Which female graffiti artist, known as “The First Lady of Graffiti,” began painting subway cars in the late 1970s? Lady Pink.
Lady Pink is the professional name of Sandra Fabara, an Ecuadorian-born American artist who became a major figure in New York’s graffiti movement. She began writing graffiti in 1979 and painted New York City subway trains from roughly 1979 to 1985.
Her nickname, “the first lady of graffiti,” reflects her visibility as one of the earliest prominent women in the city’s subway-graffiti scene. In 1980 she formed the all-female crew Ladies of the Arts and later worked with crews including TC5 and TPA.
Lady Pink also appeared in the 1983 film Wild Style and contributed to the influential book Subway Art. The alternatives are artists associated with other scenes and styles: Fafi and Miss Van are French artists, while Swoon is an American artist known especially for detailed paper-based portraits and installations.