Sandra Fabara

Lady Pink (born Sandra Fabara, 1964) is an Ecuadorian-born American graffiti and mural artist known for her involvement in the New York City graffiti movement of the late 1970s and 1980s.

Early life Fabara was born in Ambato, Ecuador, in 1964, and moved to the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York, at the age of seven. She initially aspired to become an architect, following her father’s profession. Fabara later attended the Manhattan High School of Art and Design, where she was introduced to graffiti. During her senior year, she began exhibiting her work while balancing her personal life. She has stated that the visual form of the letters also appealed to her, particularly the stylization of the lettering. The exhibition later traveled in a modified form to the New Museum of Contemporary Art. Her work was also featured in the influential book Subway Art by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant.

Her first solo exhibition, Femmes Fatales, was held in 1984 at the Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia.

Fabara has stated that her work uses graffiti and mural painting as forms of self-expression and resistance, and as a means of addressing the experiences of women within a male-dominated subculture. She has been referred to as the “first lady of graffiti,” a nickname reflecting her visibility as one of the earliest women active in New York City subway graffiti during the early 1980s.

In 1980, she formed the all-female graffiti crew Ladies of the Arts. She later painted with the graffiti crews TC5 (The Cool 5) and TPA (The Public Animals). From approximately 1979 to 1985, Fabara painted New York City subway trains. She took a brief hiatus from painting outdoors in 1987. Between 1993 and 1997, she worked on freight trains with her husband, fellow graffiti artist SMITH (Roger Smith, formerly of the graffiti duo Sane Smith). Her work has been included in the collections of several institutions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum in New York City, as well as the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands and the Tate Modern in London, England.

In 2025, she presented the exhibition Miss Subway at D’Stassi Art Gallery in London.

In addition to her studio practice, Lady Pink has been involved in arts education and community outreach. She regularly visits schools to discuss art as a form of self-expression and community engagement. She has also collaborated annually with students at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, on mural projects.

Her mural Pink (2007) was among the works destroyed at the 5Pointz graffiti site in Queens in 2014. In February 2018, the Brooklyn Supreme Court awarded damages to 45 artists under the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) for the destruction of their works. China, One Child Only (1992) - spray enamel on canvas, in a private collection. Brick Lady in Spray (1993) - spray enamel on canvas, in a private collection. Queen Matilda (2007) - acrylic on canvas, in private collection. Urban Decay (2008) - acrylic on canvas, in private collection. 9/11 Tribute (2001) - Painted one month after September 11 as a tribute to the heroes involved, located in Queens, New York. Pink (2007) - was located at 5Pointz, no longer exists.

Trains

John Lennon (1981) - The first half of the Subway train painted by Lady Pink and Iz the Wiz as a tribute for John Lennon.

Personal life She is married to another graffiti artist, SMITH (Roger Smith, formerly of the graffiti duo Sane Smith), with whom she often collaborates on murals and commercial work. She is bisexual.