Toxic (graffiti artist) facts for kids
Torrick Ablack (born January 16, 1965), also known as Toxic, is an American artist. He became famous in the early 1980s as part of the exciting graffiti art movement in New York City. Toxic started by creating art on the streets, but his talent soon led his paintings to be shown in art galleries and museums all around the world.
Early Life and Graffiti Art
Torrick Ablack was born in the Bronx, New York, on January 16, 1965. His mother was Puerto Rican, and his father's family came from Trinidad. When he was young, he got the nickname "Toxic Battery." This later became his graffiti tag, which is like an artist's signature.
Toxic started painting graffiti when he was 13 years old. He worked with other artists named A-One and Kool Koor. They joined a graffiti group called "Tag Master Killers," led by an artist named Rammellzee. Another member of this group was Delta2.
Each artist in the group created their own special way of drawing letters. This was based on Rammellzee's idea called "Gothic Futurism." This idea saw graffiti as a way to make letters powerful, like weapons, to take back language from a society that Rammellzee felt was "sick" or controlled.
In the early 1980s, Toxic and his friends were among the first graffiti artists to bring their unique art and music from the Bronx and Queens to the main art scene in downtown New York. In 1982, Toxic, A-One, and Kool Koor showed their work together in an art show called Camouflaged Panzerism at Fashion Moda in the South Bronx.
Working with Jean-Michel Basquiat
Toxic met the famous artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1982. Basquiat had just had a big art show at the Annina Nosei Gallery. Basquiat became a mentor to Toxic, helping him learn and grow as an artist. Toxic sometimes worked as an assistant in Basquiat's studio.
In 1983, Toxic and Rammellzee went with Basquiat to Los Angeles. Basquiat was getting ready for his art show at the Gagosian Gallery. While in Los Angeles, they noticed how movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood often showed African Americans in very old-fashioned ways.
To speak out against these stereotypes, the three artists called themselves the "Hollywood Africans." This name was a strong social and political statement. Basquiat even painted two famous artworks showing them: Hollywood Africans in front of the Chinese Theater with Footprints of Movie Stars (1983) and Hollywood Africans (1983).
Toxic's Art and Exhibitions
Toxic continued to use his graffiti spray painting skills, but he started working on canvases instead of subway cars. His art became more abstract, meaning it focused on shapes, colors, and forms rather than clear pictures.
In 1984, Toxic's art was shown in Italy as part of a group exhibition called Arte di Frontiera: New York Graffiti. In 2014, his work was featured in the Rapid Enamel exhibit at the University of Chicago. This was one of the first times graffiti art was shown in a major American museum.
Toxic's paintings are now part of the collections of important museums. These include the Brooklyn Museum, the Groninger Museum, and the Museum of the City of New York. In 2013, he was part of an exhibit in London called Last of the Hollywood Africans: Toxic, Rammellzee and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
In 2015, Toxic's art was shown in two more group exhibitions: Le Pressionnisme at Pinacothèque de Paris in France, and Graffiti, New York meets the Dam at the Amsterdam Museum in the Netherlands. In 2020, his painting Ransom Note: CEE (1984) was included in the exhibit Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Toxic has also worked with a French company called Pierre Frey. He designed special wallpaper, printed fabric, and wall panels for them.
Today, Toxic lives in France, but he spends his time traveling between Paris, Florence, and New York.
