United Graffiti Artists

United Graffiti Artists (aka UGA) was an early American graffiti artists collective, founded in 1972 by Hugo Martinez in New York City.^[1][2] UGA was the first organized group of writers, and the first to promote graffiti as a high art.^[3][4][5] Martinez, then a student activist at City College of New York, organized a group of teenagers who had been tagging the subways ^[6] into a loose collective, formalizing their work and paving the way for commercialization.^[7] In September 1973, UGA organized the first ever gallery show of graffiti at the Razor Gallery in SoHo.^[8][9][10]

According to authors Cori Anderson and Kevin Jackson, the artists of UGA elevated the profile of graffiti, bringing it from the subways and the streets to art galleries and studios.^[11][12] Henry Chalfant, a sculptor from New York City said "United Graffiti Artists (UGA) and Nation of Graffiti Artists (NOGA), marked the first attempts to organize and legitimize writers as artists."^[13]

Early members of UGA included PHASE 2,^[8] SJK 171,^[14] TAKI 183,^[15] HENRY 161 (Henry Medina),^[14] and MIKE 171 (Mike Hughes).^[6]