Lady Pink, born Sandra Fabara (born 1964), is an Ecuadorian-born American
graffiti and
mural artist, active in New York City.
Early life
Fabara was born in
Ambato, Ecuador in 1964, and moved to the
Astoria neighborhood of
Queens, New York when she was seven years old.[1] She grew up wanting to be an architect like her father.[1] She started her graffiti writing career in 1979 following the loss of a boyfriend. She exorcised her grief by tagging her boyfriend's name across
New York City.[2] Lady Pink studied at the Manhattan
High School of Art and Design, where she was introduced to graffiti. During her senior year of school, she began to start exhibiting her work while balancing her personal life.[3]
Name origin
Lady Pink was first given her name “Pink” by Seen TC5.[2] The name was chosen for aesthetics because the name Pink is feminine and because she wanted other writers to know that she was a girl. Lady Pink also said that the letters appealed to her; the way the "L" kicked out and how the "I" was cute and could be dotted with a heart.[4] She started calling herself Lady Pink because of her love of historical romances,
England, the Victorian period, and the aristocracy. She titled herself like royalty. She never wanted to tag her full name because she did not want to be associated with the Pink Lady, a woman in the club scene who sold pink cocaine.[4]
Career
Early career
Her career as an artist started to take off after the 1980s, following the Graffiti Art Success for America show which invited graffiti artists to paint on the walls of the gallery.[5] In 1983, she played the leading role in the film Wild Style,[6] and was involved with a book entitled Subway Art by
Martha Cooper and
Henry Chalfant.[2] During this time, she collaborated with
Jenny Holzer several times for an exhibition at
Fashion MODA.[7] Her first solo show, "Femmes-Fatales," was in 1984, when she was 21, at the
Moore College of Art & Design in
Philadelphia.[citation needed]
She has focused her career on using graffiti and murals as acts of rebellion and self-expression, and empowering women. As Lady Pink says, "It's not just a boys club. We have a sisterhood thing going."[8] She was nicknamed the "first lady of graffiti," because she was one of the first women active in the early 1980s New York City subway graffiti subculture.[9]
In 1980, she created the all-female graffiti crew Ladies of the Arts.[10] Within a few years, Lady Pink began running with the graffiti crews TC5 (The Cool 5) and TPA (The Public Animals). From 1979 to 1985, Lady Pink painted
New York City Subway trains.[11] She took a short hiatus in 1987 from painting outdoors.[12] Then from 1993 to 1997 she worked on freight trains with her husband, SMITH (Roger Smith, formerly of the graffiti duo
Sane Smith).[2]
Lady Pink now visits schools to teach students about the power of art and how it can serve as a medium for self-expression and community engagement.[14] Each year she does a mural project with the students of
Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens.[15]
Her mural, Pink (2007) work was one of the many murals destroyed at
5Pointz in
Queens, however in February 2018 the Brooklyn Supreme Court awarded each of the 45 artists for their destroyed work.[16] She was connected to her art and although the former owner of the building painted over the walls, she said she could still see the ghost of her mural.[17]
Artwork
Paintings
The Black Dude (1983) - spray enamel on canvas, in private collection.[18]
China, One Child Only (1992) - spray enamel on canvas, in a private collection.[19]
Brick Lady in Spray (1993) - spray enamel on canvas, in a private collection.[20]
Queen Matilda (2007) - acrylic on canvas, in private collection.[21]
Urban Decay (2008) - acrylic on canvas, in private collection.[21]
Murals
Brick Woman - located in
Braddock, Pennsylvania.[22]
9/11 Tribute (2001) - Painted one month after
September 11 as a tribute to the heroes involved, located in Queens, New York.[23]
Pink (2007) - was located at
5Pointz, no longer exists.[16]
Lady Liberty (2016) - located in Queens, New York.[24][25]
Trains
John Lennon (1981) - The first half of the Subway train painted by Lady Pink and
Iz the Wiz as a tribute for
John Lennon.[4]
The Beatles (1981) - The second half of the Subway train painted by Lady Pink and
Iz the Wiz as a tribute for
The Beatles.[4]
Welcome to Heaven (1982) - A tribute for
Caine 1, a graffiti artist who was killed by a neighbor that mistook him for a burglar.[26]
Personal life
She is married to another graffiti artist, SMITH (Roger Smith, formerly of the graffiti duo
Sane Smith), with whom she often collaborates on murals and commercial work.[27] She is bisexual.[3]
References
^
abMaes, Nancy (September 20, 1993).
"LADY PINK WAS HERE". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
^
abcdChalfant, Henry; Jenkins, Sacha (2014). Training days : the subway artists then and now. New York, New York: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
ISBN9780500239216.
OCLC881214341.
^Lizarondo, Leah (November 4, 2014).
"7 best places to see street art in Pittsburgh". NEXTpittsburgh. Retrieved June 6, 2019. Make sure you veer off Braddock Ave. to check out Lady Pink's Brick Woman under the bridge on Library St.