Week 8 - Lady Pink

One of the artists that caught my attention during our class presentations was Lady Pink. She is an Ecuadorian-American graffiti and mural artist. I had heard of her work before but I hadn't ever known that much about her or her legacy. Sandra Fabara was born in Ecuador but grew up in Queens, New York after she immigrated there at the age of seven. She was a prominent artist during the 1980's graffiti era in New York City. She focused her career on empowering women, especially since the graffiti scene during the '80s was very male dominated. In 1980, she created the all-female graffiti crew called Ladies of the Arts. She worked closely with various graffiti crews, including The Cool 5 and The Public Animals. She was given her name by another artist, Seen, from the TC5 crew. The name "Pink" was deliberate, Seen wanted to honor the fact that she was one of the first women to be active in the scene by using a very feminine color to represent Sandra. Much of her art was painted on the New York City subway trains but she was also a prominent muralist. One of my favorite images of her is one where she is wearing a white tank top with the words "ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE" in collaboration with another one of my favorite artists, Jenny Holzer. My favorite work by her is a train graffiti piece called Welcome to Heaven (1982) which was a tribute for Caine1, a fellow graffiti artist who was accidentally murdered by a neighbor who mistook him for a burglar.