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Early iconic work
The northwest wall of the intersection at Houston Street and the Bowery in New York City has been a target of artists since the 1970s. -
Period: to
Rene Moncada
A series of I AM THE BEST ARTIST René murals painted by René Moncada began appearing on the streets of SoHo in the late 1970s. René has described the murals as a thumb in the nose to the art community he felt he'd helped pioneer but by which he later felt ignored. -
Commercial crossovers
Some street artists have earned international attention for their work and have made a full transition from street art into the mainstream art world — some while continuing to produce art on the streets. Keith Haring was among the earliest wave of street artists in the 1980s to do so. -
Exhibitions
In 1981, Washington Project for the Arts held an exhibition entitled Street Works, which included urban art pioneers such as John Fekner, Fab Five Freddy and Lee Quinones working directly on the streets. -
Background
Artists have challenged art by situating it in non-art contexts. Street artists do not aspire to change the definition of an artwork, but rather to question the existing environment with its own language.Some street artists use "smart vandalism" as a way to raise awareness of problems we people are facing in the modern future. -
Guerilla sculpture
One such artist from the Netherlands is Florentijn Hofman, who in 2007 created the Rubber Duck. It is a colossal rendition of the childhood tub-toy with the distinction of being 26x20x32 metres. Hofman calls it a social response.
