A Ferocious Graffiti Evolution
Who said women couldn’t create rambunctious graffiti art? Certainly not anyone who has seen Lady Pink’s exotic, brilliantly colored outpourings on view in “Evolution” at Woodward Gallery. Active since she was a 15-year-old student at New York’s High School of Art and Design, Ecuadorian-born Sandra Fabara, aka Lady Pink, first gained fame during her years tagging subway cars from 1979-1985. In 1983, she not only won a leading role in Charlie Ahearn’s film Wild Style, but she was also a commanding presence in the Sidney Janis Gallery’s landmark exhibition on graffiti.
When barely out of her twenties, Lady Pink collaborated on posters with Jenny Holzer and major museums like the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art began collecting her art. Largely painting in a studio for the last 20 years, she continues to produce vivid, surrealistic works, occasionally teaming up with her husband, fellow graffiti artist Smith on murals and commercial projects.
You might feel like you’ve taken hallucinogens when looking at Lady Pink’s works. In image after image, she plunges you into a highly sensual world, full of movement and intriguing detail. The woman’s turquoise blue eyes in Lady of the Leaf stare menacingly out of her yellow face while above her forehead two pink seahorses form a heart, their wings outspread. Green-veined leaves sprout from her chin and delicate yellow leaves frame her face, a fascinating cross between a goddess and an evil priestess. In many paintings here, the artist crosses over into overripe, hallucinatory environments, like the tangle of plant life in Pink Foliage, where sinuous red vines, bulbous turquoise petals, and pale green leaves, crowd together in an intimidating Eden.
She also shows wit. In the whimsical Ghetto Pink, swirling pink letters engulf a small overgrown urban garden, nestled next to deserted subway tracks. One letter forms part of a house, with a small stage-like window. Pale blues and violets give it a dreamy, storybook quality, except of course, you realize that it comments on the neglect of city neighborhoods. Urban Decay looks like a painting of the end of the world. A huge woman sits cross-legged, with her eyes closed, pendulous breasts hanging over her stomach, while in the background the dark blue sky breaks open to a gold light. Her skin looks made out of tiny yellow puzzle pieces; her posture shows her weariness.
When caught up in Lady Pink’s creations, one might overlook the fact that they bewitch because they are so beautifully composed. There’s nothing random or casual about them; they are perfectly balanced, which only makes their ferocity more keenly felt.
Lady Pink Evolution at Woodward Gallery 133 Eldridge Street through December 30
