Martha Cooper has spent decades immortalising art that is often overlooked, and usually illegal. Her first book, 1984’s Subway Art is affectionately referred to by graffiti artists as the »bible«. To create Spray Nation, Cooper and editor Roger Gastman pored through hundreds of thousands of 35mm Kodachrome slides, painstakingly selecting and digitising them. They are accompanied by heartfelt essays celebrating Cooper’s drive, spirit, and singular vision.

The images capture a gritty New York era that is gone forever. And although the original pieces have been lost, these resplendent photos feel as immediate and powerful as a subway train thundering down the tracks.

Wild, free and ephemeral - street art and graffiti are a worldwide phenomenon. From Brassaï, who led graffiti into mainstream art around 1960, via the Sprayer of Zurich in the 1970s to the first Banksy works in the UK - Illegal tells a prehistory of street art and graffiti.

Hardly any of the works of this short-lived genre still exist today. They were also often documented illegally and under adverse conditions. Illustrated here are key works and rarities that have never been shown. All were created illegally, i.e. without permission, directly for an audience on the street - not for museum contexts. "People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish. But that's only if it's done properly" [Banksy]. Long-standing picture research has condensed a selection of works by some 100 artists from over a dozen countries and their references to pop music, avant-garde art and literature. We discuss why these artists in particular were significant trendsetters for street art and graffiti before Banksy.

• 300 Pages
• Softcover

A contributing writer to the online journal Photomonitor, she curated the V&A show 'Street Art: Contemporary Prints' (2010-12), which toured the UK, with a version shown in Libya.

She is the author of Street Art: Contemporary Prints, and contributed to Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design, Modernism 1914-1939: Designing a New World and 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die.

Description Surprising, controversial and often simply beautiful, street craft is the next chapter in the story of street art - an explosion of creativity that is reclaiming and transforming urban space around the world.

Featuring:

• Tasha Lewis's blue butterfly swarms bring beauty to derelict corners of New York.

• Spidertag intertwines sturdy rope and nails to construct abstract graffiti in Madrid.

• Mademoiselle Maurice's origami and lace graffiti bring a light touch to the streets of Paris and Hong Kong and many more.

• 224 Pages

• Hardcover

Lee Quiñones: Fifty Years of New York Graffiti Art and Beyond

Fifty Years of New York Graffiti Art and Beyond is the first monograph of Puerto Rican born artist Lee Quiñones presenting his monumental work and following his evolution over five decades.

'If you wanted one artist to speak for a whole genre, Lee is your man. If you want a book that treats graffiti as fine art and illustrates it sumptuously, this is it.' - The Artist

'An inspired outlaw with a meticulous design process and precision painting skills, his voice responded to the social and civil unrest of the era and found expression in painting graffiti, an ancient art form that he and many of his peers had to defend in the larger art world.' - Juxtapoz

'What we have here are essentially moments in time, a stop-frame history of fifty years of graffiti, if you like. If you want just one book on the subject, this would be it.' - Art Book Review

When 14-year-old Lee embarked on his first spray paint mural in 1974, he carried marker drawings into the New York City subway train yards that served as studies to his 52-ft long rolling murals. Drawings, artifacts, and subway photography illustrate how Lee's emergence served as a catalyst for what is now acknowledged as the street art movement. Before Lee, graffiti art was accessed by a small audience of young people who coveted style and scale. Images of Lee's trains illustrate how he changed the face of the movement, infusing kinetic elements of futurism in over 120 subway car murals across the transit system. Lee invented the concept of the freestanding urban mural in his iconic 1978 Howard the Duck handball wall. He introduced spray-paint based work internationally when he opened his first formal exhibition in Rome, Italy in 1979, alongside Fab 5 Freddy. He influenced peers Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, among others, who are shown viewing Lee's work. Lee and Basquiat were the youngest artists to exhibit at Documenta 7. Lee starred as the semi-autobiographical Zoro in Wild Style, the first feature film about hip hop. Images show the social commentary and poetry used in his early expressionistic work. Subsequent paintings show how Lee's practice has shaped a generation of contemporary artists as he further developed his technique. The imagery captures the mood and urgency of 1980s New York and moves from the streets to the intimacy and maturity of Lee's contemporary studio environment.

• Hardcover
• 192 Pages

The power, glory, diversity, and talent of women street artists finally gets the attention it deserves in the first book to focus solely on the female gaze writ large on urban walls and sidewalks across five continents If street art is, in itself, an act of rebellion, it is tragically ironic that the genre seems dominated by men.

This exciting book is an important first step in shedding light on the substantial number of women who are gaining fame in the street art world. It brings together the work of 24 artists, through dazzling photographs of their work and intimate portraits of their lives based on interviews collected by award-winning journalist Alessandra Mattanza.

On walls, sidewalks, prison cells, grain silos and other nontraditional canvases, these artists tackle ideas around empowerment, feminism, the pink revolution, body shaming and body imagery, racism, and the climate crisis.

From Oklahoma City and Brooklyn, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh makes site specific work that considers how people experience race and gender within their surrounding environments.

South African multidisciplinary artist Faith XLVII imbues her narratives with a longing for a deeper connection to nature, and a resurrection of the divine feminine.

Italy's Camilla Falsini incorporates joyful, bold colours and simple shapes to deliver serious messages about the environment.

Shamsia Hassani, one of Afghanistan's first female street artists, makes vibrant murals and paintings in which women play musical instruments as a vehicle for self-expression.

Bursting with colourful photographs of works in situ as well as in detail, this thrilling and incisive book proves that street art is not only female - it's the essence of conceptual rebellion itself.

Author Alessandra Mattanza is a foreign correspondent, contributor, and editor for several publishers in Italy and Germany. Her previous books are Street Art: Famous Artists Talk About Their Vision and Banksy. Stephanie Utz is founder of the Munich based Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art (MUCA).

• 300 colour illustrations
• Hardcover

A raw collection of photos and stories spotlighting the artistic process and dangerous adventures of a Chicago graffiti artist as he creates unsponsored works of art around the world.

More than 350 photographs combine with previously untold firsthand stories to offer readers a rarely seen look into graffiti art and street culture, a subculture that has grown seemingly without boundaries.

Vibrant, urgent prose takes readers into the emotions and physical experience of bringing street art into existence, capturing the moments of creation as well as the camaraderie of souls bound by these acts of expression.

Each story is a real-life mini action adventure following FLEX KYM's trajectory from local artist to world traveler to incarcerated individual to creator with reignited passion.

Underpinning the story of the art is that of Chicago and its growth into a city internationally recognised for live-action urban painting .

As the art ignites a path to form global networks, the journey takes readers to New York, New Jersey, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Boston, Vienna, Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava, Catania, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Stockholm, Bangkok, Barcelona, Istanbul, Athens, and Berlin.

Features images of art by FLEX, ARK, FACT, SKOL, DTEK, SPIN, HEAR, NYKE, and other graffiti artists from Chicago and beyond This visceral look at the artistic process takes readers deep inside the world of graffiti art-a subculture that is now more celebrated than ever.

FLEX | KYM is a prolific world-traveled painter, writer, and photographer. His experience with "graffiti art" comes from being deep in the trenches with a desire to share and celebrate it through story and image. He lives in Chicago. SELLING POINTS: . Never-before-seen photography and previously untold stories showcase graffiti art and street culture and detail FLEX KYM's trajectory from local to international artist . Provides insight into Chicago's unique art scene and its growth into a city that is internationally recognized for live-action urban painting, in addition to following the travels of FLEX KYM to cities around the world .

More than 350 images are supplemented with real-life mini action adventure stories that provide rare insight into the artistic process, including the emotions and physical experience of bringing street art into existence 358 colour images

Six case studies conducted in New York City, Trenton, and Jersey City, explore how graffiti murals are created and what role they play in a city where buffing illegal graffiti is a lucrative business.

The author interviewed people affected on a daily basis by the murals at sites around the metropolitan area, as well as property owners who have allowed muralists to paint their property in hopes the graffiti murals would serve as a deterrent to vandalism-and provide a more aesthetically pleasing alternative to buffing.

An analysis informed by cultural Marxism and supported by street photography suggests a radical departure from traditional New York City policy: instead of spending money exclusively on the elimination of illegal graffiti, resources should also be devoted to the creation of graffiti murals.

In the end, graffiti removal teams and mural promoters are pursuing the same goal: making the city a more visually appealing place. AUTHOR: Patrick Verel was born in New York City and grew up in Norwalk, Connecticut.

He graduated from Fairfield Preparatory School in 1992 and earned a B.S. in journalism from St. John's University in Queens, New York, in 1997. He wrote for the Stamford Advocate and the Augusta Chronicle newspapers, freelanced for publications such as The New York Times and amNewYork, and most recently, joined the news and media relations team at Fordham University.

In 2009, he enrolled in Fordham's urban studies masters program, where he completed a thesis that was the basis for this book. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Kelly and daughter Eliza. This book combines a few of his favorite things: taking pictures of street art, telling people's stories, and exploring obscure corners of New York City.

• 78 colour photographs
• Hardcover

Cope2, born Fernando Carlo Jr., is an iconic name in graffiti - one of New York's pioneering artists in the '80s and '90s, founder of the KINGS DESTROY crew, and known for his wildstyle tagging - and here 35+ years of his work are compiled into one vibrant volume.

In over 250 colour photos, see his work transition from his early days in the South Bronx to his current gallery work featured worldwide. Divided into four chapters - Subway Cars and Trains, Painted Walls, Bubble Throw Ups, and Gallery and Artworks - Cope2's art may shift in medium, time, and place, but it remains fundamentally the same at its core: colourful, authentic, and raw.

In addition to the hundreds of photos of his work, excerpts from an interview with Cope2 by Carlos Mare, the museum programming director of the Museum of Graffiti, offers stories on Cope2's life and career from the artist himself.

Born in Kingsbridge in the Bronx, Fernando Carlo began his graffiti career with the encouragement of his cousin, Chico 80, and has since grown into an internationally known artist. Over four decades, he developed his trademark style on subways, trains, and walls and then moved into gallery work, which has been exhibited in Venice, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, and more.

• Hardback
• 272 colour and b/w images