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.
A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage.
Blackbear Bosin was a self-taught Kiowa/Comanche sculptor, painter, and commercial artist. He is also known by his Kiowa name, Tsate Kongia, which means "black bear."
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist, and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. His works of political and social commentary have appeared on streets, walls, and bridges throughout the world. His work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy says that he was inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist and founding member of the musical group Massive Attack.
Henry Chalfant is an American photographer and videographer most notable for his work on graffiti, breakdance, and hip hop culture.
Barry McGee is an American artist. He is known for graffiti art, and a pioneer of the Mission School art movement. McGee is known by his monikers: Twist, Ray Fong, Bernon Vernon, and P.Kin.
Sir Donald McCullin is a British photojournalist, particularly recognised for his war photography and images of urban strife. His career, which began in 1959, has specialised in examining the underside of society, and his photographs have depicted the unemployed, downtrodden and impoverished.
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.
John Frederick Brill was an English soldier and painter who created the Bardia Mural. On 1 July 1942, the Axis launched an attack with the target being the capture of Alexandria, which was to become known as the First Battle of El Alamein. The Allied forces fought hard and the line held until the evening of that day. On that same day Brill, who was a Private in the British Army, 5th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment, died at the age of just 22. On 21 April 1942, some 9 weeks earlier, he signed the Bardia Mural, which he is said to have created, depicting his memories of home. Some say it depicts the memories of the world he would die to protect. He was buried at the El Alamein War Cemetery.
Since the 1980s, the area surrounding the Sydney inner west suburb of Newtown, Australia, including the suburbs of Newtown, Enmore, Erskineville, Camperdown and St Peters, has been known for its wide range of prominent graffiti and street art on walls. The public visual art in the Newtown area consists of a variety of styles and methods of execution, including large-scale painted murals, hand-painted political slogans, hand-painted figurative designs, spray painted semi-abstract designs "tags"), and other stylistic developments such as stencil art and street poster art, "Yarn bombing", and sculptural items cast from plaster and other materials.
Graffiti in New York City has had a substantial local, national, and international influence.
Islamic graffiti is a genre of graffiti created by people who usually relate to the Middle East or North Africa, using Arabic or other languages for social or political messages. It is a popular art genre created by "artists, graffiti writers, designers and typographers from the Middle East and around the world who merge Arabic calligraphy with the art of graffiti writing, street art and urban culture."
Jon Naar was an English-American author and photographer celebrated for his pioneering images of New York City graffiti in the 1970s, and for portraits of Andy Warhol and other celebrities, including the British Prime Minister. Active through his late nineties, Naar had a multifaceted career as an intelligence officer in World War II; a globe-trotting marketing executive during the postwar years; and an environmentalist, with 12 published books to his credit.
James Prigoff was an American photographer, author, and lecturer focusing on public murals, graffiti, and spraycan art. He has traveled extensively throughout the world documenting these art forms, and his personal archive of 100,000 slides may well be the most comprehensive of any individual mural and graffiti documentarian.
Cey Adams is an American visual artist, graphic designer and author. He was the founding creative director of Def Jam Recordings and is known for his work with Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Jay-Z, and Mary J. Blige. He has been described as "legendary" for his work in hip-hop graphic design.
Make Everything Great Again was a street art mural by artists Dominykas Čečkauskas and Mindaugas Bonanu. It was located on the wall of the barbecue restaurant Keulė Rūkė in the railway station area of old town of Vilnius in Lithuania.
San Francisco Bay Area Street Art are any visual images created in public places such as on walls or street walk ways. Street art is often developed in order to create artworks that are outside of the scope of normalized art standards. Street Art has been a major part of the Bay Area's culture since the early 1980s. As the years went on street art became more and more prevalent in the Bay Area. While in some areas of San Francisco this art is done with the permission of the wall owners the majority is done illegally.
Well Hung Lover, also called Naked Man Hanging From Window and simply Naked Man, is a mural by the anonymous street artist Banksy, on a wall in Frogmore Street, Bristol, England.
Crack Is Wack is a mural created in 1986 by American artist and social activist Keith Haring. Located near the Harlem River Drive in East Harlem, the mural serves as a warning against crack cocaine use, which was rampant in major cities across the United States during the mid to late 1980s. As a symbol of anti-drug activism, Crack Is Wack commemorates Haring's powerful sociopolitical presence as an artist and remains a part of New York City's repertoire of iconic public art.
Queens is the Future is a mural created in 2007 by married artists Eve Biddle and Joshua Frankel. It is located on a handball court in the schoolyard of I.S. 145, a public middle school in Jackson Heights, Queens. The mural originally depicted a subway car blasting off of its tracks as though powered by rocket fuel, with the words “Queens is the Future” painted in the upper left corner. It quickly became an iconic image of the borough, inspiring the Municipal Art Society to name their walking tour of neighborhood after the work, as well as appearing in Sports Illustrated, Time Out New York, and a short documentary about the rise of Bronx and Queens Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
