Adam Cost | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Adam Cole [1] 1969 (age 54–55) |
| Style | wheatpaste and paint-roller pieces |
| Movement | Graffiti |
| Website | Adam Cost on Instagram |
Cost is the tag name of a graffiti writer who, from the early 1980s to the late 2000s, blanketed New York City and the surrounding metropolitan area with his wheatpaste stickers, spray paint tags and paint-roller pieces.
In the 1990s, Cost collaborated with fellow New York graffiti artist Revs.
Cost and Revs became well known in the early 1990s, when, on any given block in Manhattan, a passerby could spot the duo’s wheat paste tags posted on the back of the Walk/Don't Walk street-crossing signal. On these wheat pasted papers, Cost and Revs printed in bold black ink intentionally obscure messages such as Cost fucked Madonna or Suicide Revs. Later they collaborated on large, bold roller pieces on highly visible walls, subway embankments, and advertising boards.
When asked in 1993 by a New York Times Style reporter what it all meant, Cost said, "If you could give us [Cost and Revs] the meaning of life, I’d give you the meaning of us." At that time the posters included a phone number; those who called heard a woman's recorded voice repeat their questions back to them: "My intuition tells me that you're asking yourselves who are Revs and Cost and what are they doing? What is it? What does it mean? What does it mean? What does it mean?" [2]
Cost and Revs were responsible for many highly visible examples of the graffiti that Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was determined to eradicate. One letter writer called Cost "probably the worst graffiti vandal in the history of New York." [3]
In October 2010, Cost released a collection of 4 limited edition t-shirt styles with fashion retailer Supreme. The t-shirts were sold in the United States and Japan.
In 1995, Cost was caught by police tagging a mailbox. In court, the judge estimated that Cost had done over $100 million in damages. Cost was fined $2,126, ordered to do 200 days community service removing graffiti, and forced to seek psychological counseling. [4] That run-in with the law eventually led to Cost’s temporary bowing out of the graffiti scene. Upon his comeback, Cost reestablished himself as a forerunner within NYC street art culture, as well as becoming a household name internationally within the art genre.
Starting in 2010 [5] Cost made a return to the streets, [6] once again covering the city with wheatpaste stickers. [7] In 2011 Cost began solely working with street artist ENX. The duo also collaborated with street artist Invader in 2013.
Graffiti is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.
Sticker art is a form of street art in which an image or message is publicly displayed using stickers. These stickers may promote a political agenda, comment on a policy or issue, or comprise a subcategory of graffiti.
Frank Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989, he designed the "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker campaign while attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
Wheatpaste is a gel or liquid adhesive made from wheat flour or starch and water. It has been used since antiquity for various arts and crafts such as bookbinding, découpage, collage, papier-mâché, and adhering paper posters and notices to walls.
Revs is a New York City graffiti artist whose wheat paste stickers, roller pieces, murals, sculptures, and spray-painted diary entries earned him the reputation of an artist-provocateur over the course of two decades. "Revs" is his tag name; his real name is unknown. Before adopting the tag name "Revs" he had used the tag name "Revlon". in a 1993 New York Times interview he said he decided to shorten it to "Revs" following an epiphany he experienced after contemplating suicide on the Manhattan Bridge.
Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art.
Stencil graffiti is a form of graffiti that makes use of stencils made out of paper, cardboard, or other media to create an image or text that is easily reproducible. The desired design is cut out of the selected medium and then the image is transferred to a surface through the use of spray paint or roll-on paint.
A number of words and phrases that have come to describe different styles and aspects of graffiti and its subculture. Like other jargon and colloquialisms, some of these terms may vary regionally, taking on different meanings across different cities and countries. The following terminology originates primarily in the United States.
The Freedom Tunnel is a railroad tunnel carrying the West Side Line under Riverside Park in Manhattan, New York City. Used by Amtrak trains to and from Pennsylvania Station, it got its name because the graffiti artist Chris "Freedom" Pape used the tunnel walls to create some of his most notable artwork. The name may also be a reference to the former shantytowns built within the tunnel by homeless populations seeking shelter and freedom to live rent-free and unsupervised by law enforcement. The tunnel runs approximately 2.6 miles (4.2 km), from 72nd Street to 124th Street.
OSGEMEOS are identical twin street artists Otavio Pandolfo and Gustavo Pandolfo. They started painting graffiti in 1987 and their work appears on streets and in galleries across the world.
Undenk is an underground street art group based in Germany and Australia, operating worldwide. Due to its conspirative nature, an exact number of members remains unknown.
Meek is a notable street artist operating out of Melbourne, Australia, and specialising in the subgenre of stencil graffiti.
Melbourne, the capital of Victoria and the second largest city in Australia, has gained international acclaim for its diverse range of street art and associated subcultures. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, much of the city's disaffected youth were influenced by the graffiti of New York City, which subsequently became popular in Melbourne's inner suburbs, and along suburban railway and tram lines.
The Splasher is the name given to one or more street artists operating in New York City starting in late 2006 and continuing until June 2007. The Splasher was a serial vandal who splattered other works of street art with paint, thus earning the title of "Splasher." The Splasher also left manifestos pasted alongside their graffiti.
BNE is an anonymous graffiti artist known for stickers that read "BNE" or "BNE was here". He has left his mark in countries throughout the world, including the United States, Canada, Asia, Romania, Australia, Europe, and South America. "His accent and knowledge of local artists suggest he is from New York."
Morley is a street artist based in Los Angeles, California. He specializes in wheatpaste prints that feature bold text and an image of the artist drawing the words with a Sharpie marker. Morley has indicated that he studied at The School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2011 his work caught the eye of former Banksy manager Steve Lazarides, whose Outsiders division began selling screen prints of his work shortly after. His work has been featured in the books: "It's A Stickup: Posters from the World's Greatest Street Artists", "Stay Up! Los Angeles Street Art", "Happy Graffiti: Street Art with Heart", "New Street Art", and "The Popular History of Graffiti: From the Ancient World to the Present", "New Street Art".
Sane and Smith were the names used by a New York graffiti duo, composed of David Smith ("Sane") and his brother Roger Smith ("Smith"), active during the 1980s.
Lock On is a genre of street art, where artists create installations by attaching sculptures to public furniture using lengths of chain and old bike locks. The installations themselves are referred to as "a Lock On" (singular) or "Lock Ons" (plural).
Danielle E. "Utah" Bremner and Jim Clay "Ether" Harper VI are American graffiti artists, dubbed the "Bonnie and Clyde of the graffiti world". They have tagged trains and buildings in over 30 countries on five continents, and have made books and videos about their exploits. They have also been arrested, fined, and served multiple prison sentences for vandalism. Their use of social media has been used as an example in a book about graffiti artists, and they have been the subjects of a video exhibit and a song.