Seen (1961) - Bubbles series

Seen (Richard Mirando)
Bubbles Series, 2025

Dimensions: 61 x 56 cm
Medium: Spray paint
Signature: signed and dated
Condition: very good
Sold unframed

Seen, whose real name is Richard Mirando, was born in 1961 in the Bronx where he grew up and still lives today. Very young, he was already a prodigy in visual art. He was given his first airbrush at age 11. Two years later, he produced decorative paintings for his uncle, owner of an auto repair shop. He then customizes his first vehicles.

Graffiti was emerging at that time. Richard is captivated by the painted subway cars that run and stop in the Lexington Avenue yard on the 6 line, just behind his uncle's shop. He enters the yard on a Saturday afternoon in 1973 and does his first "piece." He chooses the pseudonym "Seen." The sequence of the two "E"s pleases him and the meaning suits him. Doing graffiti becomes for him the means to realize his desire to be seen by as many people as possible.

His first painting is a revelation. From simple spectator, he becomes an actor in the young movement. The subway becomes his favored support. He goes on to carry out actions and even paints entire cars (Whole cars) that will forever mark the minds of New Yorkers. His name and his art are carried across the city by the cars used daily by hundreds of thousands of people. His unique style, his creativity and his tenacity establish him as a leader of the New York underground graffiti movement of the 1980s.