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.
Style Wars is an American 1983 documentary film on hip hop culture, directed by Tony Silver and produced in collaboration with Henry Chalfant. The film has an emphasis on graffiti, although bboying and rapping are covered to a lesser extent. The film was originally aired on the television network PBS and was subsequently shown in several film festivals to much acclaim, including the Vancouver Film Festival. It also won the Grand Jury Prize: Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.
ZEPHYR, born Andrew Witten, is a graffiti artist, lecturer and author from New York City. He began writing graffiti in 1975 using the name "Zephyr" in 1977. He is considered a graffiti "elder", who along with Futura 2000, Blade, PHASE 2, CASH, Lady Pink and TAKI 183 invented styles and standards which are still in use.
Helena Christensen is a Danish- Peruvian fashion model. She is a former Victoria's Secret Angel, co-founder and original creative director for Nylon magazine, and she is a supporter of funding for breast cancer organizations and other philanthropic charities.
Guess Inc. is an American clothing company, notable for its black-and-white advertisements. Guess licenses its brand on other fashion accessories, such as watches, jewelry, perfumes, bags and shoes.
Ana Cláudia Michels is a Brazilian model and physician.
André Saraiva born 2 July 1971. Known mononymously as André, is a Swedish-French artist best known for his work in graffiti. Amongst his creations is Mr. A which he has painted across all six inhabited continents. His work has been featured in museums such as the MoCA as in feature films such as Exit Through the Gift Shop. As an entrepreneur, he owns restaurants, nightclubs such as Le Baron, and hotel chains such as Hotel Amour.
Laura "Luann" Bambrough, known professionally as L'Wren Scott, was an American model, fashion designer, and stylist.
Donald Joseph White, "DONDI" was an American graffiti artist.
Bomb It is an international graffiti and street art documentary directed by Jon Reiss that premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. Filmed on five continents, featuring cities such as New York, Cape Town, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Berlin and Sao Paulo, Bomb It explores the interplay between worldwide graffiti movements, the global proliferation of "Quality of Life" laws, and the fight for control over public space.
Patricia Titchener, known by her stage name Patti Astor, was an American performer who was a key actress in New York City underground No Wave films of the late-1970s. Astor was a key player in the East Village art scene of the early-1980s as she co-founded the instrumental contemporary art gallery, Fun Gallery. Astor also was involved in the early popularizing of hip hop with her performance in Wild Style.
Kelly Cutrone is an American publicist, television personality and author.
Brian Donnelly, known professionally as Kaws, is an American artist and designer. His work includes repeated use of a cast of figurative characters and motifs, some dating back to the beginning of his career in the 1990s, initially painted in 2D and later realized in 3D. Some of his characters are his own creations while others are reworked versions of existing icons.
RISK, also known as RISKY, is a Los Angeles–based graffiti writer and contemporary artist often credited as a founder of the West Coast graffiti scene. In the 1980s, he was one of the first graffiti writers in Southern California to paint freight trains, and he pioneered writing on "heavens", or freeway overpasses. He took his graffiti into the gallery with the launch of the Third Rail series of art shows, and later created a line of graffiti-inspired clothing. In 2017, RISK was knighted by the Medici Family.
Graffiti in New York City has had a substantial local, national, and international influence.
Sacha Jenkins is an American television producer, filmmaker, writer, musician, artist, curator, and chronicler of hip-hop, graffiti, punk, and metal cultures. While still in his teens, Jenkins published Graphic Scenes & X-Plicit Language, one of the earliest 'zines solely dedicated to "graffiti" art. In 1994, Jenkins co-founded Ego Trip magazine. In 2007, he created the competition reality program ego trip's The (White) Rapper Show, which was carried by VH1. Currently, Jenkins is the creative director of Mass Appeal magazine.
While graffiti has historically been considered a male-dominated art form, women have contributed to graffiti since its inception, with some theorising that early cave wall art was primarily drawn by women. The earliest female contemporary graffiti artists include Eva 62 and Barbara 62, followed by Lady Pink, who began painting New York City subway trains as early as 1979. Notable examples of female graffiti artists include Claw Money, Lady Pink, Swoon, Shamsia Hassani, and Miss Van.
Josh Franklin, known as Stash, is an American graffiti artist and graphic designer based in Brooklyn, New York.
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.
David Villorente, better known as Chino BYI, is an American old-school graffiti artist and historian of classic graffiti who is based in Brooklyn, New York. He is well-known for his letter designs and is referred to as a legend in the Brooklyn graffiti scene. He was part of the Brooklyn based graffiti crew Beyond Your Imagination (BYI), which was active from the mid-1980s to the late 1980s and included membership by TRIM, ATCO, TRECH, CHINO, TRACK aka TE KAY, SCOTCH 79 aka KEO, SAST and others. He has released four books on graffiti, including a book with Sacha Jenkins entitled World PieceBook: Global Graffiti Drawings (2011). He participated in painting murals for the Nike NYC Garage in 2018 among other events. For over a decade Chino was the editor of The Source magazine's graffiti section.
