Art & Design

Types of Street Art Styles

Name: Types of Street Art Styles
Creator: Community curated
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Stencil, Wheat Paste, Muralism, Tags — which street art style carries the most creative power and urban significance?

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Source:Community curated

Updated:3/7/2026

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Style↕	Origin / Era↕	Medium↕	Notable Artists↕	Known For↕
Tagging	Philadelphia/NYC, late 1960s	Markers, spray paint	TAKI 183, Cornbread, SEEN	The most basic and oldest form of graffiti, stylized signatures, territorial marking, every graffiti artist starts here, contentious: art or vandalism?
Wildstyle	New York City, 1970s-80s	Spray paint	Tracy 168, Zephyr, Dondi	Interlocking, overlapping letters nearly impossible to read, arrows, connections, and extensions, the most technically complex graffiti form, NYC subway cars were the canvas
Stencil Art	1960s political protest, popularized 2000s	Spray paint through cut stencils	Banksy, Blek le Rat, C215	Fast application (seconds, not hours), political messaging, reproducible images, Banksy made it world-famous, Blek le Rat pioneered it in Paris
Wheat Paste (Paste-Up)	1960s-70s political posters, art since 1990s	Paper/poster affixed with wheat paste	Shepard Fairey (OBEY), JR, Swoon	Pre-made art applied quickly, Shepard Fairey's OBEY Giant campaign, JR's massive photographic portraits on buildings, less legally risky than spray paint
Muralism	Mexico 1920s (Diego Rivera), global revival 2000s	House paint, spray paint, mixed media	Diego Rivera, Os Gêmeos, Kobra	Large-scale wall paintings, often commissioned and legal, community storytelling, Diego Rivera's political murals, Kobra's kaleidoscopic portraits
Throw-Up	New York City, late 1970s	Spray paint (two colors: outline + fill)	COPE2, COST, IN	Quick bubble letters (done in under a minute), quantity over quality approach, 'bombing' — covering as many spots as possible, bridge between tags and pieces
Piece (Masterpiece)	New York City, 1970s-80s	Spray paint, multiple colors	Lee Quiñones, Futura, Lady Pink	Full-color, detailed spray-painted works, the gold standard of graffiti art, NYC whole-car subway pieces were the pinnacle, can take hours or days
3D / Anamorphic	2000s-present	Spray paint, house paint	Odeith, Edgar Mueller, DAIM	Creates optical illusion of depth on flat surfaces, looks three-dimensional from specific viewing angle, Instagram-era street art, Odeith's hyperrealistic insects
Yarn Bombing (Knit Graffiti)	Houston, Texas, 2005	Yarn, knitted/crocheted fabric	Magda Sayeg (Knitta Please), Olek	Covers street objects in colorful knitting, non-destructive guerrilla art, Magda Sayeg started by covering her door handle, the 'grandma' of street art
Sticker Art (Slaps)	1990s-2000s punk/skate culture	Adhesive stickers, vinyl	Shepard Fairey, D*Face, Invader	Mass-produced and stuck everywhere, 'Hello My Name Is' postal stickers as canvas, low-risk, collectable, skate culture crossover, trading culture
Mosaic / Tile Art	1990s-present	Ceramic tiles, Rubik's Cubes	Invader, Isaiah Zagar	Invader installs pixelated Space Invader mosaics worldwide, each installation is 'scored' like a video game, durable and weather-resistant, Zagar's Magic Gardens in Philly
Reverse Graffiti (Clean Tagging)	2000s	Cleaning agent / pressure washer on dirty surfaces	Paul 'Moose' Curtis, Alexandre Orion	Creates art by removing dirt/grime from surfaces, legally grey — you're cleaning not vandalizing, Alexandre Orion cleaned skulls into a São Paulo tunnel
LED / Projection Art	2000s-present	Projectors, LED lights, lasers	Graffiti Research Lab, Hera, SWEATSHOPPE	Temporary light-based graffiti, L.A.S.E.R. Tag projects writing onto buildings with lasers, zero permanent damage, digital-age street art, interactive installations
Calligraffiti	2000s (named by Niels 'Shoe' Meulman)	Spray paint, ink, brushes	Niels 'Shoe' Meulman, eL Seed, Retna	Fusion of calligraphy and graffiti, elegant letterforms at street scale, eL Seed paints massive Arabic calligraphy on buildings, bridges fine art and urban art
Installations / Sculptural Street Art	1990s-present	Found objects, sculptures, mixed media	Bordalo II, Mark Jenkins, Joshua Allen Harris	3D objects placed in urban spaces, Bordalo II creates animal sculptures from trash, Mark Jenkins makes realistic human-shaped tape sculptures, blurs art and public space

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