Jonathan "Meres One" Cohen was born 1973 in the South Bronx and raised in Queens, New York. Cohen's interest in visual art spans the entirety of his life, but it wasn't until 1987 that Meres One discovered graffiti art and began expressing himself through tags in the streets, graduating to piecing together larger works by 1990 and the birth of his trademark lightbulb, "The Bright Idea."
1991 saw Meres enrolling in New York City's Fashion Institute of Technology's illustration program.
Using aerosol art as his primary vehicle for expression, Meres One has taken his multi-layered, technically sound, color laden visions from local to global arenas, from street walls to galleries, from head nodding next to the boombox to facilitating and appearing in countless music videos. He is recognized for his work by news publications such as the New York Times, The Huffington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as providing notable contributions to major motion film works such as "Now You See Me" and "Brown Sugar" and television programs including The Today Show, Fuse TV, Project Runway, and an ESPN US Open, Fox "5 after Empire" segment.
Aside from traveling all over the United States to paint, Meres One's work can be found in Holland, the United Kingdom Switzerland, Canada, France,Holland, and Germany. He has contributed to numerous street art showcases including the Meeting of Styles in New York, Montreal, Chicago, The city of Rotterdam even commissioned Meres and a hand picked select group of elite artists, Meres being the lone aerosol artist involved in the project, to spend a month in Holland creating 2 murals, each spanning about 4 stories in size. 2013's World Nomad Festival, an art celebration of Tunisian post-revolutionary culture organized by the French Institute of Art and Francophony (FIAF), hand-picked Meres One to host and act as ambassador to acclaimed international visual artist El Seed.
Throughout his 30 active years as an aerosol artist, Meres's works number in the thousands. He is the founder of OTM aerosol art collective and a member of the CBS crew, one of the most elite and prolific aerosol art collectives in the world. He has innovated making 5 Pointz a vehicle to elevate the art form, educate both the general public and fellow spray can craftsmen in providing a creative, legal alternative to street vandalism. He is one of a sliver of aerosol artists using anamorphic techniques in his projects, submerging his audience into his vision to achieve the highest form of interactive dynamic using a three dimensional approach open to, and often catalyzing, his audience's own personal improvisation and interpretive performance. He was the head designer of Logiq Clothing, a brand stocked in over 40 stores nationwide. His works have been shown in the Parish Art Museum (Hamptons, NY), Orlando Art Museum (Orlando, FL), Rush Arts Gallery (Manhattan, NY), Dorian Grey ( Manhattan) Corridor Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), and Goldcoast Art Center (Greatneck, NY), Jeffrey Ledder s gallery . He has even been immortalized in Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant's 25th anniversary graffiti bible "Subway Art."
His artwork credits include body-painting Joss Stone for her "Tell Me About It" music video and appearing in a documentary showcasing Latin sensation Juanes touring the 5 Pointz facility with Meres. He has collaborated with Joan Jett & The Eyeliners, hip-hop luminary Marley Marl, actors Mark Ruffalo and Woody Harellson, Usher, Jadakiss, hip-hop founder DJ Kool Herc, and countless New York City independent artists. His artwork has been purchased and collected by people such as Danny Simmons, Liu Bolin, and numerous avid art connoisseurs.
From Fortune 500 companies like Louis Vuitton, Nikon, Nespresso, Fiat and Facebook, Google, Samsung, Smartcar, and NYCFC to becoming the first graffiti artist hired by a Wine domain from France, to garnering the support and acknowledgement for his selfless efforts at 5 Pointz from the world's most infamous "street vandal" Banksy, Meres One is the pinnacle of visual elevation. A graffiti writer draws his name; Meres One elevates art with a prescient sense of constant innovation and a contagious child-like excitement.
"I don't do graffiti, I am graffiti" - Meres One
