Interview with NYC Graffiti Legend: BLADE

Interview with NYC Graffiti Legend: BLADE

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Today's video takes you to a place when trains were filled with art and certain writers were viewed as "KINGS". One of these "KINGS" was BLADE and I was lucky enough to talk with him for a few minutes during the painting of one of his pieces this summer at 5 Pointz: An Institution for Higher Burning during a shoot for the forthcoming SKILLZ DVD Magazine. To give you an idea about who BLADE was in the scheme of NYC Graffiti Writers, here's a short excerpt describing the man himself.

"BLADE: King, master, visionary. BLADE is more than a graffiti artist. A remarkably pivotal figure in the history of graffiti. Blade's successes as a graffiti artist are myriad. BLADE's artwork has been extensively collected and exhibited for over twenty years and has participated in over 60 select solo and group gallery exhibitions throughout the world. BLADE has also been involved in numerous symposiums and appeared in hundreds of articles, television features, magazine and journal publications and catalogues. At the forefront of the subway graffiti movement in the 1970's, BLADE's work is not only recognized as significantly influential, but his lengthy career as a professional artist has warranted his worldwide notoriety and fame. Painting over 5,000 trains and evolving to new levels of subway and canvas graffiti, BLADE has had exhibitions at the Whitney Museum (2000), Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2000), a 1991 show at the Musee National Des Monuments François (Paris France), numerous shows at the Groninger Museum, and dozens of shows in Europe and Asia. On October 28, 1994, Blade was invited to the Groninger Museum to meet Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, as she was attending the prestigious institution's re-opening. His work is highly collectable."

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