Top Street Art and Graffiti Influencers of 2023

When you think of street art, you may envision kids in back alleys graffitiing the walls. This modern art form emerged in the 1960s, with artists tagging their names and street numbers. However, it quickly went legit and became a fully-fledged art form with a diverse crowd of artists. As the art style spread, so did its detail, with graffiti influencers beginning to vie for originality by adding shapes and icons to the names. Soon, street art lifted its limits, moving beyond simple name tags. Today, street art encompasses everything from political agendas to hidden identities. With the inclusion of social media, kids with spray paint turned into stars. Here are the popular street art and graffiti influencers who lead the pack.

Top street art and graffiti influencers

Ant Carver — antcarver

Street art is usually defined by its boldness and sense of rebellion. London-based artist Ant Carver uses large-scale art to capture both of these ideas. With beautiful, stylistic portraits of human beings using varied color, Ant gives a vibrancy to his work that offers a unique insight into just how artistic street art can be.

With over 17K followers, Carver’s use of abstract elements mixed with fine detail reaches a wide audience in the art world, given the traditional elements mixed with funky graffiti. Carver’s signature pieces display photorealistic images of people with loud splashes of color that cross his clean lines.

Alice Mizrachi — am_nyc

Alice, an educator and muralist street artist, believes in the power of expression and empowerment through art. With themes like community and identity bursting from her work, Alice’s talent speaks for itself.

With 15K followers, the abstract and almost ethereal women in her paintings clearly draw people into her work. Apart from her role as an artist and a teacher, Alice also founded Younity, an international women’s art collective.

Lady Aiko — ladyaiko_nyc

With her unique and bold take on traditional Asian art, Tokyo-born, New York City-based artist Aiko holds the title of one of the most influential street artists around, boasting over 20K followers on Instagram. Aiko has been commissioned by big names such as Louis Vuitton, Apple, Pepsi, Sanrio Hello Kitty and even Michelle Obama.

With projects all over the world, such as Dubai’s City Walk and The Bowery Wall, you might easily recognize her fun, flirty and feminine style mixed with bold, contrasting colors and hints of traditionalism.

Gaia — gaiastreetart

Gaia is a street artist and top art influencer from Baltimore with over 82K Instagram followers. Working all over the world, his pieces often take up large amounts of space and stun his audience with a beautiful mix of classical art techniques and astounding realism clashing with traditional street style and bold coloring.

Shepard Fairey — obeygiant

With over a million online followers, Shepard is one of the most influential art influencers and also probably one of the most well-known street artists working today. It’s easy to recognize his signature “Hope” poster that Obama used during the 2008 U.S. presidential elections, as well as “OBEY,” featuring Andre the Giant.

Fairey stands out with his bold, graphic pieces, often in contrasting color with blocky shapes. The lack of fine detail is complemented by his commonly used brick surfaces. The grittiness of his colors along with his grunge style offer something special for audiences to admire.

David Zinn — streetartbydavidzinn

David creates street art in some of the most unassuming locations. He works with chalk, drawing animals or cartoons. David is one of the most popular street art accounts on TikTok, with more than 3M followers.

While many street artists go for bold, permanent murals or portraits, David’s style is “ephemeral street art,” which washes away over time.

LDTR — LissTdr4

Liss is a street artist who paints portraits and other paintings on walls in public places in Mexico City. She shares videos of her process on TikTok. She embraces protest as part of her art, with videos filmed at protests in Mexico. Liss has more than 46K followers on TikTok.

Resaksgraffiti — resaksgraffiti

Resaks mixes graffiti and ASMR-type content on TikTok, with the spraying sounds providing a satisfying phenomenon all its own. Resaks is an experienced graffiti artist who showcases new techniques and approaches to the art. Resaks has 1.4M TikTok followers.

Banksy — banksy

With a whopping 12M Instagram followers, Banksy’s true identity remains unconfirmed, but his pseudonym holds plenty of name recognition. With his scathing political art, Banksy makes bold statements, using his work as a platform for change.

Banksy follows a very traditional street art style, typically consisting of stenciled spray paintings. His use of dimension and stark black and white, however, sets him apart from other artists in the game.

JR — jr

Banksy isn’t the only artist to choose anonymity. Many street artists find half of the appeal in remaining mysterious. JR is an anonymous French artist who describes himself as a “photograffeur.” He’s a street artist and top art influencer who creates large photographs, often of people, and posts them in public areas. JR has 1.7M followers on Instagram.

Johny Carlos — feyk_johny

Johny is a Brazilian muralist who also dabbles in other mediums such as digital art. His paintings show off the vibrant colors you’d associate with the warm, sunny climate of his native Brazil. A look through Johny’s creations is also a tour of several locales in Brazil where he paints.