Art Movements

In 1971, a seven-year-old Sandra Fabara moved with her family from a city nestled in an Ecuadorian rainforest to the dense brick landscape of Brooklyn. By the time she was a teenager, she had gone from climbing trees to hopping the fences of the MTA train yards. Soon, she was known as the queen of New York City graffiti: the one and only Lady Pink. If you’re as mesmerized by the 1970s and ’80s world of New York City graffiti as we are, then you’ve seen her before, immortalized in classic photos by Martha Cooper and as one of the stars of Charlie Ahearn’s classic feature film Wild Style (1983). In what appeared to be an almost exclusively male scene, these images showed Lady Pink holding her own as one of the few women recognized for their contributions to the golden age of graffiti writing. While she is adamant that she was not the first female graffiti artist  — she credits others like Barbara 62, Eva 62, and Charmin 65, who she says “ got up more than most guys did,” even if those guys were “not willing to