SMURFO

Fusing street art and graffiti with freeform painting techniques, SMURFO's multi-disciplinary creativity is undeniable and unmistakable. Born in Harlem to a family of jazz and funk pioneers, SMURFO was raised in Brooklyn, where he now lives and works. As a kid he crafted his own hybrid animal figures and was inspired to draw and cartoon by TV series like Cartoon Network’s Toonami. He went on to study at the High School of Art and Design where graffiti came into his line of sight. “I started hitting streets right around 16 years old after a year of practicing my tag, once I finally came to SMURFO.” He gained experience as part of The Funk Squad, a crew of writers out of Queens, and has evolved to artwork that poses questions and creates a dialogue - “a moment of self-reflection, or a moment of realizing a truth that they might not have wanted to accept before… I like to write it in a way where it’s going to touch everybody.”