10 Most Notorious Graffiti Artists in the World

Blade

Born in 1957, Steven D. Ogburn, also known as his artist moniker “Blade” is a true pioneer in everything we know as graffiti today. Blade painted his first train in New York City when he was just 15 years old in the early 70’s. Blade didn’t grow up seeing other graffiti artists or their pieces around the city because there were none. Blade was in the first generation of New York street artists, which means he came up with his own style without any help or influence from anyone else. His style is composed of unique letters, characters, abstract imagery and colors. Blade is credited for developing many graffiti styles we see now, like the use of overlapping 3D letters and big block letters as well. His graffiti wasn’t message driven, or commenting on society in anyway, it was all just his personality.

Blade is best known for his ability to paint entire train cars, to which he painted 5,000 in just over a decade in the 70’s - early 80’s. Blade also was one of the first street artists to transition into galleries and “go legit.” In 1981, Blade had his first one man gallery show in Europe. He liked it so much that in 1984, he quit graffiti all together. He already painted 5,000 pieces, what else did he have to prove! He moved into being a full time gallery artist and started using different methods to produce his art, like markers, spray paint and acrylic paint. His work has been featured all over the world in notable places like; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Musée national des Monuments Français, Paris. His nickname in the graffiti world is “The King of Graffiti” and for good reason.

Revok

Revok is another old school innovator and pioneer of the graffiti art form. Jason Williams, who goes by “Revok,” was born in 1977 in Riverside, California. Revok became very interested in art by seeing his Dad’s collection of records. He loved the album covers. Revok was also influenced by the drawings in comic books. He became involved in the skateboard culture in LA as a kid and began sneaking out at night to paint graffiti. Since he was a teenager, Revok was recognized as a prominent street artist in the Los Angeles scene. He is a member of the world famous west coast collective of artists known as The Seventh Letter, and is apart of the infamous graffiti crew Mad Society Kings (MSK). Like the street artist Blade, Revok was able to transition the world of “fine art” as well, with his works showing in galleries all over the world. His canvas art still has elements of his “texture rich” style he did on the street. His artworks has changed and evolved over the years but he still sticks with his roots of being a graffiti artist.

In 2012, Revok moved away from Los Angeles to Detroit because he couldn’t paint there anymore since he got in hot water with the law. Revok started painting murals with other artists in neighborhoods across Detroit under Project Detroit Beautification that he founded. In Detroit, his artwork changed into more of an abstractionist sort of way. He published his book, Revok: Made in Detroit, which led to sold out exhibitions in major cities around the world.

Os Gemèos

Octavio Pandolfo and Gustavo Pandolfo are identical twin brothers born 1974 in Sāo Paulo, Brazil. Together they are a graffiti/street artist duo known as Os Gemeos, which means The Twins in Portuguese. In the late 80’s, America’s Hip-hop culture started to really appeal to the youth of Brazil including Octavio and Gustavo. They started out as break dancers in the scene but moved onto graffiti when they saw pictures of pieces in New York City.

Their beginning style emulated the hip-hop influenced graffiti works of New York. They did this for a few years until they started creating their own style of incorporating Brazilian culture into their works. They were the first to do this in their country so they are credited for greatly pioneering the Brazilian-style graffiti. They are best known for their yellow-skinned characters but they do everything from tags to complicated murals. They paint a lot of family portraits and also comment of Brazil’s social and political climate.

Subways and trains are well guarded in Brazil but in the early 2000’s the Brazilian government commissioned Os Gemeos to paint on trains and on government buildings legally. Since then they have been commissioned by people across the world to paint murals for them. Their murals can be found in Brazil, Manhattan, London, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, Milan, Berlin, the Netherlands and many others cities and counties.

Os Gemeos’ work has also been shown in art galleries. Their art is classified as magical realism. Their art often portrays a dream-like aesthetic, similar to other artists like M.C. Escher and Heironymus Bosch. Os Gemeos also do sculptures, art installations and performance pieces.

David Choe

David Choe is a Korean-American street and gallery artist who was born 1973 in Los Angeles, California. Being born with great talent for drawing and painting David knew from a young age he wanted to be an artist. Always wanting to rebel, David began writing and drawing graffiti around LA when his was a teenager. He briefly attended California College of the Arts but dropped out. He started hanging his canvas work, which was greatly influenced by street art, in a small ice cream shop called Double Rainbow located on Melrose Avenue. One day an art dealer saw his paintings while getting ice cream and gave him an art exhibit. David started making a living off his paintings. David’s images often portray themes of desire and degradation, he calls “dirty style.”

In 2005, David was commissioned by Sean Parker, an early investor of Facebook, to draw a sexually graphic mural inside Facebook’s first office. Two years later Mark Zuckerberg hired David to draw another mural inside their new office, but this time not sexual. Zuckerberg offered him cash or a small share in the company. David took the share in the company even though he thought Facebook was a ridiculous idea that would never make it. In 2012, when Facebook went public, David’s share was valued at $200 million. Not bad for one mural.

Since then David has still been painting and doing murals all over the world. In 2013, he was recognized for his water-color works. David has also written and published a graphic novel, hosted a podcast with the adult star Asa Akira, and done a show for Vice called Thumbs Up America, where he and his cousin hitch-hike and train hop long distances.

DONDI

Donald Joseph White, who went by DONDI in the graffiti scene, was born 1961 in Brooklyn, New York. By the mid 1970’s, Donald was in the new burgeoning graffiti scene in New York. He tagged using two names, “DONDI” and “NACO.” After Donald did a huge tag on his won roof of his wall he officially went by DONDI, which is a play off his first name Donald. That was really risky at the time because the NYPD were trying to track down graffiti artists and throw them in jail. Graffiti was very stigmatized by society back then. It was only thought of vandalism. DONDI worked on refining his art style, a style that would eventually become the graffiti standard for future generations. He started out doing mostly tags but then moved on to images and characters, which were not common at the time. DONDI also moved away from “wild style” which is a complicated form of tagging where it’s hard to make out what the letters say unless you know how to read it. He wanted the public to be able to read and appreciate graffiti as an art form. DONDI was a big pioneer in this way. His most famous work was called Children of the Grave, Parts 1, 2 & 3, which was done on three whole New York subway cars from ’78-’80. Like other prominent graffiti artists, he too had his artwork sold in Art Galleries around the world. He was the first street artist to have art shows in the Netherlands and Germany. Tragically, DONDI past away at just 37 years old in 1998. He died due to the symptoms of AIDS.

Iz The Wiz

“Iz The Wiz,” born Michael Martin, was also a very prominent player and pioneer of the New York graffiti scene in the late 1970’s. He was born in Queens, New York in 1958. IZ became known for his simple tags all over the subways and city. He would just tag the letters “IZ”, “CI” (crazy IZ) or “IKE” (short for Mike). He was part of a new breed of taggers who wanted to became famous, doing as much graffiti as he could, but all of it being really well done. Not just simple writings on the wall. IZ got his fame he wanted and would go down in graffiti history as one of the greats.

In 1996, after 20 years of using aerosol spray paint IZ was diagnosed with kidney failure. In 2003, IZ had an art show he self curated to showcase his legal artwork in New York City. Six years later in 2009, IZ died of a heart attack, he was just 51 years old. In the early 2000’s IZ once said in an interview that he would give up all his fame to have his health back.

Eduardo Kobra

Eduardo Kobra is a 43 year old street artist and painter from Saō Paulo, Brazil. He truly has incredible talent. His artwork stands out among others. He is known for his photo-realism, bright colors and Kaleidoscope patterns throughout his works. Kobra has drawn portraits of many significant historic figures, like Abe Lincoln, Andy Warhol, Mother Teresa and Salvador Dali. He uses methodical grid planning to create his masterpieces. They are often filled with checkered patterns, full textures, lines and masterful shading. He creates great 3 dimensional works using light and shadow and brings them to life with a bold color palette. Kobra uses a wide range of methods for his work like; airbrush, spray cans, traditional brushes and others. Today Eduardo Kobra is one of the most sought after muralists in the world.

Lee

George Lee Quiñones is a famous subway graffiti artist (known as Lee) who was born in 1960, in Ponce, Puerto Rico. When Lee was very young his family immigrated to the Lower East Side in Manhattan, New York. Lee started drawing at the age of 5. In 1974, when he was just 14, Lee began his career as a graffiti subway artist. By 1976, Lee was known for his huge art pieces on the trains. That year one of his works spanned ten train cars. It was revolutionary at the time, since graffiti work was usually small and fast. Lee is also known for his talent and sophisticated use of colors in his work. Lee was the one who did the first handball court full mural in New York City.

Lee is a true artist, his work helped the public start to appreciate graffiti and begin to recognize it as an art form. By 1979, he transcribed his work to canvases and they were shown in Rome. Now, his artworks are housed in permanent collections of notable museums like; the Groninger Museum (the Netherlands), the Museum of National Monuments (Paris) and the Whitney Museum of Art. Lee is considered a legend among graffiti artists.

Seen

Ritchie Mirando, known as “Seen” in the art world is considered one of the best graffiti artists to have ever lived. He is called the Godfather of Graffiti, even though he didn’t provide much to pioneer the movement. He did reach world wide acclaim through the medium. Seen was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1961. He first started painting subway cars in 1973, when he was just 12 years old. He started a graffiti crew called United Artists (UA), them members were his brother Mad, Duster & Sin. Together they would paint whole subway cars. For 16 years Seen painted all around the city and on the trains, especially the 2, 5 and 6 trains. He painted many entire cars that became iconic pieces in the culture. In the 1980’s Seen started painting on canvas too and he became a very successful artist, traveling and showcasing around the world. He had solo shows and group shows with great artists like Andy Warhol, Dondi, Lee, Blade and Jean-Michel Basquiat. In the late 1980’s Seen also started tattooing and opened his own parlor called Tattoo Seen that became one of the best tattoo shops in New York. Seen continues to make art and exhibit around the world with other massively successful street artists like Banksy.

Banksy

Banksy is an English anonymous street artist and filmmaker. He is best known for his social commentary stencil street art that became immensely popular in the 2000’s. Banksy’s work and influence brought street art to the mainstream public. His true identity is not known but there is a lot of speculation of who he is. It is believed his name is either Robin Gunningham or Robert Del Naja, who is another street artist/musician who Banksy has said had an influence on him.

Banksy puts his street art on highly visible walls and other surfaces. He also makes his own installations and puts them in public. His art is often sold at auction, people have removed his art installations and even cut out his pieces on walls to sell them.

Banksy started as a free-hand graffiti artist in 1990. He worked with other artists and was inspired by the underground Bristol graffiti scene. By 2000, he was exclusively doing stencil graffiti because it was easier and less risky. Banksy images often use dark humor and have an anti-establishment theme to them. Some classify him as a political activist.

In 2010, Banksy directed and released a documentary called Exit Through the Gift Shop, which was accepted at the Sun Dance Film Festival and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. In 2014, he received a Webby Award for Person of the Year and was also named a British cultural icon, with the likes of William Shakespeare, Charlie Chaplin, and Queen Elizabeth II.

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