Dominique Philbert

'ERO' (Ever Rocking On), pseudonym of Dominique Philbert, an early 1980s New York graffiti artist, exhibited in USA, Europe and Japan's art galleries and Museums.

Born Sept 30, 1967 in New York from parents immigrated from Trinidad (an ‘Afro-Caribbean’ like Basquiat), Ero, who died July 7, 2011, has been one of the youngest artists in the historical group of New York’s early 1980s graffiti artists. Among the authors of the revolutionary graffiti art emersion from the ghettos which for the first time in art history also saw Afro-Americans as active and direct part of the contemporary art world, becoming central subjects in art galleries and art museums (1), Ero kept a personal diary of the movement, with contribution by his friends Basquiat, Haring and several others. He was part of the historic New York’s graffiti art gallery 'FUN GALLERY' ran by Patti Astor, and among others also worked with Sidney Janis gallery. His paintings were included in the famous ‘Five-Man Show’ which in 1983 toured Japan, and which beyond Ero included Fab Five Freddy, Zephyr, Futura 2000 e Dondi White (2). Mentioned in various catalogues among which "Arte di Frontiera" Mazzotta ed., Milan, Italy 1984, at page 23 (ill.6), and page 115 (3), for the first New York's graffiti art exhibition in an Italian Museum (also one of the first museum exhib. in Europe), such as the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Bologna, curated by the art critic Francesca Alinovi which was then brought to the Duomo square in Milan. Ero’s works are extremely rare, but can be found in selective American, European and Japanese collections, among which the Ludwig Museum coll. in Aachen, Germany (4), and, in the same country, also in the Deutsche Bank's coll. (5). Among the last art exhibitions which included his works, there are: Kunsthalle Darmstadt (Kunstverein Darmstadt e.V), Darmstad, Germany, 4. April 2004 - 31. Mai 2004, "Gezeichnet Graffiti" which included A-ONE, J.-M. Basquiat, CRASH, ERO, Keith Haring, LADY PINK, TOXIC, etc. (6). And ‘The Wild Style Exhibit’, New York gallery 151, February 15, 2008 (7). Though it is many years that there are no more info on Ero’s where abouts, his place in the golden age of the graffiti art movement is historically proved, but yet to be fully rediscovered. This page was posted to stimulate art historian to better explore the original 1980's Ero's interesting and relevant work.

1) UPI, "5 Artists take graffiti from the streets to the galleries", The Philadelphia Inquirer, 19-III-1984
2) article on the popular American magazine ‘People’ 22-08-83: http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20085742,00.html
3) at page 115 of the mentioned cat. the art critic F. Alinovi, is writing of a 1984 exhib. in N.Y of the sixteen year old Ero.
4) Ludwig Museum in Aachen, Germany http://www.ludwigforum.de/Sammlungen/info/ig.html
5) Deutsche Bank collection, Frankfurt http://www.db-artmag.de/2008/5/e/2/629-2.php
6) http://www.kunsthalle-darmstadt.de/?q=node/16 , and then go to ARCHIV: 2004 - "Gezeichnet Graffiti"
7) http://gothamist.com/2007/12/13/graffiti_wall_2.php

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Name	Philbert, Dominique
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Date of birth	1967
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