Famous graffiti artist teams up with local high school students to create murals in Astoria

Last week, a colorful new mural was completed under the Hell Gate Bridge at Steinway Street and 23rd Road. Located next to Olympia sports bar, it depicts Ancient Greek gods and goddesses and other mythological scenes. According to the Queens Chronicle and DNAinfo, it’s the work of students from Frank Sinatra School of the Arts and local street art celebrity, Lady Pink.

If you’ve seen the classic film Wild Style (1982), you’ll recognize Lady Pink as the sassy female lead who ran with the boys as a graffiti artist in the early days of NYC hip hop culture. She eventually went on to have her pieces shown in the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum, among others. As an Astoria resident, she has worked on several public art projects with students in the neighborhood.

The freshly painted Greek gods and goddesses sit across the street from last year’s summer mural project, an ode to the neighborhood’s ethnic diversity, called “Welcome to Astoria.” You can spot other collaborative pieces by Lady Pink and local youth at the corner of 33rd Street and 23rd Avenue, and underneath the Astoria-Ditmars Blvd train station.