Street Art - Street Artists

Street Artists

Many street artists have earned international attention for their work and have shown their works in museums or galleries as well as on the street. It is also not uncommon for street artists to achieve commercial success doing graphics for other companies or starting their own merchandising lines. Other street artists have transitioned away from street art to traditional gallery and museum exhibitions.

In 1981, Washington Project for the Arts held an exhibition entitled Street Works, which included John Fekner, Fab Five Freddy and Lee Quinones working directly on the streets. Fekner, a pioneer in urban art, is included in Cedar Lewisohn’s book Street Art: The Graffiti Revolution, which accompanied the 2008 Street Art exhibition at the Tate Modern in England, of which Lewisohn was the curator.

The 1990 book Soho Walls – Beyond Graffiti by David Robinson documents the paradigm shift in New York from the text-based precedents established by graffiti artists toward art in the streets such as the shadow figures by Richard Hambleton and the group of five young New York artists working collectively under the moniker AVANT.