Brooklyn-born Michael McLeer - a.k.a. Kaves - is an iconic New York graffiti artist, founding member of the Lordz of Brooklyn, tattoo artist, Brooklyn folklorist, writer, actor, and director.
Kaves began his path to graffiti in the winter of 1981 when the Brooklyn kid with spray can in hand wrote the name KAVES on an MTA train car. The rest is New York history. Since then Kaves has created art for other musicians, Adidas, Nike and the Van’s Warped Tour, to name a few. His images have been published in countless books including Henry Chalfant’s pioneering 1984 chronicle Spraycan Art, as well as Kaves’ own book Skin Graf: Masters of Graffiti Tattoo.
The "Brooklyn boy who makes good” would go on to take his art from train cars to museums to skin. He planted roots in the heart of Bay Ridge with Brooklyn Made Tattoo and has most recently become proprietor of Brooklyn Firefly; both have become gathering spaces for fellow artists and creatives, friends and neighbors, celebrities and eccentrics.
Kaves represents that vital, dynamic creative spirit that’s made New York what many call the greatest city in the world.
"LOVE, PEACE & HAIR GREASE,” - Kaves