Leon Reid IV - Outdoors

The outdoors is where Leon's work lives. From his days as the adolescant graffiti writer VERBS to the environmentally concious street sculptures found in New York, London and Berlin under his nom-de-plum DARIUS JONES, the creation of artwork outside has never ceased to amaze this artist. During the span of his street oeuvre (1995 - 2005), Leon has worked outdoors with -at least- three major collaborators:

(1995-99) Joey Whitely, a high-school companion with whom he began writting traditional graffiti. The two began covering local walls with tags and intricate murals alike across the streets of Cincinnati. Leon began to be known in the city as VERBS.

(1997-2002) Andre Hyland, Leon's childhood friend and co-developer of the reknowned construction uniform disguise. With Andre, Leon first began his ventures with non-traditional graffiti forms now commonly labeled as "street-art". Andre and Leon made headline news in Cincinnati for much of their controversial messages written above highway overpasses.

(2000-05) Brad Downey, the student filmaker turned street-artist whom featured Leon in his documentary 'Public Discourse'. The film focused on the work of many contemporary street artists such as Swoon, Shepard Fairy and JJ Veronis. During this collaboration both artists made a transformation: Brad Downey shifted his energy from documentarian to street-artist while Leon dropped Verbs for DARIUS JONES and simultaneously changed his worldview from graffiti writer to public servant. Together Leon and Brad are known internationally as DARIUS and DOWNEY.

The images at left show Leon's work from a period of 1999-2004.