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    Graffiti Artist in the world : United States

    • FUTURA 2000

      Futura 2000 is a contemporary American graffiti artist, raised as Leonard Hilton McGurr by a Franco-American mother(half French and half black) and a Irish father, born on November 17, 1955 and grew up in New York at 103rd and Broadway, where he attended the School for the Visual Arts to learn printing techniques, but his greatest influences come from his contacts with artists such as Stay High 149. He was 15 years old when he started painting in the Brooklyn subway system as a teenager in the 1970s .

      His style of abstract graffiti art immediately differentiated himself from his peers, whose primary focus was lettering. Not only was his style distinctive, but Futura 2000 was also a technical virtuoso when it came to his aerosol strokes, as he achieved the fine lines that other artists could only produce with an airbrush. Futura’s style of lyrical abstraction was unique, which meant that his work was as distinctive as other artists’ tags and was instantly recognisable even without a signature.

    • SEEN

      Richard "Richie" Mirando, known as Seen UA, born 1961 in the Bronx, New York City, is one of the most well known graffiti artists  in the world, often referred to as the Godfather of Graffiti, although he did not pioneer the movement.

      Seen first started to paint on New York City Subway system in 1973. His crew United Artists (or simply UA) quickly gained the reputation for producing full-color throw-ups on whole cars with members such as Duster, Sin, and his brother Mad.
      For the next 16 years his pieces were running across the city and on all subway routes, but they were especially prominent on the 2, 5, and 6 trains. He was responsible for dozens of whole-car top-to-bottoms, many of which have become iconic images of the time.

      It was during the very early 1980s that Seen started producing work on canvas, shown by galleries and bought by museums and private collectors across the globe. These included not only solo exhibitions but also group shows with artists such as Keith Haring，Andy Warhol，Jean-Michel Basquiat，Dondi，Quik，Blade, and Lee Quinones. Despite the high demand for his work in Europe and constant world travel, Seen continued to hit the New York subway trains until 1989, long after increased pressure from the MTA had stopped many from doing so. He was also featured prominently in the 1983 PBS documentary Style Wars.
      In the late 1980s Seen also turned his talent to tattoo art, opening Tattoo Seen, which quickly became one of the most successful studios in New York. Seen's recent work includes three-dimensional sculpture, mixed media work with reclaimed or discarded materials (often found in the street), and a series of hand-painted, limited-edition MTA New York subway maps. He continues to exhibit worldwide and produce work with and alongside artists such as Banksy.

    • KEITH HARING

      Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s by expressing concepts of birth, death, sexuality, and war.
      Haring's work was often heavily political and his imagery has become a widely recognized visual language of the 20th century.

      He started commercial graphic studies then integrated the Visual Arts School in New York. He tried collage, painting, installations, video and drawing. In the 80s, he discovered other means of expression and created his works in the streets, in the underground and different New York warehouses. He made thousands of his dynamic drawings. Haring’s signature consists in an endless repetition of synthetic forms with bright colors and underlined in black. It is a permanent story with babies crawling on their knees, dolphins, television sets, barking dogs, snakes, angels, dancers, androgynous figures, flying saucers... His first personal exhibition took place in 1982 in New York. In 1985, he was invited to the “Biennale de Paris”. Since then, his international fame wouldn’t stop increasing. He realized numerous prestigious commissions such as the fresco of the Hospital Necker in Paris. In his desire to meet a large public and make his art accessible to the largest number of people, he opened in 1986, in the Soho district (NYC), his Pop Shop. This initiative was supported by his mentor, Andy Warhol.