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.
Leonard Hilton McGurr, known as Futura, and formerly known as Futura 2000, is an American contemporary artist and former graffiti artist.
Wild Style is a 1983 American hip hop film directed and produced by Charlie Ahearn. Regarded as the first hip hop motion picture, it includes appearances by seminal figures such as Fab Five Freddy, Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, The Rock Steady Crew, The Cold Crush Brothers, Rammellzee with Shockdell, Queen Lisa Lee of Zulu Nation, Grandmaster Flash, and ZEPHYR.
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.
Henry Chalfant is an American photographer and videographer most notable for his work on graffiti, breakdance, and hip hop culture.
Mark Machado, better known as Mister Cartoon or more commonly just Cartoon or Toon, is an American tattoo artist and graffiti artist based in Los Angeles, California. He has been described by the New York Times as an "instrumental figure in the Los Angeles hip-hop scene" and by the BBC as "one of the greatest living tattoo artists in the US". Growing up in the Harbor area of Los Angeles County, young Cartoon began doing illustrations and graffiti then going on to airbrushing clothing and lowrider custom cars. Machado then moved on to working in the music industry doing album covers, tour merchandise and later tattooing recording artists and other celebrities.
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.
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 São 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.
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.
Janette Beckman is a British documentary photographer who has worked in London, New York and Los Angeles. Beckman describes herself as a documentary photographer. While she produces a lot of work on location, she is also a studio portrait photographer. Her work has appeared on records for the major labels, and in magazines including Esquire,Rolling Stone,Glamour,Italian Vogue,The Times,Newsweek,Jalouse,Mojo and others.
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.
I Am Other is a multimedia creative collective and record label created by Pharrell Williams, that serves as an umbrella for all of his endeavors, including Billionaire Boys Club, ICECREAM apparel and textile company Bionic Yarn. There is also a dedicated YouTube channel launched by the artist, record producer and fashion designer in 2012. The channel was launched as part of YouTube's $100 million original channel initiative. The programming on the I Am Other channel focuses on music, culture, fashion and the arts. Williams describes the channel as a "cultural movement dedicated to Thinkers, Innovators and Outcasts." The channel launched with original series such as Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae, StereoTypes.
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.
