| Lady Pink | |
|---|---|
Lady of the Leaf (2011), Courtesy of Woodward Gallery |
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| Born | Ambato, Ecuador |
| Field | Painter, Muralist, Graffiti |
Lady Pink (born Sandra Fabara, Ambato, Ecuador, 1964) is a graffiti artist. She was raised in Queens, New York, and started her graffiti writing career in 1979 following the loss of a boyfriend who had been sent to live in Puerto Rico after he had been arrested. She exorcised her grief by tagging her boyfriend's name across the city. Soon after she started tagging the name Lady Pink, derived from her love of historical romances, England, the Victorian period, and the aristocracy. Lady Pink studied at the High School of Art & Design in Manhattan. While a student there she was introduced to graffiti and began writing at age fifteen. [1]Within a few years LADY PINK began running with TC5 (The Cool 5) and TPA (The Public Animals) crews and was soon well known as the only female capable of competing with the boys in the graffiti subculture. Lady Pink painted subway trains from the years 1979-1985.[2][3] In 1980, she was included in the landmark New York show “GAS: Graffiti Art Success” at Fashion Moda, which traveled in a modified form downtown to The New Museum of Contemporary Art. Young, approachable, quick-witted, and one of the only female graffiti writers, Lady Pink became among the most photographed and interviewed graffiti artist of her time.
In 1983, she appeared in theaters in the starring role of Rose in Charlie Ahearn’s film Wild Style. [4][5] That same year, she worked on a series of large scale paintings with artist Jenny Holzer, the pair have since collaborated several times. While still in high school she was already exhibiting paintings in art galleries, and by age twenty-one, she mounted her first solo show, “Femmes-Fatales, “ at the Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia. After 1987, Lady Pink took a hiatus from painting outdoors, but she returned in 1993 after meeting her future husband, fellow graffiti legend SMITH, with whom she collaborates on murals and commercial work.[6][7] Her studio paintings, often incorporating images of New York subways weaving through decaying, POP-surrealist cityscapes, have been widely exhibited throughout the United States and abroad.[8][9]
As a leading participant in the rise of graffiti-based art, Lady Pink's canvases have entered important art collections such as those of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Brooklyn Museum and the Groningen Museum of Holland. She has established herself in the fine art world, and her paintings are highly prized by collectors.[10]
Today, Lady Pink continues to create new paintings on canvas that express her unique personal vision. She also shares her 30 years of experience by holding mural workshops with teens[11] and actively lecturing college students throughout the Northeast.