Lady Pink is a pioneer for women graffiti and street artists. Lady Pink was born in Ambato, Ecuador in the year 1964. Her work often features subways.
In this clip Lady Pink explains how she got her nickname:
She began making a public rep for herself as a graffiti artist back in 1979. She grew up in Queens, New York.
Below we view a collaborative effort with Lady Pink and some college students:
Lady Pink’s government name is Sandra Fabara.
Lady Pink was part of former MTV! Raps host Fab Five Freddy’s movie Wild Style. This featured up and coming graffiti artist and break dancers from the New York City area. Fab Five Freddy is also an artist who enjoys working with mixed media.
Lady Pink is married to another graffiti artist named Roger Smith.
Price range information: Sorry none available. The artist works in acrylics.
The artist is part of the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of Art both located in New York City.
Retna is a street artist based in Los Angeles, California. Retna is a wonderful artist who blends text from English, Arabic, Hebrew, and even the Egyptian hieroglyphics. Retna was born in 1979 in California. Retna works in acrylics and oils on canvas for his paintings. The artist began graffiti at the age of 11 in 1990.
Following a successful show in 2011 Retna received a commission from the musician Usher Raymond to create a portrait of the slain musician Marvin Gaye.
Retna has appeared in national art magazines including Juxtapose.
The artist had his first solo exhibition in 2011.
Similar to the art collective Faille, Retna is part of the art collective The Seventh Letter. These collectives are awesome and this one allows the artists to spread their word in many mediums including t-shirts, hats, and the traditional prints. A link to the website of the collective is below:
As a reader of this site you know I enjoy artists who work with calligraphy and text, in this clip we view Retna at work on a very large piece. I have practiced my calligraphic strokes many times but just on a table, quite impressive to see him create the text using a full sweeping motion of his arm!
Retna, a wonderful artist who is highly successful as a gallery artist, street artist, and commercial artist.
Cool Disco Dan was one of the original street artists working in the District of Columbia area. His government name is Dan Hogg and he was born on December 31, 1969. His tag “Cool Disco Dan” has been sprayed all across the District of Columbia.
Started performing graffiti art in 1985.
Cool Disco Dan is included in the book Free Agents, which has to do with street art in the nations capital.
Included in the Corcoran Museum of Art.
His work can be seen in motion pictures.
In this clip a segment from a full length documentary featuring the artist.
In this clip a very informal interview with Disco Dan
A new documentary is out now titled the Legend of Cool Disco Dan.
Sorry, no price range information available. Occasionally he will produce a t-shirt design, but demand quickly takes up supply so no pricing available.
Its amazing to see how much street and graffiti art has evolved since Cool Disco Dan’s humble beginnings in the 1980s. Now we see many street artists that have great drawing and painting skills such as Swoon. Its nice to see how Cool Disco Dan got the ball rolling by tagging everything in sight!
Stephen Powers was born in 1968 in New York. He grew up in Philadelphia. Powers started off as a graffiti artist and went by the name of ESPO. Short for Exterior Surface Painting Outreach. He tagged in New York city as well as Philadelphia.
He took drawing and painting courses at the University of the Arts and the Art Institute of Philadelphia.
Was CEO of a magazine called ON THE GO magazine.
Stephen Powers talking about his Flights of Genius project.
In this clip the artist talks about his childhood and growing up in a single parent household. He also talks about tagging. Powers also talks about having the support of the local community behind his artwork.
Stephen Powers is a well known for his style of art which examines the use of letterform and calligraphy, in particular its use in commercial advertising.
Price range info: Lithographs can be found for a few hundred to a one thousand dollars. Very large original works done with enamel on aluminum start around $10,000 with sides roughly 50 inches by 50 inches.
He got his start doing street art by using his graffiti skills to cover up buildings that were no longer used and in most cases deeply vandalized. By the time 1999 came around Powers had figured he had done around 70 grate paintings.
The artist was arrested in regards to an incident where he was on opposite sides with the Mayor of New York at the time, Rudolph Guiliani. The Mayor was trying to shut down a show. Powers wanted the show to go on. Eventually Powers was arrested at his home and eventually took a plea bargain and ended up with some days of community service.
In the year 2000 Powers decided to try and become a full time studio artist working from home.
Stephen Powers has been on the cover of Juxtapose magazine.
For his use of letters the artist reminds me to another great graphic artist who paints facades of old board games, the artist Tim Liddy. Liddy paints the tops of old board game boxes, some are real and some are entirely made from the artist’s imagination. I found his lettering to be quite similar to Powers, kind of a 1960s type of feeling. Below is an example of a Tim Liddy painting.
This artist is very inspiring for many reasons. He came from the streets! Like Richard Hambleton or Swoon, Stephen Powers honed his skills on the streets. Now he is featured in gallery shows and sometimes gets paid by the community who would rather have his awesome graffiti rather than an old dingy brownstone to look at. The fact that communities pay him to put his graffiti on their buildings shows how powerful art can be!
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