These 11 Artists Are Famous Now But They Started Out On The Streets

Not all art is shown in a museum. 

For these artists, although many of them can be found in museums and other professionally curated venues around the world, their beginnings came from a more humble, though in many ways more intimidating, place: The streets. 

Though there are MANY incredibly talented street artists who've started getting more and more recognition in the last few years, we've come up with a countdown of our favorites. 

11. Retna

Retna has an extremely distinct style. His images often feature a sort of made-up alphabet that expresses the artist's thoughts. He now has shows in several major cities celebrating his work.

10. Gaia

Though he's perhaps a little more accustomed to the mainstream museum route than the rest of the artists on this list, Gaia deserves mention for his devotion to getting street artists noticed, as demonstrated by his curating events dedicated to street mur

9. Keith Haring

Before he became popular in museum exhibitions all over the world, Haring made a name for himself hanging images in the New York City subways.

8. Lady Pink

Lady Pink started the way many street artists do—by tagging. But eventually she stopped doing stylized versions of her name and graduated to stunning, more sophisticated murals. Her work was already getting museum recognition by age 21.

7. Swoon

Swoon was the name taken on by by Caledonia Dance Curry, a Pratt Institute student. Her wheatpastes got attention when they started decorating old abandoned NYC buildings, and eventually she started showcasing them on AND off the streets.

6. Barry McGee

Before he was McGee the multimedia star, he was Twist, the street painter. His works, both mainstream and counterculture, all have a sort of underlying theme of identity. McGee's reason for leaving the streets? He got tired!

5. Olek

You may remember the fantastically whimsical crochet art movement that started a few years ago, and it was all started by this lady. She sought to bring color to the world after living in Poland, a place she said was pretty devoid of it.

4. Jean-Michel Basquiat

If you lived in NYC in the 1970s, you would know this guy better as "SAMO." Known for his avant-garde art, he eventually became more neo-expressionist and switched from street artist to star of the MoMA.

3. JR

JR rose to sudden fame after his TED talk about using art to change the world. His stunning images of the faces of human beings are powerful and meaningfully placed. Some of his most famous line the border between Israel and Palestine.

2. Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey may have gone mainstream when he got involved with the Obama election campaign in '08, but he still gets major street days from his days as an illegal graffiti artist.

1. Banksy

Great Britain's Banksy is the undisputed king of street art at the moment, despite (or perhaps because of) his refusal to make his true identity known. His provocative stenciled paintings often speak volumes to complicated political themes.


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