This list isn’t exclusive, of course. There are plenty of other incredible artists out there that I could have chosen. With the worldwide spread of graffiti there are so many talented artists working in the graffiti style it’s almost impossible to come up with a definitive top ten list of the “best graffiti artists.”

These 10 are pretty damned good though 🙂



Dondi

The Style Master General.

One of the most influential writers of all time. The ultimate stylist.

Revok

My favorite of the LA style writers. I eat that West Coast style up and Revok has taken it all to an impossible extreme. So fresh.



(all revok photos courtesy flickr user anarchosyn)

Vulcan



(vulcan photo courtesy flickr user otherthings.

“The Style Messiah.”

The stuff he did in the 80s is more complex and thought-provoking to me than 99.999% of the work done since. His photos in Spraycan Art (one reproduced below) are amongst my favorite pieces of all time.

Daim

The 3d master. Daim takes what, in the hands of some is basically a cheesy novelty style and brings it to the absolute top of the graffiti style game. Top notch color, form, design and draftsmanship.



photo courtesy flickr user Pasota.com



photo courtesy flickr user Harry Palmer

Doc/Arab



(photo credit to Doc himself. Swiped from myspace)

So much style.

Ces



(classic vet and ces halloween wall courtesy flickr user dmax3270)

The classic wild style practitioner. Very influential.

Bates

For my money, the best style writer in the world today. At a time when many people literally paint the same outline dozens or even hundreds of times and just change up the colors, Bates paints a different style pretty much every time. If you’re a writer, know one thing: Bates can probably do your style better than you.

Delta

One of the most unique styles in graffiti, Dutch old school legend Delta takes his industrial design background and applies it to the letter form in wildly creative ways.



(photo credits to … you guessed it … my hard drive*)

Dream TDK



RIP

One of the first West Coast writers that really impressed me when I was younger. He had a really smooth classic style. People doing 500 color “burners” could learn a lot by looking at Dream’s letters.

REAS

Reas is, for my money, the best practitioner of that funky AOK/RIS style that basically took over graffiti a few years ago. So fresh, crazy influential and as Todd James, one of the top ‘writer makes good stories” ever.

Photo credits are noted where possible. A lot of these are just pulled from my hard drive (and therefore originally pulled off the net), so if you see an image here that’s yours and you want it pulled or just want me to properly credit you, please just let me know.