BALANCING THE ELEMENTS

FERNANDO CARLO, CARLO, JR. KNOWN TO THE STREET ART WORLD AS COPE 2 – 2 – HAS GONE FROM TAGGING THE 4 4 TRAIN TO SHOWCASING IN THE WORLD'S FINEST ART GALLERIES. WE SPOKE WITH THE NYC LEGEND ABOUT HIS AMAZING JOURNEY

- Charlie Connell

For 40 years, the streets of the world have been covered with his name. Fernando Carlo, Jr. became enamored with tagging when he was only 10, but from the first time he wrote "Cope2" out on an MTA 4 train, he was hooked for life. We spoke with the artist about his roots, the golden era of tagging trains, how he worked his way into galleries, and more shortly before his latest show, "Balancing the Elements," opened at Inked NYC. Here's Cope's story, in his own words.

GROWING UP

I was about 9, 10 years old growing up in the South Bronx with my mom. We'd take the train to go visit family members, so I always saw the graffiti on the subway cars and it was explosive. Just watching the names go by, I thought it was just normal. I asked my mom what it was and she explained how people would just write their names on the trains and it's not allowed. You're standing at the station and here pops out BOOM! A big "Blade" or "Comet," "Tracy168" or "Pnut2," these are the names I remember as a kid. Big, clean simple-style letters. It drew me in, the energy of it.

HIS FIRST TAGS