United Graffiti Artists (aka UGA) was an early American graffiti artists collective, founded in 1972 by Hugo Martinez in New York City. [1] [2] UGA was the first organized group of writers, and the first to promote graffiti as a high art. [3] [4] [5] Martinez, then a student activist at City College of New York, organized a group of teenagers who had been tagging the subways [6] into a loose collective, formalizing their work and paving the way for commercialization. [7] In September 1973, UGA organized the first ever gallery show of graffiti at the Razor Gallery in SoHo. [8] [9] [10]
According to authors Cori Anderson and Kevin Jackson, the artists of UGA elevated the profile of graffiti, bringing it from the subways and the streets to art galleries and studios. [11] [12] Henry Chalfant, a sculptor from New York City said "United Graffiti Artists (UGA) and Nation of Graffiti Artists (NOGA), marked the first attempts to organize and legitimize writers as artists." [13]
Early members of UGA included PHASE 2, [8] SJK 171, [14] TAKI 183, [15] HENRY 161 (Henry Medina), [14] and MIKE 171 (Mike Hughes). [6]
Graffiti is writing or drawings made 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.
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 PBS television on January 18th, 1984, 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 graffiti artist.
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 Demetrius, 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.
Street art is unofficial and independent visual art created in public locations for public visibility. Street art is associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti", and guerrilla art.
George Lee Quiñones is a Puerto Rican artist and actor. Quiñones rose to prominence by creating massive New York City subway car graffiti that carried his moniker "LEE". His style is rooted in popular culture and often with political messages.
Lady Pink, born Sandra Fabara (1964), is an Ecuadorian-American graffiti and mural artist. She has focused her career on using graffiti and murals as acts of rebellion and self-expression, and empowering women. As Lady Pink says, "It's not just a boys club. We have a sisterhood thing going." She was nicknamed the "first lady of graffiti," because she was one of the first women active in the early 1980s New York City subway graffiti subculture.
Martha Cooper is an American photojournalist born in the 1940s in Baltimore, Maryland. She worked as a staff photographer for the New York Post during the 1970s. She is best known for documenting the New York City graffiti scene of the 1970s and 1980s.
Dean Stockton, better known by his alias D*Face, is an English multimedia street artist who uses spray paint, stickers, posters, and stencils.
Stephen J. Powers is a contemporary artist and muralist currently living and working in New York City. He is also known by the name ESPO.
SJK 171, born Steve Kesoglides, is a New York City graffiti artist who was active during the late 1960s and 1970s. A native of Washington Heights, he was a founding member of United Graffiti Artists, one of the first professional graffiti collectives.
SAMO is a graffiti tag originally used on the streets of New York City from 1978 to early 1980. The tag, written with a copyright symbol as "SAMO©", and pronounced Same-Oh is primarily associated with the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, but was developed as a collaboration between Basquiat and Al Diaz. It accompanied short phrases, which were poetic and satirical advertising slogans, mainly spray painted on the streets of downtown Manhattan. Basquiat eventually used the tag himself, creating some non-graffiti work on paper and canvas using that tag, just before and after killing off the SAMO graffiti by painting "SAMO© IS DEAD" around the streets of downtown. Decades later, Diaz resurrected the SAMO tag.
Subway Art is a collaborative book by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant, which documents the early history of the New York City graffiti movement. Originally published in 1984, the book has been described as a "landmark photographic history". Known by many as ‘the bible’ of graffiti, Subway Art quickly acquired the dubious accolade of becoming one of the most stolen books in the United Kingdom.
ZAM or "ZAM-1", "Z A M : S.A.C.-1; M.S.A." is the acronym of an Australian Melbourne-based Artist and Designer, also known for his early pioneering spray-can art career during the 1980s.
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.
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.
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.
Roger Gastman is a US curator, filmmaker, and publisher specializing in graffiti and street art.
Gen Atem is a visual and performance artist, musician, writer, and Zen-master. He lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland.