Banksy is a world renowned, Bristol-based graffiti artist whose artwork is often political and/or humorous in nature.

His street art, which combines graffiti with a distinctive stencilling technique, has appeared throughout London and various cities around the world, garnering him underground notoriety and widespread coverage in the mainstream media.

Banksy started as a freehand graffiti artist. He was not completely satisfied with his work, however. He found that the pieces did not send out the messages he was looking for, or were widely misunderstood because the population of the Bristol borough of Easton, where he did most of his murals, were "thick as shit", as he put it. Then he discovered the art of stencilling and soon became noticed for his art.^[1]

Banksy's stencils are often site-specific and feature a wide range of striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The overall message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist, anti-establishment or pro-freedom. Frequent subjects include animals such as monkeys and rats (see image left), policemen, soldiers, children and the elderly. He also makes stickers (the Neighbourhood Watch subvert) and sculpture (the murdered phonebox).

In 2003 in a show called 'Turf War', held in a warehouse, he inverted his art somewhat, by painting on animals. Although the RSPCA declared the conditions suitable, an animal rights activist chained herself to the railings in protest.^[2]

He was responsible for the cover art of Blur's 2003 album Think Tank.

Recently he has moved on to producing subverted paintings; one example is Monet's Water Lily Pond, adapted to include typical urban detritus such as litter and a shopping trolley floating in its reflective waters, another is Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, redrawn to show that the characters are looking at an English football hooligan dressed only in his Union Flag underpants, who has just thrown an object through the glass window of the cafe. These modified oil paintings were exhibited at a packed twelve day exhibition in Westbourne Grove, London in 2005.^[3]

In 2006, Banksy held an exhibition called Barely Legal, billed as a "three day vandalised warehouse extravaganza" in Los Angeles on the weekend of 16 September. The exhibition featured a live 'elephant in a room', painted in a floral wallpaper pattern.^[4]

After Christina Aguilera bought an original of Queen Victoria as a lesbian and two prints for £25,000 ^[5], on 20 October, 2006 a set of Kate Moss paintings sold in Sotheby's London for £50,400, setting an auction record for Banksy's work. The six silk-screen prints, featuring the model painted in the style of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe pictures, sold for five times its estimated value. His stencil of a green Mona Lisa with paint dripping from her eyes sold for £57,600 at the Sotheby's auction ^[6].

Banksy has claimed responsibility for a number of high profile stunts. These include the following:

• At London Zoo, he climbed into the penguin enclosure and painted 'We're bored of fish' in two metre high letters.
• At Bristol Zoo, he left the message 'Keeper smells - Boring Boring Boring' in the elephant enclosure.
• In January 2001, he traveled to the areas controlled by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in Chiapas, Mexico, and in sign of solidarity with their movement, he painted some murals with scenes depicting the struggle and also made stencils on the walls of San Cristóbal de las Casas.^[7]
• In March 2005, he placed subverted artworks in the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. ^[8]

• He put up a subverted painting in London's Tate Britain gallery.
• In May 2005 Banksy's version of primitive cave painting depicting a human figure hunting wildlife whilst pushing a shopping trolley was found hanging in the British Museum. Upon discovery, the museum actually added it to their permanent collection.^[9]
• In August 2005, Banksy painted 9 images on the Palestinian side of the Israeli West Bank barrier, including an image of a ladder going up and over the wall and an image of children digging a hole through the wall .^[10][11]
• In April 2006, Banksy created a sculpture based on a crumpled red phone box with a pickaxe in its side, apparently bleeding, and placed it in a street in Soho. It was later removed by Westminster Council. BT released a press release, which said: "This is a stunning visual comment on BT's transformation from an old-fashioned telecommunications company into a modern communications services provider."^[12]
• In June 2006, Banksy stencilled an image of a naked man hanging out of a bedroom window on a wall in central Bristol, England. The image sparked some controversy, with the Bristol City Council leaving it up to the public to decide whether it should stay or go. ^[13] After an internet discussion in which 97% (all but 6 people) supported the stencil, the city council decided it would be left on the building. ^[13]

• In August/September 2006, Banksy replaced up to 500 copies of Paris Hilton's debut album, Paris, in 48 different UK record stores with his own cover art and remixes by Danger Mouse. Music tracks were given titles such as "Why am I Famous?", "What Have I Done?" and "What Am I For?". Several copies of the CD were purchased by the public before stores were able to remove them, some going on to be sold for as much as £750 on online auction websites. The cover art depicted Paris Hilton digitally altered to appear topless. Other pictures feature her with a dog's head replacing her own, and one of her stepping out of a luxury car, edited to include a group of homeless people, which included the caption 90% of success is just showing up.^[14][15][16]
• In September 2006, Banksy dressed an inflatable doll in the manner of a Guantanamo Bay detainment camp prisoner (orange jumpsuit, black hood, and handcuffs) and then placed the figure within the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride at Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California.^[17][18]

Some stencils are created by using a computer to generate an image, and by utilizing a photo editing program to break down that image into layers, which are then subsequently printed and cut to be painted as the multiple layers of a stencil. Many stencil graffiti artists, including Banksy, hand draw and hand cut picture layers onto a medium such as cardboard or acetate, and, by using free-hand techniques such as shading, create highly detailed images that are quickly applied. This allows a stencil artist to incorporate far more detail into a small piece of work than a free-hand artist can, often in a piece ten times the size.

Although he has tried to hide his identity, according to The Guardian his real name is Robert Banks ^[19], born in 1974^[7] in Bristol, England.

The registrant of Banksy's website is one Stephen Lazarides, a photographer, and it has been suggested that Lazarides is Banksy. However, Lazarides apparently claims to be Banksy's manager, and is credited with much of the photography in one of Banksy's recent publication, Banging Your Head Against A Brick Wall. Lazarides now has a gallery on Greek St in London's Soho called Laz Inc, where Banksy originals can be bought, and also manages a website, picturesonwalls.com, which has the exclusive sale rights for all of Banksy's cheaper limited edition prints.

Whilst creating artwork for Wall of Sounds's "Two Culture Clash" in Jamaica, a number of photographs were taken of Banksy by the event's official photographer, Peter Dean Rickards. After the pair had a number of disagreements^[20], Rickards sold his photos to the London Evening Standard, where they were published^[21]. Rickards then published an article on his website with photographs he claims are of Banksy.^{[citation needed]} There were arguments for and against the veracity of the photographs.^{[citation needed]}

A Brian Sewell spoof website claims to show a photograph of Banksy.^[22] Banksy's parents think their son is a painter and a decorator.^[23]

Peter Gibson, spokesperson for Keep Britain Tidy, asserts that Banksy's work is simple vandalism. This political purpose behind his 'vandalism' is reminiscent of the Ad Jammers or subvertising movement, who deface corporate advertising to change the intended message and hijack the advert.

Banksy does paid work for charities (e.g., Greenpeace) and can demand up to £25,000 for canvases. It has also been alleged that Banksy has done paid work with corporations such as Puma^[24] although this has been denied. This has led to him being accused of being a sellout and a careerist by other artists and activists.

Due to the shroud of secrecy surrounding his real identity and his subversive character; Banksy has achieved somewhat of a cult following from some of the younger age group within the stencilling community.

In 2004 the Space Hijackers gave out spoof vouchers outside a Banksy exhibition to highlight the artist's hypocritical use of anti-capitalist and protest imagery while doing work for corporations and art galleries.

• "He does all this and he stays anonymous. I think that's great. These days everyone is trying to be famous. But he has anonymity" - Brad Pitt^[25]

• "Banksy has never let the world know his real name - and he has never even posed for a photograph. Funny kind of celebrity" - Paul Vallely in The Independent.

• "Urban grafitti artist Banksy is clearly a guffhead, yet he's often feted as a a genius straddling the edge of now. Why? Because his work looks clever to idiots. And apparently that'll do. Take his political stuff. One features the Vietnamese girl who had her clothes napalmed off. A familiar image, you think. Then, with an astonishing lurch, you notice sly, subversive genius Banksy has stencilled Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald on either side of her. Wham! The message hits you like a lead bus: America... um... war... Disney... and stuff. In an instant your world view changes forever. Staggering home, mind blown, you flick v-signs at Burger King. Nice one Banksy. You've shown us the truth, yeah?" - Charlie Brooker in The Guardian

Banksy has also self-published several books that contain photos of his work in various countries as well as some of his canvas work and exhibitions, accompanied by his own subversive and often witty writings. His first book, published in black-and-white, is Banging Your Head Against A Brick Wall followed by the full colour Existencilism. In 2004 he published his third book, Cut it Out. Random House published Wall and Piece in 2005. It contained a combination of images from his three previous books, as well as some new material. ^[1]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Banksy.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Banksy.

Wikinews has related news:

• Renowned graffiti artist Banksy pranks Disneyland overnight

• Banksy's website
• Banksy Ebay Group - Original Banksy Discussion Group
• Banksy.info - Banksy Fans Forum
• Banksy at Flickr!
• Banksy at Buzznet!
• Banksy on artofthestate - over 350 Banksy photos
• Article on Wall and Piece
• Galleries of Banksy's work: ekosystem.org, Banksy on artofthestate - over 350 photos!, ghostboy.co.uk, pbase.com search, Jon Marsh
• Video reportage of the 'Illusive Banksy'
• Art Attack from Wired
• An article on the artist from Liverpool's 'Nerve' magazine
• Perry Ferrell interviews Shepard Fairey on Banksy's Art
• Simon Hattenstone interviews Banksy
• Flickr photoset of Bansky's Paris Hilton CD shop drop prank
• A Google Map of Banksy locations
• Radio story about Banksy from U.S. public radio program 'Marketplace'
• Video of tagged live elephant from Banksy's Barely Legal Show in Los Angeles
• Guardian article, 17 Sept 2006, about Banksy

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