Graffiti is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.
TAKI 183 is the "tag" of a Greek-American graffitist who was active during the late 1960s and early 1970s in New York City. The graffitist, whose given name is Demetrios, has never revealed his full name.
Henry Chalfant is an American photographer and videographer most notable for his work on graffiti, breakdance, and hip hop culture.
Bomb the System is a 2002 drama film written and directed by Adam Bhala Lough. It stars Mark Webber, Gano Grills, Jaclyn DeSantis, Jade Yorker, Bönz Malone, Kumar Pallana and Joey SEMZ. The story revolves around a group of graffiti artists who decide to make a mark on New York City.
Phibs is the pseudonym of Tim De Haan, a notable graffiti artist operating out of Sydney, Australia.
JULIO 204 was a Puerto Rican resident of Inwood who wrote graffiti in his youth. He was not the first graffitist to write in New York City, even though he's usually credited as being the original New York City writer and the inspiration for Taki 183. He started writing his nickname in his neighborhood as early as 1968. He retired when he was arrested for vandalism in the summer of 1970.
Matt McCormick is a Spokane, Washington based video installation artist and filmmaker. His work extends documentary and experimental filmmaking, focusing on the sublime decay of contemporary culture and the landscape both urban and rural.
Victor Ash, also known as Ash, is a Copenhagen-based artist originally from Paris, France. Ash primarily works on canvas, lithography, and sometimes installations. He has exhibited regularly in various museums and galleries around the world since the late 1980s.
Marshall Curry is an Oscar-winning American documentary director, producer, cinematographer and editor. His films include Street Fight, Racing Dreams, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Point and Shoot, and A Night at the Garden. His first fiction film was the Academy Award-winning short film The Neighbors' Window (2019).
Darryl McCray, better known by his tagging name Cornbread, is an American graffiti writer from Philadelphia. He is widely considered the world's first modern graffiti artist. McCray was raised in Brewerytown, a neighborhood of North Philadelphia. During the late 1960s, he and a group of friends started doing graffiti in Philadelphia, by writing their monikers on walls across the city. The movement spread to New York City and blossomed into the modern graffiti movement, which reached its peak in the U.S. in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and then spread to Europe. McCray later worked with the Philadelphia's Anti-Graffiti Network and Mural Arts Program to help combat the spread of graffiti in the city. He is currently a public speaker and a youth advocate.
Jon Reiss is a film producer and director, and an author. He has made the feature film Cleopatra's Second Husband (1998) and the documentaries Better Living Through Circuitry (1999) and Bomb It (2007). He has directed music videos for artists, including Nine Inch Nails, Slayer, Danzig, and the Black Crowes.
Graffiti are writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings. Graffiti, consisting of the defacement of public spaces and buildings, remains a nuisance issue for cities.
Russ Kingston is an American film and television actor, editor, cinematographer and filmmaker.
Graffiti in New York City has had a substantial local, national, and international influence. Originating in Philadelphia and spreading to the New York City Subway and beyond, graffiti is among the most common forms of vandalism committed today.
Adam Hootnick is a director and producer of film, television, and other short-form content. His work includes What Carter Lost, UNSETTLED, Destination: Team USA, Son of the Congo, Judging Jewell, and Pro Day. He is currently developing his first narrative feature film.
DAIM is a German graffiti artist who lives and works in Hamburg. He is particularly known for his large-size, 3D-style graffiti works. This has become known as his trademark. For his technically sophisticated style he obtained the reputation of being one of the best graffiti artists in the world.
Beejoir is a contemporary artist, curator and co-founder of Souled Out Studios UK and Japan with Jon Michael Vogel. Born in England, Beejoir is now permanently based in Asia.
Roger Gastman is an art dealer, curator, filmmaker, and publisher who focuses on graffiti and street art.
The Faith of Graffiti is a 1974 essay by American novelist and journalist Norman Mailer about New York City's graffiti artists. Mailer's essay appeared in a shorter form in Esquire and as a book with 81 photographs by Jon Naar and design by Mervyn Kurlansky. Through interviews, exploration, and analyses, the essay explores the political and artistic implications of graffiti. The essay was controversial at the time of publication because of its attempt to validate graffiti as an art form by linking it with great artists of the past. Mailer, too, was criticized for using the essay as a platform to express his political grievances. Faith grew out of Mailer's existential philosophy of the hip, in which a Hipster is guided by his instincts regardless of consequences or perception, and upholds graffiti as a subversive and healthy check on the status quo. Like several of his other non-fiction narratives, Mailer continued his use of new journalism techniques, adopting a persona, the A-I or "Aesthetic Investigator", to provide both an objective distance from the topic and to engender the text with the creative and critical eye of the novelist.
