Letters and Circles: Works on Paper by COCO144, Puerto Rico, 1980s

Exhibition Information

LGSA by EIOS is pleased to present Letters and Circles: Works on Paper by COCO144, Puerto Rico, 1980s, a solo exhibition of works by COCO144 (Roberto Gualtieri), marking his first presentation in Japan.

Born in New York, of Puerto Rican and Italian heritage, COCO144 is widely recognized as a foundational figure in the emergence of aerosol writing during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Writing his name across the city’s subway system at a time of social tension and limited visibility, he participated in the transformation of tagging into a structured visual idiom, developing a practice shaped by both urgency and control under conditions where each mark carried risk and intention.

Within this context, COCO144 introduced several key technical and conceptual innovations that expanded the possibilities of writing. His early use of stencils enabled clarity and efficiency in environments where time and space were constrained, and at a moment when most writers relied on freehand aerosol gesture, this approach established a distinct visual discipline that functioned as both an aesthetic strategy and a tactical response.

Alongside this, COCO144 explored formal elements that would later become central to the language of writing culture. Motifs such as stars and crowns articulated emerging notions of authorship, recognition, and style, while his engagement with the expressive potential of the drip transformed what was often perceived as a technical flaw into a deliberate painterly strategy, contributing to the formation of a new and flexible visual grammar.

In 1972, he became a founding member of United Graffiti Artists (UGA), the first collective of street writers to bring aerosol writing into gallery contexts. Through exhibitions in New York and beyond, UGA did not simply legitimize writing retrospectively, but instead confronted existing art systems with a new visual language as it was still unfolding, establishing a precedent for later exchanges between street practices and institutions.

During the mid-1970s, COCO144 also contributed to early efforts to document the culture as it developed. When the Italian researcher Andrea Nelli visited New York to study aerosol writing, COCO144 guided him through the city and its emerging writing scene, an exchange that later resulted in Graffiti a New York (1978), now regarded as one of the first sustained studies of the movement and an important step in its historical recognition.

This exhibition Letters and Circles focuses on a body of works on paper developed during and after his time in Puerto Rico in the 1980s. In these works, such as LUNA AZUL, his practice shifted toward a more sustained engagement with form while remaining grounded in the logic of writing. As the letters C and O are repeated, his name gradually transforms into a structure that moves between legibility and abstraction over time.

As these forms expand across the surface, the structure of the name begins to dissolve into sequences of curves and circular movements, while color operates both within and beyond the line, separating and reassembling to create a dynamic spatial field in which authorship is not abandoned but extended, allowing the name to function as a generative system rather than a fixed sign across different contexts.

Across more than five decades, COCO144 has continued to revisit and develop this language, demonstrating how a form shaped under specific historical conditions can evolve without losing coherence, and where repetition is not simply reiteration but an ongoing investigation into structure, variation, and continuity, in which each iteration carries both memory and transformation across time, extending the work’s logic while remaining open to new formal possibilities.

This exhibition introduces COCO144’s practice to audiences in Japan by situating his work within both its historical significance and its ongoing development, offering an opportunity to engage with a body of work that continues to move between origin and transformation while also reflecting a commitment to framing this history within a specific cultural context through careful attention, dialogue, and critical engagement.

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COCO144 (Roberto Gualtieri)

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Related Event #1

This talk is presented as a related event to the exhibition Letters and Circles: Works on Paper by COCO144, Puerto Rico, 1980s, held at LGSA by EIOS in Shibuya, Tokyo, from Thursday, May 14, 2026. Marking COCO144’s first solo exhibition in Japan, it brings him to Tokyo to discuss the exhibition and reflect on the broader history of street art.

While many street artists have visited Japan over the years, only a limited number can speak firsthand about the earliest phase of aerosol writing in the 1970s. As many members of the first generation now reach their late sixties, the importance of preserving and sharing their oral histories is increasingly evident and significant, particularly in light of the limited documentation from that formative period.

The talk will also explore in depth COCO144’s time in Puerto Rico during the 1980s, a period that marked a major turning point in his practice. Closely tied to the exhibition, this theme offers concrete insight into how environmental factors such as time and place shape an artist’s creative development, as well as how context can redirect artistic trajectories.

The conversation will be moderated by artist Enrico Isamu Oyama, who has introduced COCO144 to Japanese audiences through his writings and interviews. Having first met in New York, Oyama has maintained a close relationship with the artist for over fifteen years, making him one of the few in Japan able to engage deeply with his work and language. In recent years, as research and archival initiatives on the history of aerosol writing expand globally, COCO144’s activities and surrounding context serve as a vital source of knowledge and a key entry point into the culture. This talk aims to offer an opportunity for Tokyo to engage with and align itself with these ongoing developments in a constructive way.

Related Event #2

The phenomenon now known as street art originated in urban areas of the U.S.
East Coast in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In New York at the time, young people sought to assert their identity by writing their own “names” on subway cars and city streets. This movement, then referred to as “writing,” counted COCO144 among its central figures.

In this special lecture, we will welcome COCO144——who developed his career alongside the emergence of aerosol writing and continues to work actively as an artist today——as a guest, and explore the history and present of this culture, as well as the works and forms of expression that have evolved from it.

Related Event #3

Artistic expression is a screen upon which individual identity is projected. That individual is shaped by a range of social and environmental factors. In this sense, artistic expression is the manifestation——and objectification——of a composite of personal and social elements filtered through the individual.

Aerosol writing presents a concise and fundamental mode of identity expression: writing oneʼs name in the street. In this special lecture, we will welcome COCO144——a pioneer of aerosol writing who remains active today——as a guest, and consider the relationships between expression, identity, and the social environment.