

“John Perretti is a walking, breathing enigma. A (once) fighter, an artist, a street kid, a philosopher. Clad in all black while passionate about the beauty of nature… I had a difficult time reckoning with who he was, Perretti is a unique human being, and at times, I wonder if he’s human at all.” ~ Scott Ross
Artwork
Painting, Drawing, On-Paper, Photography, Sculpture, Painting Progression
Writing

The Origin of a Species…
Part III: Far forward and away in Kyoto a yellowing Moso, a sympodial bamboo garden clumps proud and tall against the reluctant rear of the square, famous restaurant of less than willing waiters, a deliberant disbelief of normal Japanese food...

Coinage
“The Martist” is my coinage for the duality of the spirit of the martial and the aesthetic, a split, if you will, in interests within one human being. The artist preceded the pugilist, and the two have had a symbiotic...

In Japan
Ginkos abound with burlap rap.Rising sun burns white,through an shoji’s gap.Now as caffeine touchesmy heart,I view a painted womanin a quick little rickshaw cart.Your voice comes to me froma lime green phone.On knees,musical instrument makingtools a single old man must...
Coinage
“The Martist” is my coinage for the duality of the spirit of the martial and the aesthetic, a split, if you will, in interests within one human being. The artist preceded the pugilist, and the two have had a symbiotic relationship.
The Origin of a Species and The Mixed Martial Arts
If a Levittown, New York cement stoop formed upon pre-fungicide infested potato fields could ever emit a sound, it most probably would be a “South of the border” purchased; “American Indian” rubber covered birch bark drum, with my repetitive beating to my vocal accompaniment of “Weee waaant ra-ain, we want rain, we want rain, weee...
The Origin of a Species
Introduction: As of the onset of this writing, I have experienced fifty-six winters in many a country, with many incomplete companions (some finally deceased). I have been lucky to have truly hunted game all my life rather than stand on lines for meager rations as the Lakota were forced to do by “slippery tongued” Euro-Americans...
The Origin of a Species…
Part III: Far forward and away in Kyoto a yellowing Moso, a sympodial bamboo garden clumps proud and tall against the reluctant rear of the square, famous restaurant of less than willing waiters, a deliberant disbelief of normal Japanese food distribution, just within the odd Ionic pillared , entrance hearth, welcomed without the usual public...
Of Memories, one Man’s Mandatory Memoir
The Origin of a Species and The Mixed Martial Arts was a seven-year grapple, “Although one can never prove sincerity unto another, this is a work of non-fiction.” And, “All that is told here has been witnessed by many and may stretch your current conceptions. This is what we mostly pure pugilists pursue. No matter...
My Underworld When
My current coherency to tell of totally, sometimes tubular, true stories about a past that never existed within a realm as still so rightly remembered as a raw reality. Beneath me burrows were beheld and beckoned me to go belly down, in dirt below. Like the viewing of children’s ant farms within thin glass confines...

Photo:
John Perretti born August 10, 1956, began drawing at age two to become the youngest faculty member of The School of Visual Arts at twenty-four where he taught for ten years. He was considered “the most heroic painter SVA ever produced”. His painting and sculpture remain today unafraid of historical darkness, his adoption of skulls, living dangerously, the underworld, and the lifelong love of brushes and knives. Perretti has moved to Houston from Japan to continue to create images unlike any other. His next one-man show will open at The Silos August 9, 2025.


"John Perretti is a prior pugilist, painter, sculptor, memoirist and poet. He continues to dedicate himself to the largely unexplored territory between the fine arts and the martial."