The story of Dominique Philbert, aka ERO, born on September 3, 1967 from Afro-Caribbean par- ents, arrived in New York at four to be dead at forty-three on July 7, 2011, is in many ways simi- lar to those of other graffiti writers’ who were com- ing from the rough neighborhoods of Manhattan, Bronx, harlem, or Brooklyn between the late 1950s and the early 1970s. Together with many of his peers, ERO belongs in that generation of young Afro-Latin Americans who grew up in a ruined city on the verge of bankruptcy and was used to wander undisturbed in the streets of New York and in the subway train yards.
Flyer della mostra di ERO all Fun Gallery di New York nel 1983
The apex of ERO’s career is 1984-1985. he trav- eled in Europe and especially in Italy, where thanks to the New York-based gallery gallozzi-LaPlaca he took part to the project Arte di Frontiera, organized in quattordio in Piedmont, by the headquarters of the exhibition main sponsor, IVI paint factory. he then attended the Studio Carrieri in Martina Franca, where he produced and exposed a series of canvas- es entitled Urban Mystical Expressions, presented in 1985 at the exhibition La lettera emancipata. Quat- tro strateghi [The Liberated Letter: Four Strategists] next to works by Daze, Phase 2 and Rammellzee. Around the same time he participated to important exhibitions like Rap Graffiti Rap at the grita Insam galerie in Vienna next to Phase 2 and Rammellzee, and New York Graffiti Writers 1972-1984 at the gallery gallozzi-La Placa in New York. In the same period, some of his canvases were acquired by international art collectors such as the Ludwigs, or by private institutions such as Euro-American Bank, Deutsche Bank and ARCO Corporate, also thanks to the intermediation of art advisors like Barbara Guggenheim.
