Seen (1961) - Bombing NY 6925

Seen - Bombing NY 6925 (2022)
Original spray paint on canvas
Unique work signed and dated by hand on the back
Certificate of authenticity
Height: 66 cm Width: 62 cm

Seen, Richard Mirando by his real name, was born in 1961 in the Bronx where he grew up and still lives today. Very young, he is already a prodigy in visual arts. He is offered his first airbrush at the age of 11. Two years later, he creates decorative paintings for his uncle, owner of an auto repair shop. He then customizes his first vehicles.
The graffiti movement is at this time in full emergence. Richard is captivated by the painted subway cars that run and stop in a depot on Lexington Avenue on the 6 line, right behind his uncle's garage. He enters the depot on a Saturday afternoon in 1973 and creates his first "piece". He chooses the pseudonym "Seen". The sequence of the two "E" pleases him and the meaning suits him. Doing graffiti becomes for him the means to realize his desire to be seen by the greatest number of people.
His first painting is a revelation. From a simple spectator, he becomes an actor in the young movement. The subway becomes his preferred support. He then goes on to carry out actions and even paints entire cars (Whole cars) which will forever leave their mark on the minds of New Yorkers. His name and his art are carried across the city by the trains used daily by hundreds of thousands of people. His unique style, his creativity and his tenacity establish him as the leader of the New York underground graffiti movement of the 1980s. In 1981, he sits alongside Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Basquiat at the exhibition “New York, New Wave” at PS1 in New York.

In 1982 the documentary film Style Wars by Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant makes him an icon of the movement worldwide. Recognized by his peers as the "Godfather of Graffiti", Seen is today the most famous Graffiti Artist whose influence is unparalleled.