Miss Van (jenn's pick)

Miss Van is a graffiti artist from Toulouse, France. I actually found her by accident while I was doing research on teaching graffiti in high schools (for another class). Miss Van started wall-painting in the streets at the age of 18, in the early 1990's, initiating the feminine movement in street art. She is now exhibiting all around the world from NY to LA, in Europe (France, Spain, Italy, UK) as in Asia. She now works on canvas as well, and uses acrylic paint (I like it when people use acrylic paint). Not that money is important, but it's it's interesting when someone goes from street art to $30,000 dollar paintings. I also tried to post these in chronological order so you can see the difference.
I appreciate street art, and people who actually go and do it. I especially appreciate her because I feel like street art is a male dominated field, and she plays off this in her work. She used her dolls as her tag, and placed them on places, or other peoples tags or murals to create a message. Likewise, since this art is secretive, illegal, and underground- someone could come to her work the next night and completely cover it, or change it to alter the meaning.
What I find most interesting is her use of color, and the way she found a way to portray these doll/masklike women in a consistent way, but giving them all individual characteristics and emotion. She also creates a narration using subtle props, or even body position. These works are similar to James Jean in terms of using illustrative technique. Miss Van's new work is also similar to Jean in terms of color palate, and in creating depth.