Image via Complex Original
Globally, women artists are dominating the streets. Through collaborative efforts, both literal and metaphorical, these artists are carving a place for themselves in the public sphere. From realism to abstraction, glass to aerosol, the range of diversity among today’s ladies in street art is ceaseless. This list barely scratches the surface of what has been accomplished by women in the game, but these are artists to keep an eye on in the coming year. Hailing from all corners of the globe, these are 15 Women Who Are Killing It in Street Art Right Now.
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Cake
Location: New York
Cake creates portraits that are as haunting as they are beautiful. The bloody reds along with the gentle lines of her figures draw viewers in with an eerie beckoning. The artist is a part of the Pratt Club of New York Street artists, graduating around the same time as fellow artists Swoon and Leon Reid IV. Since her initial college wheatpastes, Cake has gone on to create large-scale murals and to explore the pertinence of place in her public pieces.
MadC
Location: Berlin, Germany
To say that MadC's murals are daunting would be an understatement. This past year the artist painted a 550-square-meter wall in a week, and she did it alone. While many seem to rely on assistants, MadC tackles big projects all by heself in leaps and bounds. With works that range from abstraction to realism, it seems as if there is nothing the artist can't accomplish.
BunnyM
Location: Denver
There is something to be said for artists who are committed to solely putting up unique works. The level of detail that BunnyM puts into each of her pieces is a gift to those fortunate enough to encounter them on the streets. Each wheatpaste contains layers of patterns and holographic details that shine, despite being coated in glue.
Alice Mizrachi
Location: New York
If New York graffiti and street art had a mother figure, it would be Alice Mizrachi. The artist bridges gaps, collaborating with writers and street artists with equal fervor. Along with Toofly, Mizrachi helped to found Younity Collective, an organization that cemented relationships between leading women street artists of today.
Miso
Location: Melbourne, Australia
In her early 20s, Miso had already established her minimalist style and was completing major mural commissions around the world. Patterns and pinpricks are central to her body of work. From pricking skin with constellations to puncturing paper to represent the topography of cities, each project Miso undertakes contains a precise beauty. Currently, the artist has a collaboration with Chanel in the works.
Shin Shin
Location: New York
Color theory and space form the spine of Shin Shin's body of public work. As shown in the studio photograph, the artist meticulously prepares the positioning of her wheatpastes. The end results are works that have been saturated with colors, contrasting with New York's grey walls.
Christina Angelina
Location: Venice, California
Hailing from sunny California, Christina Angelina made a strong statement up north as a part of the inaugural MURAL festival in Montreal. She has continued painting throughout the United States, completing two collaborative walls in New York with Fin DAC. 2013 was artist's first prominent year in the public art spotlight, and street art fans should follow how Christina Angelina continues to develop and rise in the next few years.
Shamsia Hassani
Location: Kabul, Afghanistan
Shamsia Hassani is breaking ground in Afghanistan as one of its first women in graffiti. Of particular note is her thematic use of the burqa. While many tout the headdress as a central issue in Islamic culture, Hassani combats these claims by pointing to the larger societal issues within her art.
Vexta
Location: New York
Vexta's aesthetic could perhaps best be described as acid trip feminist. The hot neons set against deep blues and black are strong enough to melt your eyes. Alongside her explosive colors, the artist chooses to paint women in flight, free of restraints.
Becca
Location: Los Angeles
Becca first caught our attention as the woman who questioned Jeffrey Deitch's curatorial tactics during "Art in the Streets" at MOCA. After being cut from the exhibit, the artist took to the museum's bathroom to leave a wheatpaste behind. With a multi-decade career and a "take no shit" attitude, Becca is one to watch.
Shiro
Location: Japan
When she isn't busy saving lives as a nurse, Shiro treks around the world with her signature "Mimi" character. A part of Mizrachi and Toofly's Younity Collective, the artist has collaborated internationally with renowned writers. With the amount of walls she produces in a given year in addition to a full-time job as a nurse, Shiro is seemingly unstoppable.
Queen Andrea
Location: New York
Queen Andrea's cleverly named business, Superfresh Design, aptly describes her style. The artist runs the gamut in terms of her typographical skills. Her aesthetic combines influences from growing up surrounded by New York City graffiti and her graphic design background, a pairing that leads to endlessly fascinating compositions.
Miss Me
Location: Montreal
Miss Me canonizes minorities' musical histories throughout the streets. Her works draw upon Catholic iconography and inserts individuals that would have been traditionally left out of religious imagery. These pieces are often placed in doorways, like a shrine to those individuals who have passed onto another world.
Wing
Location: New York
The materials that artist Wing uses sets her apart from all other street art practitioners. The stained glass and curved lines of her naturally flowing works directly contrasts with Invader's blocky mosaics. The small scale of her works make them all the more precious, as they are easily hidden within the city's nooks and crannies.
Alicé
Location: Rome
In person, Alicé expresses the same sentiment of many women in street art—she rails against being told that this isn't her place. The artist has harnessed these doubts and combats them with imagery of empowered females. As her website states, Alicé has a "desire to show strong, independent women in a way that differs from the highly sexualized image of femininity that is typically seen in society."