Inkie

Inkie
Participating in the Secret Wars competition in 2007
Born	Tom Bingle 1969/1970 (age 46–47) Bristol
Nationality	British
Known for	Graffiti, Street art, Bristol underground scene
Website	inkie.co.uk

Inkie is a London-based painter and street artist, originally from Clifton, Bristol. He is cited as being part of Bristol's graffiti heritage, along with Banksy, 3D and Nick Walker.

Inkie began working as part of Crime Incorporated Crew (also known as the "CIC" or the Crime inc.crew) in 1983, along with Felix and Joe Braun. He was the head of the many artists arrested in 1989 during "Operation Anderson", the UK's largest ever graffiti bust. He arranged 1998's Walls on Fire event with Banksy, on the site of the future At-Bristol centre. He has subsequently worked in the video game industry, including some time as head of creative design at Sega, where his work featured in Jet Set Radio. Inkie was one artist present to do live painting at the launch of Banksy's book Bristol: Home Sweet Home. Inkie has likened the time spent training as a graffiti artist to that of classical musicians.

He now teaches art and graphic design to young children and college students. Regarded as a modern-day father of street art, his rise to fame has been by producing iconic collaborations with various modern days super stars. Having chosen to only outsource his work via established members of the Fine Art Guild (Established 1847), the restricted work have seen demand increase in some cases by 10 times in value as his art demand has spread across all shores including Japan, China, America to name a few. Inkie is now a brand, a name, an artist and a phenomenon with auctions sales set to break records in 2013.

Between 30 January – 29 February 2013, Inkie's work was featured at Art Below's first "pop up" billboard show in America in New Orleans. For the show, billboard space used normally for advertising featured a mix of urban and contemporary art. A curated selection of 20 billboards flanked the major New Orleans Mardi Gras parade routes. Running alongside the billboard show was an exhibition of the artists original works at Gallery Orange in the French Quarter. Scenes and moments from this exhibition were screened on the Art Below web site in April 2012.