The street art scene doesn’t have as many women as we would like. Yet, Banksy art and male street artists ARE being challenged. Female graffiti artists are thriving, and oh boy are they cracking the whip!
These female artists are giving the male artists a run for their money; their women empowerment girl art and equal rights missions are go go go!
Travelling the world and discovering wall graffiti locations is one of my favourite adventure activities. Is it yours too?! I’m proud to highlight these ladies’ graffiti styles from around the world today.
6 Female Graffiti Artists You Need To Discover
Let’s read on to see what’s going down!
Shamsia Hassani
Firstly, let me introduce you to Shamsia Hassani. She is one kickass graffiti creator from Iran, making street art graffiti in the streets of Kabul incredibly popular. She is in fact, the first ever recognised graffiti artist in the country! Her mission is to bring awareness to the war years, whilst using many a spray can of colour, to help with the negative memories.
She is incredibly passionate about women’s rights and wants to make it clear that women are battling for equality in Afghanistan. She proudly claims, ‘I want to make Afghanistan famous for its art; not its war’. You can check out Shamsia’s beautiful work here.
Lady Pink
Lady Pink (Sandra Fabara) is a beautiful Ecuadorian female street artist raised in New York City. She is a true veteran of graffiti history and definitely gave the male graffiti artists of New York a run for their money in the 80s! She started out painting subway cars but then landed a role in the movie ‘Wild Style’. Sequentially, this lead this passionate graffiti maker to become very well-known in hip hop music and the graffiti NYC scene. Go Lady Pink!
Lady Pink’s New York graffiti career has been heavily focused on empowering women, by using her urban art to rebel against a male-dominated graffiti scene. She says, ‘It’s not just a boys club. We have a sisterhood thing going’. Check out her creations!
Swoon
American born Swoon, started getting recognised on the street art scene in 1999. She’ll take round 2 weeks working on portraits made from recycled newspaper in her studio, to then head out on the streets. She pastes her creations on the walls with wheat paste! With a mission to become ‘part of the world’ and not have her world stuck hanging in some gallery, she has always loved being creative out in the open environment. She wants to create life in what would otherwise just be an empty space. Street art is the answer. Find out more about Swoon here and get your own graffiti drawings off to a brilliant start with some sketching markers.
Miss Van
Miss Van loves to draw graffiti and initiated the street art feminine movement! Born in Toulouse, France, her unique female doll characters are edgy and cute, depicting a variety of emotions. Miss Van expresses sexuality, desire and passion in her characters and with their full-bodied figures, they are body positive!
Faith47
Faith47 is a South African graffiti self-taught artist, based in Cape Town. She’s one of the most famous female graffiti artists in the world! Her early work is inspired by the social problems going on in her country. A lot of her work tackles the problem of people being promised a better future in life. Yet, in reality, their lives are hard and harsh. She explores motherhood, inequality, poverty and injustice. She is on a mission to bring to life what people usually throw away or ignore.
Panmela Castro
Panmela Castro is a Brazilian artist who uses her art to raise awareness about violence against women and promote positive social change! She wants Brazilian women to know that they have rights, and that physical and mental abuse is illegal and violates human rights. Coming from a family which has experienced many incidents of domestic violence, she was unfortunately a domestic violence victim herself. She is empowering herself and others by continuing to draw graffiti on the streets and teach graffiti styles in workshops to women.
Long may these women artists continue
These kickass famous female artists are inspiring graffiti girl street art internationally! I hope you have had fun discovering this cool graffiti with me! Maybe you’re inspired to go out and grab your own graffiti spray paint. You might just become one of the next famous graffiti artists! If not, there’s some brilliant street art tours to be discovered on your travels. Take a peek below!
The best street graffiti tours!
Want to experience and learn more about the best street art in the world? These tours have you covered!
Related Reading
Unique Shoreditch London Graffiti Street Art
10 Upcoming Feminist Solo Female Travel Bloggers
Comment below
Is graffiti art or vandalism? Have your say!
I love Miss Van!
She’s rocking it right?!
I think you should add as well Russian Julia Volchkova https://www.instagram.com/volchkovaart_/ I fell in love with her art in Asia :)
Awesome! Thanks for adding to the resource :D
Hi Alice. My name is Tim Andrew, I’m an Australian artist. The header image you’re using in this article about female street artists is actually an artwork called “Kitten Wall” that I created. It’s an interactive artwork that invites the public to colour in. Just thought I’d let you know a little bit about it in case you were interested and in case you wanted to credit the original artist. Cheers -Tim
Hey Tim – consider it done! :)