Evolution
November 5 – December 30, 2011
Woodward Gallery
Lady Pink is the first woman in graffiti-based art. In her current solo exhibition “Evolution,” Lady Pink re-masters work she once created as public murals. Lady Pink muses on old lettering outlines which have evolved from three decades of writing. To the cultured eye, Lady Pink’s street tag can be identified from the period in which it was deliberately constructed. The colorful POP- surreal canvases today, have her trademark name interwoven throughout the elaborate image, as if to authenticate her mark in art history. Lady Pink’s unique personal vision has been communicated throughout her evolution from subway writer to fine artist.
Sandra Fabara, aka, Lady Pink, was born in Ecuador in 1964, raised in Queens, New York, and studied at the High School of Art & Design in Manhattan. While a student there, she met a group of graffiti artists and began writing at age fifteen. She was soon well known as the only prominent female capable of competing with the boys in the graffiti subculture. Lady Pink painted subway trains from the years 1979-1985. She appeared in theaters in the starring role of Rose in Charlie Ahearn’s 1983 film Wild Style and quickly acquired hip-hop, cult figure status. That same year, Lady Pink was featured in the landmark Graffiti exhibition at the West 57th Street Sidney Janis Gallery where she met the elite collectors of the art world.
Lady Pink’s canvases are in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, New York and the Groningen Museum, Holland. They were featured in the major exhibitions “Art in the Streets” at the LA MOCA and “Graffiti” at the Brooklyn Museum. Lady Pink continues to mature as an artist, selling work internationally and producing ambitious murals commissioned for universities, corporations and institutions. This year, Pink’s art has also been seen on television commercials for the search engine, BING.