Justice of the Piece:

Lady Pink (Sandra Fabara) was born in Ecuador, raised in NYC, and currently resides in the countryside north of the city. In 1979 she started writing graffiti and soon became well known as the only female capable of competing with the boys in the graffiti subculture. Pink painted subway trains from the years 1979-1985, having a starring role in the motion picture "Wild Style" in 1982. That role and her other significant contributions to graffiti have made her a cult figure in the hip-hop subculture.

While still in high school she was already exhibiting paintings in art galleries, and at the age of 21 had her first solo show at the Moore College of Art. As a leading participant in the rise of graffiti-based art, Lady Pink's canvases have entered important art collections such as those of the Whitney Museum, the MET in New York City, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Groningen Museum of Holland. She has established herself in the fine arts scene all over the world, and her paintings are highly prized by collectors.

Today, she is well documented as a community activist by creating murals throughout the world and mobilizing artists to create in culturally neglected communities. She has brought her artwork full circle from the subways and commuters, to the cultured and elite in galleries, back to working class neighborhoods. Lady Pink and her husband Smith are one of the few professional mural teams to arise from the graffiti subculture. She now shares her many decades of experience by holding mural workshops with students and actively lecturing in universities throughout the US.

Fine arts painter and muralist Sydney G. James is proudly a girl raised in, and by, Detroit. Her name is synonymous with colors and brushwork as strikingly defiant, and ever changing, as the city itself.

Since returning to her hometown in 2011, Sydney has personified artist in flow, quickly building upon her creative roots as a BFA graduate of Detroit’s College for Creative Studies. Her murals have transformed Detroit’s skyline and its arts narrative, and helped her earn a coveted 2017 Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellowship.

But it is Sydney’s artworks – on walls, on canvas, on fabric, on Vans shoes; on whatever she damned well chooses – that give her name and her life a fierce focus. She is a painter on a pointed mission to let each brush stroke spark conversations long silenced. In paintings and murals, Black women are first. Never last and never forgotten. Her works boldly rewrite the narrative in hues evoking the complexities of Black reality, joy and pain, and phoenix-like resilience.

Her artwork has been exhibited at Detroit’s Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MOCAD), the Charles H. Wright Museum, Inner State Gallery, PlayGround Detroit Gallery, Collective Detroit Gallery, Detroit Artist Market, Red Bull House of Art; and Janice Charach galleries as well as the Arts, Beats and Lyrics traveling exhibit. Sydney’s murals have lit up walls in New Orleans, Brooklyn, NY; Atlanta, GA.; Los Angeles, CA.; Pow Wow Hawaii, Pow Wow Long Beach, Pow Wow Worcester, and across six continents.

She is a co-founder of the biannual BLKOUT Walls street mural festival which debuted in Detroit in 2021. Sydney’s artwork is featured by major marketing brands looking for authentic cultural connection. Brands include: Vans shoes, PepsiCo, Ford Motor Company, Detroit Pistons, Detroit Lions, as well as being one of the faces of the Lip Bar brand of cosmetics.

Robyn Frances, professionally known as Grow Love, is a Denver-based mural artist, educator, and community leader whose work bridges the worlds of fine art and street art. Initially focused on studio art from 2003 to 2017, Grow transitioned to aerosol arts in 2017, working on both walls and canvas. This versatility has attracted public art programs and private collectors alike.

Grow Love is a co-founder of Babe Walls, a nonprofit organization launched in 2019 to create a platform for women and non-binary artists in the mural arts scene. Babe Walls fosters mentorship, collaboration, and visibility for underrepresented creatives through mural festivals and educational programs. Grow founded Grow Love International in 2018, an organization dedicated to supporting female-identifying artists through career-building mentorship and mural arts training.

Grow Love’s art is deeply influenced by the fresco techniques of Italian old-world masters, and graffiti and street art aesthetics. Their large-scale murals reclaim public spaces while exploring themes of human connection and transcendence.

Florals are a recurring motif in Grow’s work, symbolizing enlightenment, resilience and connectedness. Their experience with flowers istranscendent —connecting humanity with nature’s divine beauty. Grow’s work continues to inspire joy, reflection, and empowerment through vibrant murals that weave storytelling with visual impact.