D'Stassi Art has opened "Miss Subway NYC," a landmark solo exhibition by trailblazing graffiti artist Lady Pink in Shoreditch, London. The show features a full-scale recreation of a graffiti-covered NYC subway station, displaying original works, new commissions, archival pieces, sketches, and ephemera from her early career. Lady Pink, one of the first women to break into New York's graffiti scene, began tagging trains at 17 and exhibited at MoMA PS1's landmark 1981 show "New York/New Wave" alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. The exhibition's title references the historic Miss Subways beauty pageant, and includes a self-portrait of Lady Pink as Miss Subways 2025.
The exhibition matters because it honors the foundational role of subway trains as the birthplace of graffiti culture, while highlighting Lady Pink's enduring influence as a pioneering female artist in a male-dominated field. It also addresses broader themes of censorship, gender bias, and survival in the art world, as Lady Pink continues to mentor younger women artists and create political murals. The show underscores the ongoing transition of street art from illicit subway cars to legitimate gallery spaces, celebrating the pioneers who shaped this movement.