The Top 30 Most Exciting Street Artists Right Now
2016-12-05
Banksy, Dismaland (2015). Courtesy of YouTube.
1. Banksy
One of the rare artists to cross over to mainstream fame, Banksy gets a boost from his tantalizing anonymity, but work like Dismaland continues to push the envelope and stay on the forefront of the political conversation.
French street artist JR on set in Times Square for Justin Bettman’s #SetintheStreets. Courtesy of Marc Azoulay/JR.
2. Justin Bettman
This New York-based street artist and photographer isn’t concerned about the ephemeral nature of his work—it’s more of an inspiration; Bettman is known for building temporary rooms from furniture left on the curb, staging dreamy photo shoots in his colorful sets.
Blu, Ordes (2012) in Madrid. Courtesy of r2hox, via Wikimedia Commons.
3. BLU
Over the past 20 years, the mysterious Italian street artist has created artwork across Europe and Central and South America. He cares so deeply about his craft that he destroyed a whole city’s worth of work instead of having it be sold by profiteering art dealers.
Henry Chalfant, Dust in the 6 Line Yard. Courtesy of Henry Chalfant.
4. Henry Chalfant
A vitally-important part of street art is the documentation of it. Since the 1970s, Henry Chalfant has captured hundreds of ephemeral graffiti works in New York on film that would have otherwise been lost to the passage of time.
Peter Daverington, Learn From the Classics—But Please Don’t Destroy Them (2015). Courtesy of Peter Daverington.
5. Peter Daverington
An Australian-born artist now based in Beacon, New York, Peter Daverington took up street art at the tender age of 11. As an adult, he’s developed a style all his own, juxtaposing stylized graffiti lettering with superbly-modeled figures that appear to have stepped out of a Renaissance-era canvas.
Ella & Pitr, Lillith and Olaf, for the Nuart Festival. Courtesy of Ella & Pitr.
6. Ella and Pitr
This French duo puts architecture to work for their murals of delightfully-gangly monochromatic figures, creating unique compositions that cut across walls and floors.
FAILE, “Wishing on You.” Courtesy of Times Square Alliance.
7. FAILE
Brooklyn-based duo Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller have pushed the boundaries of what street art can be with multimedia work that incorporates imagery from all manner of sources.
Street art by Shepard Fairey and other works in Hosier Lane, Melbourne, Australia. Courtesy of TigTab via Wikimedia Commons.
8. Shepard Fairey
One of the biggest names in the business, Shepard Fairey‘s success came back to bite him when Detroit prosecuted him for illegal tagging in 2015—but at least it gave him back a bit of street cred.
Work by Tatyana Fazlalizdah commissioned for the Black Girlhood Conference and Exhibition at Columbia University (2016). Courtesy of Tatyana Fazlalizdah.
9. Tatyana Fazlalizadeh
Oklahoma-born, Brooklyn-based artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, best known for her “Stop Telling Women to Smile” wheat-paste photograph series, is not afraid to tackle political and social issues in her work. Her in-your-face feminism is at once relatable and visually compelling.
Dasic Fernández
10. Dasic Fernández
With a rainbow, otherworldly palette, Chilean artist Dasic Fernández has a bold sense of color that leads to eye-popping works, whether they are spotted on the streets of New York, or on canvases at a gallery.
James Goldcrown, Lovewall (2015). Courtesy of James Goldcrown.
11. James Goldcrown
In 2015, James Goldcrown became an Instagram sensation with his piece Lovewall, a spray-painted mural of dozens of bleeding hearts. Versions of the New York artwork have since popped up around the country.
Maya Hayuk, Chem Trails NYC (2013). Courtesy of Benjamin Sutton.
12. Maya Hayuk
With her bold, graphic use of color, Maya Hayuk’s aesthetic is instantly recognizable—and occasionally copied.
Logan Hicks, Story of My Life. Courtesy of Logan Hicks.
13. Logan Hicks
The photo-realistic work of street artist Logan Hicks becomes all the more impressive when you realize he creates it using hand-cut paper stencils.
HoxxoH’s mural project at the Miami Marine Stadium. Courtesy of HoxxohH
14. HoxxohH
Beautifully symmetrical and incredibly detailed, Douglas “HoxxoH” Hoekzema’s designs are painted free hand, despite their astonishing precision.
Invader, Space2 on board the International Space Station. Photo: Invader.
15. Invader
The French street artist Invader has gotten remarkable mileage out of his pixelated-looking works, inspired by vintage computer graphics from Space Invaders—he’s even sent his work to the International Space Station.
JonOne, Pardon Me (2016). Courtesy of Galerie Bartoux
16. JonOne
With his unique brand of Abstract Expressionist-tinged graffiti, influenced by the likes of Jackson Pollock, JonOne has been blurring the line between the street and the gallery for decades.
JR art installation in Tribeca. Courtesy of JR
17. JR
The French street artist takes photography to the streets with large black-and-white images that, more often than not, are portraits from people around the world; they serve as a reminder of how much we have in common with each other.
Kashink, ActUp, Paris, France. Courtesy of Kashink
18. Kashink
Defying gender roles both in her art and in life, Paris’s Kashink draws a mustache above her lip each day. Her rejection of traditional standards of beauty extends into her work, which features large, expressive, four-eyed faces in an array of colors and textures.
KAWS
19. KAWS
Another crossover success, KAWS parlayed his brightly-colored cartoon-like forms from the streets of New York to major museums, which now show his work in painting and sculpture, along with his street art.
Lady Pink, Pink Ghetto. Courtesy of Lady Pink.
20. Lady Pink
Street art pioneer Lady Pink led the way for female graffiti artists, getting her start on New York city subway cars way back in 1979, when she was just 15. Decades later, she is a major figure in a still-male-dominated field.
Maupal, Pope Francis mural. Courtesy of Jeremy Zipple.
21. Maupal
His works may get washed off the walls of Rome within hours, but the Italian street artist still manages to make noise with his pointedly hopeful depictions of Pope Francis, most notably as “Superpope.”
Meres One, G-star raw (2015). Courtesy of Meres One.
22. Meres One
The visionary mind behind the former graffiti mecca 5Pointz in Queens, New York, Meres One is so dedicated to his craft that his personal motto is “I don’t do graff, I am graff.”
Mural on Kenmare Street in New York by Mint and Serf. Courtesy of David Forer/the L.I.S.A Project NYC
23. Mint & Serf
The brothers may have lamented the loss of the “underground element” of street art to artnet News’s Anthony Haden-Guest in 2015, but that didn’t stop them from having a secret pop-up exhibition at condemned New York parking garage.
Olek crocheted a covering for this obelisk in Santiago, Chile. Courtesy of Olek.
24. Olek
Olek’s crocheted creations aren’t what one normally thinks of when one hears street art—all the more reason that her brightly-colored work is exciting for breaking open boundaries. Whether she’s adorning the Astor Place Cube with her creation or creating an astonishingly large billboard supporting Hillary Clinton, Olek’s work is surprisingly at home in an urban setting.
A mural by REVOK. Courtesy of REVOK
25. REVOK
Sometimes street artists don’t survive the transition to the gallery, but Los Angeles graffiti legend Revok is finding new ways to push the medium, showing in the white cube with the city street signs he once painted illegally, now purchased from the manufacturers.
Kenny Scharf, TotemOh, on the East River Esplanade. Courtesy of NYC Parks/Malcolm Pinckney.
26. Kenny Scharf
On the scene since the early 1980s, Kenny Scharf may have traded the grit of New York’s East Village for laid-back Los Angeles, but his street art work is still no less essential.
Slinkachu, Shore Line, from the “Little People” series. Courtesy of Slinkachu.
27. Slinkachu
Forget in-your-face murals and graffiti—Slinkachu is all about subtlety, with miniature street installations that play on scale and setting in delightful ways.
A mural by Stik. Courtesy of Stik.
28. Stik
The appropriately-named Stik elevates the stick figure to an art form, imbuing his colorful works around London with socially conscious messages about empathy and unity.
A work by Swoon. Courtesy of editrrix via Flickr Creative Commons
29. Swoon
The queen of wheatpaste, Swoon, creates gorgeous portraits that slowly decay over time. In 2014, the New York-based artist broke into the art world with a large-scale installation at the Brooklyn Museum, and has been gaining ground ever since.
VHILS, Dame Dorothy Tangney BDE at Australi’a Norfolk Hotel Artwork Freemantle 2013 Street Arts Festival. Courtesy of Mel, via Wikimedia Commons.
30. VHILS
The Portuguese street artist stands out from others in the field by eschewing the spray paint can in favor of chisels and power drills, carving dramatic relief sculptures into the sides of buildings.