Artist Birthday: Chris (DAZE) Ellis

Chris (DAZE) Ellis was part of the earliest group of American street artists to successfully transition to a career painting on canvas. He is also part of the generation of street artists who helped elevate the art form to fine art status.

Artist Birthday for 4 November: Chris (DAZE) Ellis (born 1962 US)

Chris (DAZE) Ellis, Japanese Subways, 1983, spray paint on canvas, 134.6 x 236.2 cm Brooklyn Museum, © 2025 Chris (DAZE) Ellis (BMA-1328)

In the 1970s, graffiti artists moved from the streets of upper Manhattan to the subway. The New York underground trains and stations became the most favored canvasses of the youthful writers. As graffiti artists moved from the subways to more conventional venues to show their work, they established a visual link between the “underground” and “above ground.” The mural scale used on the sides of subway cars inspired large-scale compositions that became part of museum and gallery collections.

In Japanese Subways, Chris Ellis employs a collage technique to create a Tokyo subway map upon which other artists layer their own “tags.” This work highlights both the collaborative aspect of street art and the important place of the subway in the movement’s history. Japanese subway graffiti art of the 1980s was directly influenced by that of the New York subways in the 1970s.

Background

The art form of graffiti, now called Street Art, has been around since the ancient world. It has been found in ancient Roman cities such as Pompeii, and has been discovered in ancient Mayan religious sites. In both cultures it was illegal to deface public buildings, but, the art form was also an important means of communication.

Contemporary graffiti evolved in American urban areas starting in the 1960s. It spans all racial and economic groups. Its appearance on public buildings, housing and public transportation in American cities has spread as a cultural phenomenon around the world since the "renaissance" in graffiti art in the 1980s. The majority of these artists were self-taught.

In 1983, the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York brought graffiti art to the commercial art world with the landmark exhibition "Post-Graffiti." Before that, however, the artists Fred Brathwaite (FAB FIVE FREDDY, born 1959) and FUTURA 2000 (Leonard McGurr, born 1955) curated an exhibit "Beyond Words" in 1981 at the Mudd Club in New York featuring the work of tag and graffiti artists.

Correlations to Davis programs: The Visual Experience 4E, 8.3; Davis Collections -- African American Art