Crash

Crash is an American graffiti artist best known for his murals and silk screen prints inspired by the Pop Art movement. As in the work of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, CRASH’s energetic, colorful designs allude to celebrity and comic book culture in an attempt to make his work more accessible to a mass audience, as seen in Dear Prudence(1989) and The Art of Mickey Mouse (2004). Although he considers himself to be primarily a street artist, his painting Aeroplane 1 (1983), depicting a rocket flying into the sky, is among his most highly-regarded works. Born John Matos on October 11, 1961 in the Bronx, NY, CRASH is considered a pioneer in graffiti art and began spray painting subway cars by age 13. He first gained critical attention after curating “Graffiti Art Success for America” at the Fashion Moda in 1980, a historic exhibition which elevated graffiti to the realm of high art. In 1984, the artist collaborated with Keith Haring on a series of murals commissioned by Figuration Libre and British American Tobacco. Today, his works are held in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, among others. The artist lives and works in the Bronx, NY.