CASE 2 aka KASE 2 INTERVIEW WITH H. MARTINEZ

CASE 2 aka KASE 2, resident of TFP [The Fantastic Partners] and widely known as The King of Styles / You Weren’t There, page 328

Q. How would you describe yourself; your persona?

C: KASE 2 was always on the case. This is why, I am the CASE, of what life is like and living it in the way I live it. My dedication to graffiti and hip-hop and sticking-up and living . . . that style was my way of living. Now, case is a grown man at the half-century mark, or whatever you want to call it, which I care less how you want to call it. And I lived that style. But if I ever wanted to stick something up, if I felt like it, if it ran through my bloodstream, I might do so. I’m not the best of the best, and I’m not gonna say I’m not the worst of the worst, but I can be what you would not like me to be.

Header: CASE 2 (1999) Self Portraits, © Martinez Gallery

CASE 2, Moore House Projects. Film: Stephen J. Bell for Martinez Gallery. All Rights reserved

You may read the full interview in You Weren't There: 1990s NYC Graffiti. Aesthetics, Plasticity, & Form, edited by Martinez Gallery, NATO, DIP, Danielle Becker, Kevin Monaghan, Octavio Zaya, Hugo Martinez

Focusing on the 1990s—a decade of unpredictability and innovation—this book traces graffiti's evolution and its sensibilities within broader social currents. Through striking visuals and incisive text, we follow their vanguard's vision of creativity: combinational, exploratory, and transformational. Accompanied by the vanguard's stories, commentary and their artworks from private collections, this is the groundbreaking chronicle of an era that redefined the rules of art.

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