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Banksy
 [^]   [^]  Banksy is an anonymous England-based street artist, vandal, political activist, and film director. His satirical street art
and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. His works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls,
and bridges of cities throughout the world. Banksy's work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy says that he was inspired by 3D,
a graffiti artist who later became a founding member of the English musical group Massive Attack. Banksy displays his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls and self-built physical prop pieces.
Banksy does not sell photographs or reproductions of his street graffiti, but art auctioneers have been known to attempt to sell his street art on location
and leave the problem of its removal in the hands of the winning bidder. Banksy created a documentary film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, billed as "the world's first street art disaster movie",
which made its debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The film was released in the UK on 5 March 2010. In January 2011, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary for the film. In 2014,
he was awarded Person of the Year at the 2014 Webby Awards.
 Personal life 
Banksy's name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. In a 2003 interview with Simon Hattenstone of The Guardian, Banksy is described as "white, 28, scruffy casual – jeans, T-shirt, a silver tooth,
silver chain and silver earring. He looks like a cross between Jimmy Nail and Mike Skinner of the Streets". He began as an artist at the age of 14, was expelled from school, and served time in prison for petty crime.
According to Hattenstone, "anonymity is vital to him, because graffiti is illegal". For 10 years in the late 1990s, Banksy lived in a house in Easton, Bristol, then moved to London around 2000.
 Disputed identity 
Banksy is believed to be Robin Gunningham, born on 28 July 1973 in Yate, 12 mi from Bristol. Several of Gunningham's associates
and former schoolmates at the public Bristol Cathedral School have made corroborated this rumor, and in 2016, a study found that the incidence of Banksy's works correlated with the known movements of Gunningham.
Lawyers representing Banksy commented on this study, but did not suggest that the paper's conclusions were flawed. In 1994, Banksy checked into a New York hotel using the name "Robin", and in June 2017,
DJ Goldie referred to Banksy as "Rob". There has been further speculation that Banksy is: In October 2014, an internet hoax circulated that Banksy had been arrested and his identity revealed.
 Early career (1990–2001) 
 [^]  Banksy started as a freehand graffiti artist in 1990–1994 as one of Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew, with two other artists known as Kato and Tes. He was inspired by local artists
and his work was part of the larger Bristol underground scene with Nick Walker, Inkie and 3D. During this time he met Bristol photographer Steve Lazarides, who began selling Banksy's work, later becoming his agent.
By 2000 he had turned to the art of stencilling after realising how much less time it took to complete a work. He claims he changed to stencilling while hiding from the police under a rubbish lorry,
when he noticed the stencilled serial number and by employing this technique, he soon became more widely noticed for his art around Bristol and London. He was the goalkeeper for the Easton Cowboys
and Cowgirls football team in the 1990s, and toured with the club to Mexico in 2001.
Banksy's first known large wall mural was The Mild Mild West painted in 1997 to cover advertising of a former solicitors' office on Stokes Croft in Bristol.
It depicts a teddy bear lobbing a Molotov cocktail at three riot police. Banksy's stencils feature striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist
or anti-establishment. Subjects often include rats, apes, policemen, soldiers, children, and the elderly. In July 2011 one of Banksy's early works, Gorilla in a Pink Mask,
which had been a prominent landmark on the exterior wall of a former social club in Eastville for over ten years, was unwittingly painted over after the premises became a Muslim cultural centre.
 Exhibitions (2002–2003) 
On 19 June 2002, Banksy's first Los Angeles exhibition debuted at 33 Gallery, a tiny Silver Lake venue owned by Frank Sosa. The exhibition, entitled Existencilism, was curated by 33 Gallery, Malathion LA's Chris Vargas,
Funk Lazy Promotions' Grace Jehan, and B+. In 2003, at an exhibition called Turf War, held in a London warehouse, Banksy painted on animals. At the time he gave one of his very few interviews, to the BBC's Nigel Wrench.
Although the RSPCA declared the conditions suitable, an animal rights activist chained herself to the railings in protest. An example of his subverted paintings is Monet's Water Lily Pond,
adapted to include 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 a British football hooligan, dressed only in his Union Flag underpants, who has just thrown an object through the glass window of the cafe.
These oil paintings were shown at a twelve-day exhibition in Westbourne Grove, London in 2005. Banksy, along with Shepard Fairey, Dmote and others created work at a warehouse exhibition in Alexandria,
Sydney for Semi-Permanent in 2003. Approximately 1,500 people attended.
 The Banksy effect (2006–2007) 
After Christina Aguilera bought an original of Queen Victoria as a lesbian and two prints for £25,000, on 19 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 their estimated value.
Their stencil of a green Mona Lisa with real paint dripping from her eyes sold for £57,600 at the same auction. In December, journalist Max Foster coined the phrase, "the Banksy effect",
to illustrate how interest in other street artists was growing on the back of Banksy's success.  [^]  On 21 February 2007, Sotheby's auction house in London auctioned three works,
reaching the highest ever price for a Banksy work at auction: over £102,000 for Bombing Middle England. Two of his other graffiti works, Balloon Girl and Bomb Hugger, sold for £37,200 and £31,200 respectively,
which were well above their estimated prices. The following day's auction saw a further three Banksy works reach soaring prices: Ballerina with Action Man Parts reached £96,000; Glory sold for £72,000;
Untitled  sold for £33,600; all significantly above estimated values. To coincide with the second day of auctions,
Banksy updated his website with a new image of an auction house scene showing people bidding on a picture that said, "I Can't Believe You Morons Actually Buy This Shit." In February 2007,
the owners of a house with a Banksy mural on the side in Bristol decided to sell the house through Red Propeller art gallery after offers fell through, because the prospective buyers wanted to remove the mural.
It is listed as a mural that comes with a house attached. In 2008, Nathan Wellard and Maev Neal, a couple from Norfolk, UK,
made headlines in Britain when they decided to sell their mobile home that contains a 30-foot mural, entitled Fragile Silence, done by Banksy a decade prior to his rise to fame. According to Nathan Wellard,
Banksy had asked the couple if he could use the side of their home as a "large canvas", to which they agreed. In return for the "canvas", the Bristol stencil artist gave them two free tickets to the Glastonbury Festival.
The mobile home purchased by the couple 11 years ago for 1,000 GBP, is now being sold for 500,000 GBP. In April 2007, Transport for London painted over Banksy's image of a scene from Quentin Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction,
featuring Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta clutching bananas instead of guns. Although the image was very popular, Transport for London claimed that the graffiti created "a general atmosphere of neglect
and social decay which in turn encourages crime" and their staff are "professional cleaners not professional art critics". Banksy painted the same site again and, initially,
the actors were portrayed as holding real guns instead of bananas, but they were adorned with banana costumes. Some time later, Banksy made a tribute artwork over this second Pulp Fiction work.
The tribute was for 19-year-old British graffiti artist Ozone who, along with fellow artist Wants, was hit by an underground train in Barking, east London on 12 January 2007.
Banksy depicted an angel wearing a bullet-proof vest holding a skull. They also wrote a note on their website saying:  [^]  The last time I hit this spot I painted a crap picture of two men in banana costumes waving hand guns.
A few weeks later a writer called Ozone completely dogged it and then wrote "If it's better next time I'll leave it" in the bottom corner. When we lost Ozone we lost a fearless graffiti writer
and as it turns out a pretty perceptive art critic. Ozone – rest in peace. On 27 April 2007, a new record high for the sale of Banksy's work was set with the auction of the work Space Girl
and Bird fetching £288,000 around 20 times the estimate at Bonhams of London. On 21 May 2007 Banksy gained the award for Art's Greatest living Briton. Banksy, as expected, did not turn up to collect his award
and continued with his anonymous status. On 4 June 2007, it was reported that Banksy's The Drinker had been stolen. In October 2007,
most of his works offered for sale at Bonhams auction house in London sold for more than twice their reserve price.  [^]  Banksy has published a "manifesto" on his website.
The text of the manifesto is credited as the diary entry of British Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin, DSO, which is exhibited in the Imperial War Museum.
It describes how a shipment of lipstick to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp immediately after its liberation at the end of World War II helped the internees regain their humanity. However, as of 18 January 2008,
Banksy's Manifesto has been replaced with Graffiti Heroes No. 03, which describes Peter Chappell's graffiti quest of the 1970s that worked to free George Davis from imprisonment.
By 12 August 2009 he was relying on Emo Philips' "When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised God doesn't work that way, so I stole one and prayed for forgiveness."
A small number of Banksy's works can be seen in the movie Children of Men, including a stenciled image of two policemen kissing and another stencil of a child looking down a shop. Banksy,
who "is not represented by any of the commercial galleries that sell his work second hand ", claims that the exhibition at Vanina Holasek Gallery in New York City is unauthorised.
The exhibition featured 62 of their paintings and prints.
 2008 
 [^]  In March, a stencilled graffiti work appeared on Thames Water tower in the middle of the Holland Park roundabout, and it was widely attributed to Banksy. It was of a child painting the tag "Take this—Society!"
in bright orange. London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham spokesman, Councillor Greg Smith branded the art as vandalism, and ordered its immediate removal, which was carried out by H&F council workmen within three days.
 [^]  In late August 2008, marking the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the associated levee failure disaster, Banksy produced a series of works in New Orleans, Louisiana,
mostly on buildings derelict since the disaster. A stencil painting attributed to Banksy appeared at a vacant petrol station in the Ensley neighbourhood of Birmingham,
Alabama on 29 August as Hurricane Gustav approached the New Orleans area. The painting, depicting a hooded member of the Ku Klux Klan hanging from a noose, was quickly covered with black spray paint
and later removed altogether. His first official exhibition in New York City, "The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill", opened 5 October 2008.
The animatronic pets in the store window include a mother hen watching over her baby Chicken McNuggets as they peck at a barbecue sauce packet, and a rabbit putting makeup on in a mirror.
The Westminster City Council stated in October 2008 that the work One Nation Under CCTV, painted in April 2008 would be painted over as it was graffiti. The council said it would remove any graffiti,
regardless of the reputation of its creator, and specifically stated that Banksy "has no more right to paint graffiti than a child". Robert Davis,
the chairman of the council planning committee told The Times newspaper: "If we condone this then we might as well say that any kid with a spray can is producing art." The work was painted over in April 2009.
In December 2008, The Little Diver, a Banksy image of a diver in a duffle coat in Melbourne Australia was destroyed. The image had been protected by a sheet of clear perspex; however,
silver paint was poured behind the protective sheet and later tagged with the words "Banksy woz ere". The image was almost completely obliterated.
 The Cans Festival (2008) 
In London, over the weekend 3–5 May 2008, Banksy hosted an exhibition called The Cans Festival. It was situated on Leake Street, a road tunnel formerly used by Eurostar underneath London Waterloo station.
Graffiti artists with stencils were invited to join in and paint their own artwork, as long as it did not cover anyone else's. Banksy invited artists from around the world to exhibit their works.
 2009 
 [^]  In May 2009, Banksy parted company with agent Steve Lazarides and announced that Pest Control, the handling service who act on his behalf, would be the only point of sale for new works. On 13 June 2009,
the Banksy vs Bristol Museum show opened at Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, featuring more than 100 works of art, including animatronics and installations; it is his largest exhibition yet, featuring 78 new works.
Reaction to the show was positive, with over 8,500 visitors to the show on the first weekend. Over the course of the twelve weeks, the exhibition was visited over 300,000 times. In September 2009,
a Banksy work parodying the Royal Family was partially destroyed by Hackney Council after they served an enforcement notice for graffiti removal to the former address of the property owner.
The mural had been commissioned for the 2003 Blur single "Crazy Beat" and the property owner, who had allowed it to be painted, was reported to have been in tears when she saw it was being painted over. In December 2009,
Banksy marked the end of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference by painting four murals on global warming. One included the phrase, "I don't believe in global warming;" the words were submerged in water. A feud
and graffiti war between Banksy and King Robbo broke out when Banksy allegedly painted over one of Robbo's tags. The feud has led to many of Banksy's works being altered by graffiti writers.
 Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) 
The world premiere of the film Exit Through the Gift Shop occurred at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on 24 January. He created 10 street artworks around Park City
and Salt Lake City to tie in with the screening. In February, The Whitehouse public house in Liverpool, England, was sold for £114,000 at auction. The side of the building has an image of a giant rat by Banksy.
In March 2010, the work Forgive Us Our Trespassing was displayed at the London Bridge in conjunction with Art Below an arts company that put on art shows on the London Underground.
The work was censored by the Transport for London, forbidding display of the work with its halo, because of the prevalence of graffiti in the underground. It was displayed without the halo over the boy's head,
but after a few days the halo was repainted by a graffitist, so the TfL disposed of the poster. This decline went through the press and several articles were published remarking on the progress of the poster. In April,
to coincide with the premiere of Exit Through the Gift Shop in San Francisco, five of his works appeared in various parts of the city.
Banksy reportedly paid a San Francisco Chinatown building owner $50 for the use of their wall for one of his stencils. In May 2010, seven new Banksy works of art appeared in Toronto, Ontario, Canada,
though most have been subsequently painted over or removed. In May, to coincide with the premiere of Exit Through the Gift Shop in Royal Oak, Banksy visited the Detroit area and left his mark in several places in Detroit
and Warren. Shortly after, his work depicting a little boy holding a can of red paint next to the words "I remember when all this was trees" was excavated by the 555 Nonprofit Gallery and Studios.
They claim that they do not intend to sell the work, but plan to preserve it and display it at their Detroit gallery. There was also an attempted removal of one of the Warren works known as Diamond Girl.
In late January 2011, Exit Through the Gift Shop was nominated for a 2010 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Banksy released a statement about the nomination, stating, "This is a big surprise.
I don't agree with the concept of award ceremonies, but I'm prepared to make an exception for the ones I'm nominated for. The last time there was a naked man covered in gold paint in my house, it was me."
Leading up to the Oscars, Banksy blanketed Los Angeles with street art. Many people speculated if Banksy would show up at the Oscars in disguise and make a surprise appearance if he won the Oscar.
Exit Through the Gift Shop did not win the award, which went to Inside Job. In early March 2011, Banksy responded to the Oscars with an artwork in Weston-super-Mare, UK, of a little girl holding the Oscar and pouting.
Many people think that it is in reference to 15-month-old Lara, who dropped and damaged her father's Oscar statue. Exit Through the Gift Shop was broadcast on British public television station Channel 4 on 13 August 2011.
Banksy was also credited with the opening couch gag for the 2010 The Simpsons episode "MoneyBart", depicting people working in deplorable conditions and using endangered
or mythical animals to make both the episodes cel-by-cel and the merchandise connected with the program. His name appears several times throughout the episode's opening sequence, spray-painted on assorted walls and signs.
Fox sanitised parts of the opening "for taste" and to make it less grim. In January 2011, Banksy published the original storyboard on its website. According to Banksy, the storyboard "led to delays,
disputes over broadcast standards and a threatened walk out by the animation department." Executive director Al Jean jokingly said, "This is what you get when you outsource."
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