Urban Graffiti and Stencil Art by Street Legend Banksy

“There’s nothing more dangerous than someone who wants to make the world a better place.” Banksy

From Subversive graffiti artist to king of the streets – everyone is asking one question. Who is Banksy? During his rise to infamy, this rebel street artist has defied authorities, defaced Disney, infiltrated museums, punked Paris Hilton, and sold his street art at Sotheby’s for exorbitant sums of money.

I was first introduced to Banksy and the underground world of Street Art by the Oscar nominated documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop. Instantly, I felt compelled to share the work of Britain’s most wanted artist. Banksy is more than a radical anti-establishment artist – he’s a cutting edge marketing genius. His stunts have gained worldwide acclaim. He’s notorious for sneaking into some of the world’s most celebrated museums and leaving framed paintings of his work, stating that he doesn’t have the time to wait for museums to add his work to their collections. Banksy’s version of a primitive cave painting depicting a human hunting wildlife while pushing a shopping trolley was hung in gallery 49 of the British Museum. Upon discovery, they did add it to their permanent collection.

“We can’t do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves.” Continue with Banksy

His art work isn’t without a sense of humour as well. At the Bristol Zoo, he painted – ‘I want out. This place is too cold, Keeper smells, Boring, boring, boring.’ in the elephant enclosure and ‘We’re bored of fish’ in 7-foot-high letters at the penguin aquarium in London. But my all-time favorite Banksy, was his alteration of 500 Paris Hilton debut CDs, which he put back into 48 different locations, changing the track names to ‘Why I am Famous’, “What have I done” and replaced her photos with lewd pictures.

Recently, he painted images of hope on the Israeli west bank wall – one of the most controversial barriers in the world. Why? He said, “It’s the most ugly and inhuman things I have ever seen in my life.” His political messaging is simple and uncertain, even showing contempt for his own pop culture. He states, “Being certain about things, it didn’t help, basically we’re fish that crawled out of a swamp and learned to walk and talk and play football – so being sure of anything is totally ridiculous.” After one of his paintings sold a Sotheby’s for a personal record of 182,000 pounds, he reacted by painting the auction floor at Sotheby’s and titled it Morons. (It sold in the same room he painted for 4,200 pounds)

With all the notoriety, you would think his identity would’ve been revealed by now. It’s speculated that Banksy is Robin Gunningham, a man born in Bristol in 1973. Gunningham was educated at Bristol Cathedral School, and was extremely talented at art. But nobody knows for sure, his agent refuses to comment on who Banksy may or may not be, adding to the mystery of his legendary status.

For me, Banksy’s work represents true freedom of expression and a philosophical challenge to what really matters in society. His defiance of all things authoritarian and politically unjust makes me question the way we live. Simply put, he’s one of the coolest people I’ve never met; and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next. In his documentary, Banksy explains that in Art – “their aren’t supposed to be any rules.”