Roger Gastman began writing graffiti as a teenager in Bethesda, Maryland. Since then, he has founded and published the pop culture magazines While You Were Sleeping and Swindle, with Shepard Fairey, and authored a dozen graffiti art books including The History of American Graffiti (with Caleb Neelon; Harper Collins, 2011). In 2011, he curated, with Jeffrey Deitch and Aaron Rose, the exhibition Art in the Streets at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. In 2013 Gastman curated Pump Me Up â DC Subculture of The 1980s, at The Corcoran in Washington DC where it more then doubled the attendance of any show they had the past five years. Gastmanâs film production credits include Banksyâs Exit through the Gift Shop, The Legend of COOL âDISCOâ DAN and the graffiti documentary Wall Writers, and he is currently directing a documentary for Sanrio/ Hello Kitty on the history of the brand and its fans.
