Graffiti might have started as a male dominated Art in its early stages but not now, not anymore. From lady Pink to Shamsia Hassani , hundreds of female artist’s artwork can be seen around the world. They are using their art to address issues like gender inequality, race and immigration while keeping their work fresh, enjoying and beautiful to look at.
Lady Pink
Sandra Fabara alias Lady Pink considers herself as a pioneer of the female graffiti boom, we experience today. She started painting walls in 1979 as a teen age feminist artist working in a male dominated group where lady pink was the only female artist. In the 1980s she started to paint New York subway trains . At the same time, interest in graffiti art emerged and gallery exhibits were starting to showcase it. She got an opportunity to exhibit and auction her work which started her career as an exhibit artist.
Lady Pink as a Female graffiti artists started groups like Ladies of the Art, with aim to highlight and educate increasing female graffiti artists and to bring out the best of their work.
Her 1st show was in 1984 when she was just 21 years old at Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia. At Fashion Moda she was included in the landmark New York show "GAS: Graffiti Art Success" and traveled in a modified form downtown to The New Museum of Contemporary Art in 1980s .Her art work was sold for thousands of dollars in Auctions at Europe, America and Asia. Her success at the early on in the male dominated graffiti art motivated thousands of women’s around the world. Graffiti art of Lady Pink always showcase the inequality between men and women.
Lady Pink collectibles are being displayed at many well-known Museums around the world some of them are in the New York City’s Brooklyn Museum, Netherland’s Groningen Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art and as well as in Metropolitan Museum of Art.
At 5Pointz in Queens her mural, pink (2007) art work was among one of the many murals destroyed, however in February 2018 the Brooklyn Supreme Court awarded all of 45 artists for their destroyed art work.
Tate Modern London has three permanent collectibles hanging and will be preserved in order to show young people forever and empower women in the world of contemporary and graffiti art.
Sandra Fabara also teaches art in Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens. And as of how art can play its part to bring justice and equality in the community.
Some of Lady Pink’s Art Collections
Black Dude 1983.
Spray enamel on canvas, private collection.
China, One Child Only 1992.
Spray enamel on canvas, a private collection.
Brick Lady in Spray 1993.
Spray enamel on canvas, a private collection.
Queen Matilda 2007.
Acrylic on canvas, private collection.
Urban Decay 2008.
Acrylic on canvas, private collection.
Shamsia Hassani:- Art Not War
Shamsia Hassani is an Afghan born graffiti artist and a lecturer at Kabul University faculty of Fine arts.
She is the first ever Afghan female graffiti artist. Being born in a society where women’s rights are equal to nothing and a country considered to be worst for a women to born in.
But boundaries like these never seems to stop Shamsia Hassani to showcase her art work in the streets of Afghanistan. She started back in December 2010 when a graffiti workshop was organized by Combat Communication Kabul where they brought a teacher from UK named CHU.
After learning her skills at the work shop she started using walls as canvas and spray paint as a brushes. Most of the people cannot go to museum especially in Afghanistan. So using graffiti art helps communicate her message to a vast audience of the country. In early stages of her graffiti she paint the women with a blue burka as the burka is a symbol of women and change it with the sharp edges and tough shape which represents the strong women. In her work the women is alone and facing lot of problems in her life but still stays as a strong women. Her art is the representative of discrimination women face being a second class citizens in this part of the world .She through her art want to introduce a new women to the society who can stood up for her right.
Shamsia Hassani artwork is invited in many countries but faced obstacles showcasing her work in Afghanistan.
It’s not possible for her to paint large buildings and walls, it takes lot of time and is not safe for her to stay out long. So she started a new series called Dreaming Graffiti where she took pictures of different places of her like, take their printout and paint symbols on these.
Her collectibles are showcased around the words in a well-known exhibitions like:
She has become a pioneer in showing new Afghanistan to the world through these exhibitions, seminars and artwork.
Miss Van
Miss Van was born 1973 in Toulouse France currently living in Barcelona, also known as Vanessa Alice. She is a graffiti and street artist. At the age of 18 Miss Van started painting on the street of Toulouse. Now she is internationally recognized as a fine and street artist. In early phase her artwork was marked by the use of unique characters called Poupées. Now her symbol of art is a women who seems bold and expresses a unique emotion in each of her artwork. Work of Miss Van can be seen on the street around the world .She is internationally recognized artist and her exhibits canvases are in galleries across United States, France and Europe. Her work today is characterized by both street art and fine art.
She coordinated multiple art shows all across Europe. With Drago publishing house she has written and published books like Wild at Heart (2012) and Drago Twinkles .Miss Van is considered to be one of the most famous female graffiti artist of this time.
Miss Van held her very first institutional exhibition at Centro de Arte Contemporaneous de Malaga at Spain in 2016.Named as “For the Wind in My Hair”. The exhibition showcase 39 of her original collectible paintings on canvas.
"Interesting discourse between the worlds of fine art and street art." Said by the Artnet News during exhibition.
Some of Miss Van Exhibitions
Market value of Female Artist’s Work
Female artists seems to be in the right direction and will get the same market value for their art work as any male artist. The market for their work doubled over the last 10 years. Jenny Saville broke a record in 2018 as her painting sold for $10 million at auction at Sotheby's London. Which makes her the most expensive female artist of the time.
But there is still lot more to be done, as of female artist represents just 2% of the art market in 2020. There is a significant difference between female and male artists in the art market value and sale. For comparison in 2019 Jeff Koons' Rabbit from 1986, which broke the record at auction, was sold for a whopping $91 million.
A perception that collectors find male created art work to be more valued compared to a female art work is not really the case, as per the joint investigation by the artnet news and other words who worked together to collect and analyze data from the Art fairs, galleries and leading auction houses around the world and find that the art market for female artists is not just disproportionately distributed but also way more smaller than that of the auction houses for males.
The collectors are still not willing to pay same amount for the female art work as they pay for a male artist, which is not right. This perception and practice should change. Collectors needed to be taught that the quality of artwork is the thing which matters not the gender of an artist. And to do that the market for a female art world needed to be increased and women should be given equal space in auctions and art fairs as male artists get.
Feminism in Art Community:
According to Graff, "being a woman graffiti artist is a blow to a system permeated by machismo."
There are artist who represent the inequality of subculture women’s face through there contemporary artwork. Female artist are always there to highlight the issues of women’s around the world.
Miss Van's work is female based contemporary art which highlight women’s who were never been represented in graffiti art before. Lady Pink’s by appearing her artwork in exhibitions portray the feminist issues as well. Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is another artist whose work is significantly invested in showcasing the feminist ideas. She’s also the creator of the campaign “Stop Telling Women to Smile” where they use poster written by the phrases women’s had to hear in their lives. These phrases include 'My worth extends beyond my body' and 'I am not here for you’. Social justice artwork of this type can be found in many other countries as well. Duo in the Honduras who call themselves the 'doll clan' use graffiti art to support reproductive rights for women and to highlight the issue against sexual assault on women. A lot of their work focuses on the fact that emergency contraceptives are banned in the Honduras where sexual violence against women is rampant. Communities like these feel that by re-claiming space through graffiti and contemporary art they are protesting her invisibility and claiming their rights in a subculture where the streets usually belong to men.
Female graffiti artist also use their art as a way to communicate or represent their personal and loved one’s stories.
Either its contemporary art or graffiti art women’s are doing their best and creating there mark which will motivates many other female artist to get their space in the auctions, Galleries, walls and streets.