Portrait by Per Zennström. Jump over to his site here. (To see further flicks from this particular sitting… HERE)

It appears that Monument collaborated with some pretty interesting artists when designing their 2010 collection. The board displayed above is probably the most arresting, as it celebrates the work of Ramellzee.

Who? Who is Ramellzee?

“Always ahead of his time, New York artist and performer Rammellzee (pronounced “Ram: Ell: Zee) was born 1960 in Far Rockaway, Queens. Credited with being one of the inventors of graffiti art in the late 1970’s as well as one of the original hip hop artists from the New York area who introduced specific vocal styles which date back to the early 1980s. His influence can still be heard in contemporary artists such as The Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill and his legendary hip-hop single “Beat Bop” with K-Rob was produced by the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and has become one of the most sought after hip hop releases ever.

In the mid-80’s, Rammellzee became associated with a group of artists who painted or tagged in a style known as East Village wild style. This was an illegible, dynamic style of writing letters derived originally from the Gothic script of Medieval manuscripts. In 1982, he appeared in the seminal hip hop documentary Wildstyle by Charlie Ahearn, his fame in graffiti circles was established when he painted New York subway trains with Dondi, OU3, and Ink 76, and Doctor Revolt. Rammellzee’s graffiti and art work are based on his theory of Gothic Futurism, which describes the battle between letters and their symbolic warfare against any standardizations enforced by the rules of the alphabet; his treatise, “Iconic Panzerisms”, details an anarchic plan by which to revise the role and deployment of language in society.

Rammellzee’s work has been exhibited internationally. His work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He performs in self-designed masks and costumes of different characters of his own creation, one featured within his board art named “Reaper Grimm”.”

So yeah.