Toxic

Torrick Ablack, known as Toxic, is an American artist born in 1965 in the Bronx, New York. He emerged as a significant figure in the graffiti movement of the early 1980s, beginning to paint graffiti at the age of 13 alongside A-One and Kool Koor. Toxic joined the Tag Master Killers (TMK) crew, led by Rammellzee, whose philosophy of "Gothic Futurism" influenced his artistic vision, expanding it beyond traditional graffiti to embrace abstraction and complexity. A pivotal moment in Toxic's career occurred in 1982 when he met Jean-Michel Basquiat, who became a mentor and encouraged him to transition from painting subway trains to canvases. Toxic, along with Rammellzee and Basquiat, formed the "Hollywood Africans" in 1983, a collective response to the stereotypical portrayals of African Americans in Hollywood, and are depicted in Basquiat's paintings of the same name. Toxic's work has been exhibited internationally, including in "Arte di Frontiera: New York Graffiti" in Bologna, Italy, in 1984, and later in institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of the City of New York. He has continued to evolve his practice, with recent solo exhibitions showcasing both new and earlier works.