LSD-OM - "To Whom it May Concern"

LSD-OM - Marker and Spray on NYC Transit Subway map. Measures approx 22"x32", from 2011.

LSD OM began his writing career on he upper west side of Manhattan in 1969, he has the rare distinction of being the

only writer from the 60’s to go on to do pieces on the trains.

At the height of his writing career, from 1973 to 1976, LSD OM wrote with every great writer of his generation, including

a partnership with the legendary STAYHIGH 149. The two tags side by side were dazzling and one of the highlights of this show are the colabs between the two great writers.

In 1974 LSD OM and FLINT created the graffiti crew the Rebels, a crew that helped pave the way for RTW years later. Writers who have acknowledged his influence include

HAZE, ZEPHYR and REVOLT – now it’s your turn.

About the Artist

LSD-OM

LSD OM began writing graffiti as a young boy growing up on west 86^th street. He was inspired by a lot of the political graffiti of the 60’s including the SDS logo, a name he took for himself for a short time.

He had started writing his name CHAD in 1969, in 1971 his family moved to the Bronx and he took on a new name, LSD OM. By 1972 he was shadowing the tags of STAYHIGH 149 and DEADLEG 167. He took his L and D from DEADLEG and his S from STAYHIGH and morphed them into his own psychedelic tag. After developing the tag he went all over the city trying to hit as many stations as possible where a lot of his tags survived into the 80’s.

If his tag was a thing of beauty then his pieces were “art”.

From 1973 to 1976 he did at least a hundred different pieces with none of them looking the same. At a time when the writing culture was looking into itself for inspiration, i.e. – whatever the last guy did, LSD was too busy pilfering underground comics and record covers and using them as inspiration. His pieces definitely stood apart from the others!

In the same three-year time span he co-founded the writing crew the Rebels, a highly respected group that would become an inspiration for RTW. He wanted the Rebels to reflect the culture of writing itself and the crew had members of all races. It was a utopian vision that seemed to bypass the complexities of race relations that actually existed in the graffiti world. For many white writers running into all black crews usually meant getting jumped, somehow Chad seemed to bypass all of this. Perhaps because of his age

or his great style he seemed to be able to go where he pleased. This just added to his legacy as his tags were found in some of the most dangerous places in he city. He quit writing in 1976 – amazingly some of those tags still stand.