. She always keeps me grounded, she gives me that unadulterated point of view.”

“Graffiti is a very powerful art form,” said Rainbow. “You can either create with it or destroy with it. It depends on what you want to do. Today I’m trying to create; I’m trying to build the community.”

Mercer alumnus Leon Rainbow uses grafitti art to bring color to Trenton | The VOICEThe VOICE.

This is my finished hello piece for the show.

Opening Reception: March 2, 7 – 11pm
Film Screening: March 10, 1 – 3pm
Exhibit Book Launch and Panel Discussion: March 23, 1 – 3pm

HELLO my name is will showcase the foundation of modern graffiti: the name.

To create HELLO my name is, a list of eighty artists from across the Americas and UK was compiled by DC graffiti legends ULTRA and CHE KGB. Each of these artists has received a canvas with an illustration of a “HELLO my name is” sticker that they will paint and return to the gallery. The resulting collection of works is the chance to see the breadth and depth of graffiti artists working across the US and abroad today.

The Fridge
516 8th Street SE
Rear alley,
Washington, DC 20003
c/o Asad Walker

CLICK ZOOM This is the wall we painted in Ivy City (left to right) HKS 181, Demer, Rain, Kasso…Very Smooth Wall 2013

This is my piece had fun with this especially the character style “A”

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

This Graffiti Art Class (originally developed by Pose Two) was created to teach and explore the history styles and techniques of the art form called graffiti. This class will follow a similar format and be taught by members of the Vicious Styles Crew.

Instuctors: Leon Rainbow, Will Kasso, Joe Base, Demer, Mek, Snow, Ras, Delve, and Surprise Guests!

Where: United Methodist Turning Point, 15 South Broad Street Trenton, NJ 08608-February 16-March 30 2013
Terracycle, 121 New York Ave, Trenton, NJ 08608-April 6-May 25 2013

When: Saturdays, 9:30am – 11am

Cost: $180 3 sessions (pre-registered)/ $75 1 session(pre-registered) / $20 each class (day of)

(DOES NOT INCLUDE COST OF PAINT AND OTHER ART SUPPLIES)
Some Supplies may be donated, we will have blackbooks markers., etc for sale on site.

CHECK IT OUT ON FACEBOOK
TO ORDER AND MORE INFO CLICK HERE

Session: 1 History styles and traditions

Saturdays, 9:30am – 11am
February 16-March 16, 2013
United Methodist Turning Point, 15 South Broad Street Trenton, NJ 08608

This session is an introductory lesson on graffiti writing. Within a 5-week course student will learn the basis of the history styles and traditions of Writhing. The Instructor guides the students on a virtual train ride on the past present and future of Graffiti writing. Through discussions, video, slide presentations and books students imaginations are colorfully sprayed with a rich experience… and enough inspiration to last a lifetime! Students 10-110 are welcome. No prior experience with Art graffiti is required. All students are required to come prepared with a black-book (sketch book) pencil, pen and a sharpie marker (black). Our goal and purpose it that you take this course to learn the basic foundation regarding graffiti. Understanding what “writing “ is really about and how it relates to you.

Session: 2 Black book Skills/Painters Touch March 26-April 23, 2011
Saturdays, 9am – 11am

March 23,United Methodist Turning Point, 15 South Broad Street Trenton, NJ 08608
March 30,United Methodist Turning Point, 15 South Broad Street Trenton, NJ 08608
April 6, Terracycle, 121 New York Ave, Trenton, NJ 08608
April 13, Terracycle, 121 New York Ave, Trenton, NJ 08608
April 20, Terracycle, 121 New York Ave, Trenton, NJ 08608

This course is for students who wish to develop their lettering skills. During this session students experience intense black book sessions where they will learn color schemes, letter formations and style concepts, the second half of the session focuses on transforming black book sketches into actual burners.

Session 3 Can Control
April 27-May 25 2013
Saturdays, 9:30am – 12:30pm
April 27, Terracycle, 121 New York Ave, Trenton, NJ 08608
May 4, Terracycle, 121 New York Ave, Trenton, NJ 08608
May 11, Terracycle, 121 New York Ave, Trenton, NJ 08608
May 18, Terracycle, 121 New York Ave, Trenton, NJ 08608
May 25, Terracycle, 121 New York Ave, Trenton, NJ 08608

This session is dedicated purely to the development of painting. Enhancing technique and style. Watch week students are expected to have a carefully drawn sketch, which they will execute on a wall under the critics and guidance of experienced Graff writers.

new and raw works by DEMER,RAIN,KASSO AND DELVE of the VICIOUS STYLES crew.
.presenting works on canvas and other mediums designed to stimulate you to the core thus the title of the exposition….VISCERAL STIMULUS!

Saturday, November 18, 2012
2pm-6:30pm
PVC Gallery
49 Harrison St
Hoboken, New Jersey
07030

more info:
609-635-1411
www.leonrainbow.com
leon@leonrainbow.com

Reprinted from the September 19, 2012, issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper
Windows of Soul – How Art Takes Back a Street
by Dan Aubrey
The decaying facades of one of downtown Trenton’s oldest blocks will be transformed into an outdoor art gallery when a group of motivated artists — and art loving volunteers — join forces during three days of art, education, and urban beautification from Friday to Sunday, September 21 through 23.
Dubbed Windows of Soul, the event to return life to the 200 block of Hanover Street is the brainchild of Trenton based artists Will “Kasso” Condry and Leon Rainbow. The two muralists, who work together and independently, devised the project after nearly a decade of successfully creating scores of murals throughout the city.
Says Rainbow, “Two years ago me and ‘Kasso’ got the idea to paint over the boarded up parts of the
abandoned buildings. We really want to do the whole city.”
Rainbow’s goal is no exaggeration and is already in gear.
Over the past several years the two artists, along with other artists of mixed background and race,
decided that there was too much decay and not enough art. Instead of complaining or accepting it, the
artists launched an offensive against urban blight with an arsenal of talent, creativity, humanity, and
aerosol paint.

Windows Of Soul Collaboration- Leon Rainbow x Get Up Art

While the latter is the medium of choice for these muralist inspired by the 1980s graffiti movement,
“Kasso” (the name the artist uses to represent himself and work) and Rainbow take the high road and
work in partnership with property owners and community organizations.
The obvious fruits of their efforts are their varied themed murals blossoming throughout the city,
including a recently sprayed one at the entrance to the First United Methodist Church on South Broad
Street, several blocks from the state house dome.
There is also the annual Jersey Fresh Jam held in Trenton. Launched in 2005 by artists with a desire to
get other young mural artists together, it’s now touted as New Jersey’s premier Hip Hop Festival. That
festival of aerosol and music attracts hundreds to Trenton and is hosted by the Trenton based recycling
company, TerraCycle.
While freshly painted city walls and people showing up usually equal success, the two artists do
something more, something intangible yet vital. Their efforts help galvanize young creative talents,
energies, and imaginations. By doing so, they seem to be to be in tune with influential American poet
and New Jersey native William Carlos Williams whose words on the human imagination are apt: “If it
is not a dance, a song, it becomes an outcry, a protest. If it is not flamboyance it becomes deformity; if
it is not art, it becomes crime.”
Trenton native “Kasso” says his actions are deliberate and focus on the positive. “I looked around and
said, ‘It doesn’t have to be like this.’ You just have to take the initiative. Then others will join in. Then
there’s power in the numbers.”
Windows of Soul is one such opportunity for others to join in, view art, take mural and graffiti
workshops, and even help install the fifty art panels over the windows and doors of soulless structures.
The weekend will end with a block party and a ribbon cutting ceremony to announce the transformation
of street to gallery.

Developed in cooperation with the Trenton Downtown Association (TDA) and the Trenton Atelier, an
active group of downtown Trenton artists, the soul event is clearly Trenton based, but its vision is
global.
“Kasso” and Rainbow, working through the newly formed non-profit organization SAGE (Stylez
Advancing Graffiti’s Evolution) Collective, decided that artists outside the city should also have the
opportunity to get involved. So the mid-30 year old coordinators digitally invited the world. Now art
from Belgium and Italy, to name a few places, will mix with American art on Trenton walls.
Although Rainbow concedes that the event’s epicenter at TDA’s 219 Hanover Street gallery and office
space is “a kind of rough block,” he says the weekend is about learning how to make art that can
change the environment. Since the art work will be preselected, visitors should join in the spirit of
supporting the current effort and learning for the future.
When asked about the backgrounds that have led to careers teaching, designing, and creating murals
and art, “Kasso” and Rainbow draw attention to their formative years.
While “Kasso” says he came from a poor section of Trenton, he notes that his family — a truck driving
father and stay at home mother — gave him simple gifts that continue to give. “My family is very
artistic. My brother is a graphic designer. My sister works as a manager for a non-profit and is a poet.
My parents are not visual artists, but they’re great story tellers. We were really poor so we had to
improvise. All my subject matter is story-based. It has a beginning, middle, and end. That comes from
my family. I remember the stories like movies. My mother was supportive and bought us sketch pads,”
he says.
The sketch pads led the young artist to an interest in creating drawings influenced by graffiti and comic
books. The free Saturday art classes offered by Artworks in Trenton fed his hunger to learn more and
was part of the path that took him to the College of New Jersey to study fine arts and art history.
An interest in mural painting connected him to the internationally recognized Philadelphia Mural
Program, where he was employed for five years as a member of their educational program and an
assistant muralist. Of his time in Philadelphia, “Kasso” says, “I learned how massive projects are
organized. Since I never got the opportunity to do my own projects, I left and took what I learned for
my own projects. I’ve always been my own person. I am not going to wait for someone to make an
opportunity. I make my own.”
Rainbow too makes his own opportunities. A native of San Jose, CA, Rainbow (a family name from the
Quechan tribe in Arizona) is a Trenton transplant. After his draftsman step-father and his mother, who
had a house cleaning business and other jobs, moved the family to New Jersey in the late 1990s,
Rainbow gravitated to the Trenton area and studied web design at Mercer County Community College.
With an early interest in art encouraged by his mother, Rainbow began mixing graffiti and drafting. He
also took art classes at the college, including those conducted by prominent New Jersey artist Mel
Leipzig.
“The two of them are really terrific,” says Leipzig who has a long history of coordinating and
contributing to art projects in the state’s capital city. Graffiti art, the artist says, “is a new form of art.
It’s not what I do, but I respect these artists. It’s not easy. “
About his former student, the senior artist says, “Leon’s been a force for the arts in Trenton. He just
keeps going at it. He’s dogged in his pursuit of his art and his commitment to the city. It’s terrific that
there’s someone like him in Trenton. “
Of “Kasso” and Rainbow’s current efforts, Leipzig says, “It is one positive thing in Trenton during at
time of unbelievable negativity. It shows that there are good decent people and young artists in the city.
It’s not a monetary thing. It’s just in their nature to do something. And artistic creativity is a boon for
the city, take Hoboken and Brooklyn. Everywhere artists go, they do something good. It’s a ray of hope
in the city. “
Trenton resident and creator — along with famed writer Norman Mailer — of the seminal book on the
American graffiti art movement, “The Faith in Graffiti,” Jon Naar agrees. “I think they’re important
artists who are doing a superb job of organizing in a city in the state of collapse, where we’re not
getting the leadership. They are far more than graffiti writers. They work with children and the
community. They are important mural artists who should be recognized,” says Naar.
The 92-year-old Naar, whose photographs are in numerous museum collections, says that he plans to
photograph the artists over the block transformation weekend and adds, “This is absolutely way to go”
to take back the city.
The taking back is already in action. Thirty students from the Bonner Center for Civic and Community
Engagement at the College of New Jersey recently arrived on Hanover Street to clear trash from the
lots set for the block party. Art work from both professional and amateur artists is arriving for
consideration. Calls for donated materials and support are being answered. And given the draught of
good news coming from Trenton, the event is generating light and hope.
As for the souls who have been attempting to open the windows for the past few years?
“It’s a long time coming, but it feels great,” says “Kasso.”
“I’m so excited that it’s all coming together. I think it will be a great inaugural,” says Rainbow.
Windows of Soul, TDA’s Gallery 219, 219 East Hanover Street. Opens Friday, September 21, 6 to 10
p.m. Activities continue Saturday, September 22, with art workshops and demonstrations from 10 a.m.
to 6 p.m. The event concludes on Sunday, September 23, with music, art installation, and dedication, 1
p.m. to 6 p.m. http://sagecoalitionnj.com/