Lady Pink, the Queen of New York City Graffiti

In 1971, a seven-year-old Sandra Fabara moved with her family from a city nestled in an Ecuadorian rainforest to the dense brick landscape of Brooklyn. By the time she was a teenager, she had gone from climbing trees to hopping the fences of the MTA train yards. Soon, she was known as the queen of New York City graffiti: the one and only Lady Pink. 

If you’re as mesmerized by the 1970s and ’80s world of New York City graffiti as we are, then you’ve seen her before, immortalized in classic photos by Martha Cooper and as one of the stars of Charlie Ahearn’s classic feature film Wild Style (1983). In what appeared to be an almost exclusively male scene, these images showed Lady Pink holding her own as one of the few women recognized for their contributions to the golden age of graffiti writing. While she is adamant that she was not the first female graffiti artist  — she credits others like Barbara 62, Eva 62, and Charmin 65, who she says “ got up more than most guys did,” even if those guys were “not willing to admit” it — she was one of the only women able to continue her career above ground in the gallery world. 

Today, her early memories of playing in the rainforests, which include killing a snake at the tender age of five, meld with the curves of her graffiti lettering and her inspirations from Antoni Gaudí, Hayao Miyazaki, and Frank Frazetta, to create uniquely fantastical worlds that perfectly depict the idea of an “urban jungle.” 

In this episode of the Hyperallergic Podcast, Lady Pink sat down with our Editor-in-Chief Hrag Vartanian in our Brooklyn offices, just a few blocks away from her childhood home. They discuss everything from what it was like to be a woman in the graffiti world and her collaborations with artists like Jenny Holzer and Jean-Michel Basquiat to her relationship with graffiti legend Lee Quiñones, tracing her journey from train yards to galleries, mural walls, and museums, inspiring countless young women artists across continents. 

You can see some of her work on display now in Above Ground: Art from the Martin Wong Graffiti Collection at the Museum of the City of New York through August 10, 2025. 

Subscribe to Hyperallergic on Apple Podcasts and anywhere else you listen to podcasts. Watch the complete video of the conversation with images of the artworks on YouTube.