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ArtCal calls him, "the most controversial and downright interesting graffiti artist at large in the UK today" and whether or not you agree -- Banksy is decorating our streets, galleries...and even Brangelina's household walls.
In New York he has pranked his way into the Met, MoMA, the Brooklyn Museum and the American Museum of Natural History. Recently it was announced that his images would be used to sell luxury condos in Williamsburg...and just yesterday he opened his first official show in New York, at the Vanina Holasek Gallery in Chelsea. The exhibit includes 62 paintings and prints from both private collections and commercial galleries.
Many are rightfully labeling the (sort of) anonymous artist as the next Warhol. In Chelsea, you'll see his Kate Moss print which parodies Warhol's famous Marilyn print. He's also pointed his spraycan and wheatpasted brush towards a soup can from time to time. And mixing his pranks with pop, he once smuggled 500 alternative copies of Paris Hilton's cd into stores.
If you head to the gallery (the show closes December 29th), beware -- it's a little cramped in there. And if you intend to purchase (it's a selling exhibition), hit the ATM beforehand -- pieces are going for six digits.
Photo via Maria Mayoralgo's Flickr.
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But will the Splasher make an appearance?
I certainly hope so.
When is underground transgressive art not underground or transgressive?
When it's in a gallery for six figures.
The problem, for me, anyway, is that once you take his work off the streets, make it legal, and throw a price tag on it that only the elite can afford, it has lost almost all of it's meaning and significance.
str1cken:
banksy did plenty of illegal stuff, and probably continues to do so. he's a smart guy. if he transitions out of illegal work and solely does 6-figure gallery stuff, he certainly wouldn't consider it underground or transgressive. maybe some other morons clinging to his nuts would but so what? the artist knows what's up. let the man make some cream
good for him; time to cash in. is it selling?
He is not selling anything there. It's a gallery which has nothing to do with Banksy. They simply resell his work, where some where simply gifts. Forget it and go to the real show where you could have prints for a lot cheaper.
www.santasghetto.com
I dunno, all this transgressive stuff reminds me of warhol. Hate it all you want, but the pieces will become iconic with time and the prices will only go up.
That's just how art is. The more controversy, the more its talked about, the better.
That said, stylistically all of the stuff is pretty good. Be glad it's not a virgin mary made out of elephant poo or a jesus made out of chocolate.
I love his stuff. If he's willing to make subversive art that sells for crazy prices, more power to him. All artists who have incredible careers while they're living are selling out. Art for art's sake doesn't pay the bills!
Banksy is a hoot.
For more on his art that Banksy personally "installed" in several venerable NYC museums:
http://laughingbone.blogspot.com/2005/03/long-live-banksy.html
while the rich suckers are buying his overpriced art, banksy is in the west bank working on an xmas project:
http://santasghetto.com/
the copying warhol has been done a milllion times before. Why is banksy so special?
#10 Banksy not only paints the pictures, but he also manages to smuggle them past supposedly tight security into some of most well-known museums in the world.
Part of the humor is also the incongruous nature of the artwork. Banksy will put a seemingly 18th century painting in a gallery with other similar paintings. But there will be something just a bit off-center about this painting.
This explains it: http://laughingbone.blogspot.com/2005/03/long-live-banksy.html
I don't think he's done the smuggled painting thing for a while. He seems to be focusing more on street art that mocks the capitalist system that makes his stuff such a commodity. And what better way to say fuck you to the bourgie art world than to infiltrate it than making fun of the schmucks that want to own his work.