Banksy

Banksy started out as a freehand graffiti artist in the early 1990s. During his early years he worked as a part of Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ), with Kato and Tes, and his art was part of the larger Bristol underground scene. He drew inspiration from some of the local street artists such as Nick Walker, Inkie and 3D.

Initially his work was primarily freehand though he used to stencil on occasion. Over a period of time he began using stencils predominantly as he felt that stenciling gave him more artistic freedom.

Marked by bold images with hard-hitting underlying messages and witty slogans, his art soon gained popularity in the Bristol area and in London. With growing popularity he developed his own signature style that distinguished him from other street artists of the Bristol underground scene.

He painted his first known large wall mural, ‘The Mild Mild West’ to cover advertising of a former solicitors' office on Stokes Croft in Bristol in 1997. The mural shows a teddy bear lobbing a Molotov cocktail at three riot police.

He received much publicity during the 2000s because of the bold nature of his work, characterized by striking images, witty slogans, and underlying social and political commentary. Once considered a vandal for defacing publically visible surfaces on walls, streets, and bridges, he gained new recognition as a popular street artist.

In 2002, Banksy’s fist Los Angeles exhibition, ‘Existencilism’ was held at 331⁄3 Gallery, a tiny Silver Lake venue owned by Frank Sosa. The exhibition was curated by 331⁄3 Gallery, Malathion LA's Chris Vargas, Funk Lazy Promotions' Grace Jehan, and B+.

He staged the exhibition ‘Turf War’ in a London warehouse in 2003 where he painted on animals. He embellished the hide of a heifer with a portrait of Andy Warhol, as well as Queen Elizabeth II in the guise of a chimpanzee. The same year, he gave an interview to BBC's Nigel Wrench, talking about his art.

He gained much fame when in 2004 he produced a quantity of spoof British £10 notes substituting the picture of the Queen's head with Diana, Princess of Wales's head and changing the text "Bank of England" to "Banksy of England". One of these notes was sold, in October 2007, at Bonhams auction house in London for £24,000.

In 2006, Banksy held an exhibition called Barely Legal, billed as a "three-day vandalised warehouse extravaganza" in Los Angeles. The exhibition featured a live elephant painted in a pink and gold floral wallpaper pattern, intended to draw attention to the issue of world poverty.

During the 2000s Banksy’s popularity skyrocketed and people flocked to buy his artworks at the auctions. His ‘Bombing Middle England’ fetched over £102,000 at Sotheby's auction house while two of his other graffiti works, ‘Balloon Girl’ and ‘Bomb Hugger’, sold for £37,200 and £31,200 respectively.

He undertook a residency ‘Better Out Than In’ in October 2013 which began as a one-month "show on the streets of New York [City]". Over the duration of one month, he unveiled at least one work of art daily, documenting it on both a dedicated website and an Instagram account. Tourists were able to buy original Banksy art for just $60 each at the show.